How to Read Your Child's IEP Progress Report

An IEP progress report usually arrives with the report card, and it is easy to give it the same ten seconds: a column of codes, a comment that says "making progress," and into the folder it goes. But that page is the main regular evidence you get that the plan is working. Read properly, it answers one question for each goal: at this rate, will my child get there by the end of the year? Here is how to read it so that you can answer that yourself.

A progress report is not a report card. A report card grades your child in the class. A progress report tells you how your child is doing on each annual goal in the IEP, the specific skills the team agreed to work on.

Federal rules require the IEP itself to say two things: how progress toward each goal will be measured, and when you will get periodic reports on that progress, for example quarterly or along with report cards (34 CFR 300.320). So the schedule is written in your child's IEP, usually near the goals.

What the federal rules do not do is say what a progress report has to contain. That is left to states and districts, which is why reports look so different from one school to the next, and why some of them say very little.

A report only means something next to the goal it describes. Before you read the report, find three things in the IEP for each goal:

• The starting point. Where your child was when the goal was written, as a number. Schools often call this the baseline.
• The end point. Where the goal says your child will be, and by what date.
• How it is measured. A one-minute timed reading, a rubric score, a count of how often something happens.

If a goal has no starting number, or you can't tell how it is measured, that is worth asking about before the first report arrives. A report can't show movement from a starting point nobody wrote down.

Most reports give each goal a code. Districts choose their own, so check the key printed on the report: a letter or number that stands for something like "goal met," "sufficient progress," "insufficient progress," or "not yet introduced."

A code is a summary. It is somebody's judgment about a measurement, not the measurement itself. "Sufficient progress" could mean your child moved from 62 to 66 words a minute, or from 62 to 85. Those are very different situations, and the code is the same.

So look past the code for a number: a score, a percentage, a count, with the date it was taken. If the report has one, you have what you need for the next step. If it doesn't, skip ahead to the section on what to ask.

This takes a minute per goal, and it turns "making progress" into a plain answer.

1. Gain needed. Subtract the starting point from the end point.
2. Share of the year gone. Count the months since the goal began and divide by the length of the goal, usually 12.
3. Expected by now. Starting point, plus the gain needed multiplied by the share of the year gone.
4. Compare. Put the reported result next to "expected by now."

Here is an example. Maya's fluency goal began in October at 62 words correct a minute, and it ends the following October at 95. The gain needed is 33.

In January, a quarter of the goal year had gone, so expected by now was 62 plus a quarter of 33, or about 70. The report said 66. That is a question, not an alarm. By June the gap had closed.

The same method works for goals that count down, such as fewer prompts or fewer incidents: the numbers fall, and you check whether they are falling fast enough. It works for percentages too.

Two cautions. Learning is rarely a straight line, and some skills move slowly at first and then quickly. And one data point is one day. One low result is a reason to ask a question. Two in a row is a pattern.

• The same sentence on every report. A comment that never changes may not be based on new data.
• A different measure from the one in the IEP. If the goal says "timed reading" and the report describes classroom participation, you can't compare one report with the next.
• "Not introduced" or "not addressed" more than once. A goal nobody has worked on can't show progress. That is a question about whether the IEP is being carried out, which our guide to what to do when an IEP is not being followed covers.
• "Met" for a skill you don't see at home. Ask where and how it was measured. Skills often show up in one setting before another.
• No report on the date the IEP gives. Ask for it, quoting the schedule in the IEP.

On pace or ahead. Note it and file the report. If a goal is met months early, it is fair to ask what comes next.

A code with no number. Ask for the measurement. A short email is enough:

You can also ask to look at the data sheets themselves. Records the school keeps about your child are education records, and you have a federal right to inspect and review them. Our guide to IEP parent rights explains how that works.

Behind on one report. Ask what the teacher or provider is seeing and whether anything has been tried. Then watch the next report.

Behind on two reports in a row. Ask the team to meet. Our guide to requesting an IEP meeting includes a sample letter you can adapt. Federal rules say the team must review the IEP at least once a year and revise it, as appropriate, to address any lack of expected progress toward the goals (34 CFR 300.324). You don't have to wait for the annual review to raise it. Bring your numbers and ask what could change: the instruction, the amount of service, the supports, or the goal itself. Our IEP Meeting Checklist will help you get ready.

One report tells you where your child is. Three in a row tell you the direction. Keep every progress report in one place, and write the reported number for each goal on a single page so you can see the line it draws across the year. Add a note or two about what you see at home; the team is supposed to consider what you tell them, and a dated note is easier to act on than a general impression.

If you would like that page already built, the IEP Follow-Through System is our paid workbook for the year between meetings. It includes a goal tracker with the pace check, and a spreadsheet that works out "expected by now" and charts each goal for you. It is optional. A notebook and the four steps above do the same job.

This is general information for parents, not legal advice about your situation. It doesn't cover how goals should be written, what counts as enough progress for a particular child, or what to do in a dispute. Those depend on your child and your state. If you are worried that your child is not making meaningful progress, your state's parent center, an advocate, or a special education attorney can help you look at the specifics.