A One Page IEP: The Case for the Communicative Individualized Education Program

Individualized Education Program (IEP) documents have strayed from their original functional purpose. Instead of being designed to efficiently communicate the details of a student's educational programming to teachers and parents, IEPs have become over focused on legalities and the documentation of compliance with state and federal law. This misplaced emphasis on legality has lessened the practical utility of the IEP document to the classroom teacher. It has also created a significant paperwork burden, which has siphoned educator resources away from service delivery. In “A ONE PAGE IEP”, Dr. Lucido offers a simple remedy to this problem: the field must reconceptualize the written IEP as a communicative tool as opposed to a legal/contractual document. To this end, he skillfully demonstrates how it is possible to construct an IDEA 2004 compliant IEP no longer than a single page. This reconceptualization should result in more useful IEPs and save educator resources that could be better prioritized toward service delivery.