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Cross-Sectional Comparison of IEP Quality for Transition Age Youth with ASD and Young Children with ASD
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates all students receiving special education services have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) (IDEA, 2004). Even though there is an increase in students receiving school services for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is little known about IEP quality of students with ASD (Wilczynski et al. 2007). For young children, research suggests a need for more “individualized” IEPs that take into account critical areas of the development of social, communication, and independent work skills. For older students who are transition age (16-22), very little is known about IEP quality. Despite a lack of research, data suggest that IEPs for young children and transition age youth are far from best practice, often lacking individualized and measurable objectives.
To (i) conduct a cross-sectional comparison of IEP quality of transition age youth (16-22) with young students (3-9) with ASD and (ii) describe IEP quality of transition age youth in relation to an adapted national measure of postsecondary quality transition planning.
Methods:
Special education teachers of 35 young students with ASD (3-9 years) and 7 transition age students (16-22 years) were recruited as part of larger study. Additional data collection from 18 transition age students will be completed by November 2016, adding to the richness of this study sample. An IEP quality measure for students with ASD was developed based on IDEA requirements for IEPs and National Research Council (NRC, 2001) recommendations for teaching students with ASD. An Indicator 13 checklist developed by the National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center (NSTTAC, 2012), was adapted to measure postsecondary planning for transition age youth with ASD. Descriptive statistics were generated for each of the IDEA and NRC indicators and for the overall score on the IEP Evaluation Tool and Indicator 13 in order to assess quality. Higher scores reflected better quality.
Comparison of IEP Quality: IEP quality based on IDEA recommendations was higher for transition age youth while IEP quality based on NRC recommendations was higher for young children. IEPs for transition youth have less diverse goals with more focus on organizational/work (100%) and basic cognitive skills (42.9%) while IEPs for young students were more diverse and included organization/work (88.5%), academic (71.4%), communication (85.7%), social (80%), and fine and gross motor skills (65.7%).
IEP Quality in Relation to Transition Planning: Assessment of Indicator 13 recommendations for planning for postsecondary outcomes- education and training, employment, and independent living- indicated that all transition age youth had postsecondary goals related to either education/training or employment. However, only 57.1% of students had a post-secondary goal related to independent living. Additionally, only 25% of IEPs for transition age youth described a method of goal measurement.
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