Why are Intervention Plans and the Collection of Progress So Important?

The intervention plan is very important in the child’s education because it is created specifically for that child to meet their individual needs in order to help them succeed at an age appropriate level.  There is a reason that a child is referred and is assigned an IEP or an IFSP. It is because when they were evaluated there were areas that they showed below average skills. All of this information was collected and a plan was created that gave examples of what each child was able to do and what they were unable to do. Goals are created based on this information and these goals should reflect each child’s specific needs. This plan gives the parents and the teachers some realistic expectations of what they would like the child to be able to do in a certain amount of time.

                Documentation towards these goals is very important because the purpose of this plan is for the child to meet expectations and not need as much support to function in his/her daily environment. Periodically as a teacher you are expected to send home a progress report or report card noting progress on each child’s IEP goals. If you are not documenting progress on a regular basis you are unable to honestly report on how the child is doing with their interventions and goals. Another reason documentation is so important is because a child will often meet their goals before their IFSP or IEP is due. At that time the team should meet again in order to create more goals in increase the child’s skills. Every once in a while you will have a child who is not meeting their goals within a reasonable amount of time or regressing.  As a teacher you would want to meet again and discuss reasons for this regression and create a new plan to help this child succeed. If you are not documenting progress it is very hard to catch regression before it gets out of hand.