Teams Shouldn't Be Overly Specific and Include Unnecessary Details or "Promises" in IEPs

Julie Weatherly featured an article in a journal titled In Case, Volume 48, Numbers 4-6; and in Volume 49, Numbers 1-2. The title of the article is Avoiding Legal Disputes in Special Education: 21 Training Points for Administrators. According to Weatherly, "Although IEPs are required to contain educational goals and objectives, it is not expected that they be so detailed as to substitute for a daily lesson plan. Under IDEA, parents are not entitled to demand that items such as the specific teacher, the teacher's day-to-day schedule, curriculum, methodology or specific school site be included in the IEP. In addition, things like extracurricular and nonacademic activites should not be listed specifically on the IEP. Rather, any accommodations or support servies necessary for an otherwise qualified student to participate in a particular activity should be indicated on the IEP. School staff should be trained to respond that, though such things are worthy of discussion and clarification during an IEP meeting, none of these things are required to be directly written into the IEP."