LEAs Must Include Measurable Goals in the IEP

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. No-No #20 explains LEAs should provide training for school staff on how to write appropriate and measurable annual IEP goals as IEPs are often found lacking in this area. This is especially true for states that have opted to eliminate the inclusion of short-term objectives or benchmarks except for those students qualifying for alternate assessment. There have been a few cases whereby courts have determined annual goals were measurable because short-term objectives were included. Furthermore, simply adding "80% of the time" does not make the goal measurable. For example, measuring "Johnny will demonstrate appropriate behavior 80% of the time" would require someone to follow him around the entire school day and record every social act the child engages in to determine if he met his goal. A more specific and measurable goal might be "Johnny will follow all classroom rules not less than 40 school days during the last marking period of his IEP year."