The IEP and IFSP forms and processes

 There are various similarities and difference between an Individualized Education Program (IEP) and Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). The IFSP focus on the family and child mainly in the services the family needs to enhance and progress their child’s development. IEP is about the child’s educational needs. IEP is a document for education for children aged three to 21 years. It dwells on special education and other special services in schools. IFFSP are much broader than IEP. Children at an infant stage to 2 years of age use the IFSP. The family takes part in the IFSP and can include other professionals working in various disciplines in planning the needs of the child.

IFSP involves an in-depth assessment of the concerns and needs of the family and the child’s needs. It contains 1.) The family and child outcomes. 2.) It includes information on the current level of the child’s development. 3.) The services the family and child will get help and enable them achieve the desired outcomes.

The provision of IFSP services is within the child’s home setting. Thus, it is according to the requirements of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which indicate that the services have to b e given to the “natural environment of a child”. The natural setting can be preschool, Early Head Start, child care setting, and other community setting used by young children with no disabilities. IFSP is a written plan or document. It involves determining the appropriate services a young child with disabilities or developmental delays needs. It is mainly an interagency approach that incorporates various agencies such as the human services, health services, and educational services. It includes other resources required to assist the family and the child. The process provides an opportunity to share with staff and families to enable families make informed choices about the needed intervention services of the families and child. Within an IFSP process, there is a service coordinator responsible for assisting the child’s family.

The service coordinator is also responsible for convening planning meetings if the IFSP that incorporates various professionals involved in the planning of the child’s needs and others who the family will like them to attend. Such IFSP meetings are driven with the purpose of providing resources and information to the family and discuss their concerns. The planning meeting should discuss issues like the financial responsibility and role of each agency in the child’s plan (Allen and Cowdery, 2014, p 278).

Some of the differences between IEP and IFSP forms and progress are as follows. IEP is utilized in special education for children from the age of 3 to 21 years while IFSP is an early intervention program for infants from birth to the age of 2. It incorporates families. IEP incorporates information about the current levels of educational performance of the child and how the child participates in developmentally right activities. IFSP includes information on the current developmental level of a cichlid. Family approval, family resources, concerns and priorities relating to their child’s development are the required information in an IFSP. For IFSP when the team has determined the list of concerns and priorities of the family it will determine the required IESP outcomes. IEP includes information regarding the concern of families in enhancing the education of the child. The IEP team, as well as guardians or parents and other service providers working with the child, will come together to determine goals (Reutzel, 2014, p 51).

IFSP incorporates the major needed outcomes for the child and family as well as plans to measure progress, timelines, and methods. IEP includes measurable academic, functionality and annual goals meant to describe ways of measuring progress, enabling the child in making progress and being involved in the general curriculum. It describes the reporting of the progress of the family. IFSP is within the child’s natural environment. IEP are in least restive environments and explains any instances when the child will not participate with other typical developing children. Team members of IESP are parents of the child, family members, the family advocate, service coordinator and individuals involved in assessment and evaluations. The team members in IEP are special education teacher, the regular teacher, parents of the child, school district representative, other special expertise and those involved in interpreting evaluation results.

References

Reutzel, R (2014) Handbook of Research-Based Practice in Early Education. Guilford Publications, p 51

Allen E and Cowdery, G (2014) the Exceptional Child: Inclusion in Early Childhood Education. Cengage Learning, p278

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