IEP Season is Here

By. Meredith Biesinger

With roughly eight weeks left of school, educators prepare for end-of-the-year assessments and evaluate goals and benchmarks for students who have an IEP. If you are a special education teacher or speech therapist, the amount of paperwork and documentation can seem never-ending!

Individualized Education Plans are essential, effective, and very much needed. So, first of all, thank you for all you’re doing to help your students and your fellow teachers! Second, don’t burn out on paperwork! Make a plan. 

1. Get Plenty of Sleep

Exhaustion is common during IEP season. Countless IEP reports, meetings to organize, and data to collect – on top of the everyday caseload – can quickly turn into coming in early and staying late to complete everything. While there may be the temptation to skimp on sleep to get everything done, rest is what your body needs most during this time. 

2. Exercise

Just like sleep, exercise is vital during IEP season. Movement is what will loosen the tension that comes with long hours of writing IEPs. It might be a walk around the school grounds on your lunch break, a run with your dog after dinner, or a relaxing yoga practice before you begin or end your day.

3. Set Realistic Goals For Yourself 

This is so hard! While it might be fantastic to think that you can have all of your IEPs written three weeks in advance, sometimes that’s impossible. Setting overly aggressive goals can leave you feeling even more frustrated and overwhelmed than you already are. Just like you wouldn’t expect your students to accomplish large tasks in a short amount of time, give yourself the same respect and create achievable goals.

4. Have A System

One of the most overwhelming parts of the IEP season is making sure that everything is organized and included in the documents and meetings for each child. Create or use pre-established systems that ensure that you have everything you need. Make sure your work area is organized, too—this will help you work more efficiently and feel less overwhelmed. 

5 . Laugh

We often hear that laughter is the best medicine, which is highly accurate when alleviating stress. Laughter is proven to soothe tension and lessen the stress response. During IEP season, that is much-needed relief!

There will come a day when all of the data and signatures will have been collected. That day is just around the corner, so take a deep breath and know that you can do this! Remember that there is a light at the end of the IEP season tunnel!