Not All Students Who Struggle with Behavior Need IEPs

Not all students who struggle with behavior need IEPs.

I saw this comment on my most recent video that said, if consequences aren't working, then RTI has failed and the IEP process needs to start.

Now, please do not go reply to that person or say anything mean to that person who said that because that probably is the policy in their district.

But I think it's not the right policy.

I think if there is a legitimate need on the part of the student for specially designed instruction, then an IEP may be appropriate.

If the student has a disability that interferes with learning, then an IEP may be appropriate.

lots of laws and processes in place to specify who might need an IEP and what that process should look like.

But I don't think it should be our default to say, well, this kid is behaving terribly, therefore they need an IEP.

Because behavior is always going to be, to some extent, a matter of individual choice.

Now, if we have a student who's overstimulated, maybe a student with autism, maybe a student who's in an inappropriate environment, I think there are cases where where I would be very hard-pressed to say that behavior is a choice.

But I think in most cases, and especially with the kinds of things that we tend to use consequences for in schools, it is a choice.

It is something that the student needs to get control of, or they're going to face much more dire situations in life than school consequences.

So...

this idea that an IEP is the solution, what are you going to do to implement that IEP that is going to solve this problem?

Now, it's very appealing to buy into the idea that you can solve that problem.

I would love for us to be able to solve educationally all of students' problems, but we know many of students' problems are not educational problems.

They're problems that came from somewhere else.

I don't know where.

Every kid is different.

Every family is different.

Every situation is different.

But when we have unsafe behaviors in schools, like the of behaviors that would get you arrested outside of school.

We should not act with the hubris masquerading as compassion.

We really believe we care about these kids and we can reach them, we can help them, we can save them.

But if we can't, we can't.

And the idea that an IEP is a solution in a case where a student is...

you know, acting in an unsafe way to the point that they would get arrested outside of school, we're probably not going to be able to fix that.

And it's certainly not an automatic IEP.

I think this is just a terrible default assumption.

Let me know what you think about this.

But I think if we see...

Every student as a young person who has a life to live, who has a set of skills to learn, who has a sense of personal responsibility to develop, we need that young person to end up a successful adult.

We need to do everything we can to help them end up a successful adult.

But an IEP as the solution to what is essentially the responsibility side, that being responsible for your own decisions side, I don't think that gets us there.

I think there are specific medical conditions, there are specific diagnosed disabilities that an IEP is appropriate for, but just behavior in general, I don't think that fits.

Let me know what you think.