Errors in School Records: Advocating for Remedies
Today we’re continuing our discussion about some of the ways that GPS Education Consulting works to empower and support parents, caregivers, and school staff to identify and rectify the significant issues that arise from errors and omissions in documentation within educational records.
Within the “world” of educational records there are many “realms.” Possibly the most important one is Special Education Documentation. Technically, it includes both Individualized Education Program (IEP) Documentation & Section-504 Documentation. Documentation in special education is the process of collecting and recording information about a student's learning and development (related to their IEP/504 Plan).
Accurate and effective documentation is critical to ensuring that students are receiving the appropriate services and supports, and that they are making progress towards their IEP goals (or grade-level curriculum standards for students without an IEP).
Documentation is used to:
Develop and implement the student's IEP / 504 Plan (e.g., determining eligibility and developing appropriate goals and supports).
Track the student's progress and determine when to increase, maintain, or fade the student’s supports.
Communicate with parents and other stakeholders about the student's progress (Documentation is the starting point for effective advocacy for a learner’s needs and access to appropriate services and supports).
Identify appropriate options and support the student's transition to the next level of education or employment.
Clearly, documentation is used for a lot of high-stakes decisions. So, what happens if there are errors and/or omissions?
Imagine: You find a box with a jigsaw puzzle inside. There’s no picture to show what it should look like at the end. You start working on it. Some pieces are falling into place. You get a general idea of what it might look like when completed. As you work on it you notice that pieces are missing and there are random pieces from other puzzles. You might never determine what the puzzle depicts… You’re frustrated and you realize that you wasted a lot of time and effort.
Similarly, when a student’s educational record is missing information and contains errors, the team might end up wasting a lot of time (years spent with the wrong interventions and strategies) and effort (when significant efforts make little gains, it’s not uncommon for students to lose motivation to keep giving it their best) because they lack those important pieces that reveal the true strengths and needs of the learner.
Without an accurate and complete record of your learner’s strengths and needs, the IEP or 504 Plan probably won’t provide all of the supports that your learner needs to be successful (e.g., focusing solely on behavior concerns without supporting learning difficulties; focusing solely on academics without supporting the rest of the learner – social interaction, emotional regulation, executive functioning; etc.).
You get it…errors and omissions in educational records can have negative repercussions for your learner’s future that range in severity from trivial to life-altering… But you might be thinking, “This can’t happen that often…”
Remember: School staff are under-resourced and stretched too thin. Unfortunately, errors and omissions in educational records are very common & impact many students. We’ll dive into this next week. For now, we’ll just say:
Even with the best of intentions, educators don’t operate in a vacuum. When they are being asked to do so much, it’s impossible to do everything well.
GPS Education Consulting helps fix the mistakes using comprehensive educational record reviews to:
Highlight the strengths of your learner’s educational programming,
Uncover weaknesses/gaps/errors, and
Advocate for solutions and remedies to address errors.
As an Educational Consultant & Advocate:
We educate parents about their learner’s educational rights, and
Supportively coach folks as they apply their new knowledge and advocacy skills to the issues that matter most to their learners.
Best,
Evan Gallena, Ed.S., NCSP
Founder & Lead-Consultant: GPS Education Consulting L.L.C.
—————————————
Together, as one… Navigating the path to school success!
