Developing Educationally Meaningful and Legally Sound IEPs

The purpose of this book is to assist readers to use better practices when developing educationally meaningful and legally sound Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Beginning with the history and purpose of IEPs, this book examines the context and reasons IEPs were first created. The core chapters address better practices in conducting assessments, developing present levels of academic achievement and functional performance statements, crafting measurable annual goals, determining special education services, and monitoring and reporting on students’ progress. The authors also discuss placing students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment (LRE) and provide forms and graphics to assist in developing students’ special education programs.

Mitchell L. Yell, PhD, is the Fred and Francis Lester Palmetto Chair in Teacher Education and a professor in special education at the University of South Carolina. His professional interests include special education law, IEP development, progress monitoring, and parent involvement in special education. Dr. Yell has published 136 journal articles, 6 textbooks, 36 book chapters, and has conducted numerous workshops on various aspects of special education law, classroom management, and progress monitoring. His textbook, Special Education and the Law, is in its 5th edition. He co-authored the text Developing Educationally Meaningful and Legally Sound IEPs. Dr. Bateman and Dr. Yell are the editors of the Special Education Law, Policy, and Practice series published by Rowman & Littlefield. In 2020, he was awarded the Researcher of the Year from the Council for Exceptional Children. Dr. Yell also serves as a State-level due process review officer (SRO) in South Carolina and is on the Board of Directors of the Council for Exceptional Children. Prior to working in higher education, Dr. Yell was a special education teacher in Minnesota for 12 years.

David F. Bateman, PhD, is a Special Education Consultant, and Professor Emeritus at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. He is a former due process hearing officer for Pennsylvania for hundreds of hearings. He uses his knowledge of litigation relating to special education to assist school districts in providing appropriate supports for students with disabilities and to prevent and to recover from due process hearings. He has been a classroom teacher of students with learning disabilities, behavior disorders, intellectual disability, and hearing impairments, and a building administrator. Dr. Bateman earned a PhD in special education from the University of Kansas. Over the past 28 years he has either been a hearing officer or consultant on over 1,005 special education lawsuits. He frequently is a keynote presenter at principal and administrator conferences. He has recently co-authored the following books: A Principal's Guide to Special Education, A Teacher's Guide to Special Education, Charting the Course: Special Education in Charter Schools, Special Education Leadership: Building Effective Programming in Schools, Current Trends and Legal Issues in Special Education, and A School Board Members Guide to Special Education. He has also recently worked as the neutral fact-finder in the class action lawsuit involving the Oregon Department of Education. After the 2017 Supreme Court decision in Endrew F., the U.S. Department of Education reached out to him to develop a training module for administrators on legally compliant IEPs. He is co-author of the special education legal blog:SPEDLAWBLOG.com