A record review is one of the building blocks of a comprehensive transition evaluation. Since transition planning begins (in most cases) around the time a student is moving into high school or is already there, it is reasonable to expect that a small forest of trees has already been expended in documenting the student’s escapades in special education. I am a firm believer in “less is more” so I start with the most recent info and work my way back as necessary. For the student who is now a senior, I don’t need to see the pre-school report card. I start with collecting the current IEP and any progress reports to date associated with that IEP, followed by the same (IEP and final progress reports) for the previous two school years. Next I request the most recent round of triennial testing as well as any interim evaluation/reports (e.g.FBAs, BIPs, AT, health, etc.), along with IEEs or private evaluations completed within the past 5 years. And most importantly I ask for the current contact info for parent(s) and guardians. I have had too many experiences where the info on the IEP is not accurate and I end up having to track parents down.
I start with reading the evaluations cover to cover, from oldest to most recent. I watch for recurring themes of strengths, abilities, preferences, etc. as well as potential barriers to success in the adult world. Additionally, one can sometimes gain additional information about the student’s educational history which may be chronicled in a record review done by other evaluators. I go back a second time and highlight key points and look to see what/how recommendations have been implemented.
I am not one for rewriting history, so I tend to either briefly summarize key points that are pertinent to the substance of the evaluation, or I skip a summary all together and include a list of records reviewed as an appendix with a notation that key points that are relevant to the evaluation and subsequent recommendations will be referenced as appropriate.
After the reports I tackle the IEPs, focusing most intently on the transition areas. For me, one of the most important parts of the IEP are the postschool outcome goal statements (PSOGS). These are intended to be measured after the student exits public education, providing the data for longitudinal monitoring of the transition planning process at the state and national level. At a minimum each student must have a PSOGS for postsecondary education/training and one for postsecondary employment. When deemed necessary, a student may have a third PSOGS in the area of independent living. PSOGS are often overlooked and misunderstood, but I’ll save that for another post. One thing to remember is that the PSOGS are the horses and the annual goals/objectives are the cart. Annual IEP goals/objectives must relate to the attainment of the PSOGS; however all to often the cart gets put before or sometimes miles away from the horses.
So here is my pet peeve as a “consumer” of evaluations, progress reports, or any other document crafted by an individual that will remain part of a student record. Let’s call it Report Writing 101: What Goes on Page 1! Here goes: The title of the evaluation, student’s name, DOB, date of the evaluation, date of the report, YOUR NAME. Yes it may sound elementary, but I cannot tell you how often this info is not there and I have to go looking to see if (please god) there is a signature page with a date! Additionally, it is very helpful if you number the pages in the format of page number/total number of pages.
One last thing, if you don’t understand something or you want more info, get releases from the parent to speak with any outside evaluators. Often you can get more up-to-date info that way and have your questions answered.