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Show Notes:
Learn to navigate the IEP accommodations and modifications maze and support your child’s unique learning needs!

Are you confused about the difference between accommodations and modifications in your child’s IEP or 504 plan? This episode breaks down the key concepts and provides practical tips to help you advocate for your child’s needs.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The fundamental difference between IEP accommodations and modifications



• How to identify your child’s specific needs and strengths



• Effective strategies for collaborating with your child’s IEP team



• Tips for navigating challenging IEP meetings



• Real-world examples of accommodations and modifications in action

Whether you’re a seasoned parent or just starting your special education journey, this episode is for you. Tune in to gain valuable insights and empower yourself to make a positive impact on your child’s education.

Connect with April:

• Website: https://www.riseeducationaladvocacy.com/



• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@riseedadvocacy



• Instagram: https://instagram.com/riseedadvocacy



• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprilrehrigspecialeducationadvocate/

Check out the 2024-25 Water Prairie Prayer Journal for Parents! https://amzn.to/3TDBIO5

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Music Used:

“LazyDay” by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Episode #115: Accommodations vs. Modifications: Unlocking Success in Your Child’s IEP

Learn to navigate the IEP accommodations and modifications maze and support your child’s unique learning needs!

(Recorded July 2, 2024)

Full Transcript of Interview:

Is your child thriving in school, but you wonder if there could be more support in place? Maybe they’re a little bit frustrated, and you’re getting frustrated too. Today we’re tackling a topic that can feel confusing, but is incredibly important for advocating for your child’s education. Accommodations and modifications in an IEP and 504.

Here to guide us through the ins and outs is a true expert, April Roehrig, the founder of RISE Educational Advocacy and Consulting, LLC. April is a licensed educational psychologist, board certified special education advocate, certified autism spectrum disorder clinical specialist, and a master IEP coach.

Welcome to the Water Prairie Chronicles, a podcast for parents of children with disabilities. I’m your host, Tonya Wallum, and I’m glad you’re here.

Tonya: April, welcome to Water Prairie.

April: Thank you for having me.

Sure. This is, this is exciting. I love talking to IEP coaches and you are more than just an IEP coach.

You have done so much. Thinking back through your, your bio that, that I just shared, you’re more than qualified to answer these questions that I’m going to be asking you today. But, um, but I, I appreciate you coming on today and being willing to talk about what may seem simple to you, but to my audience and to myself, sometimes it can get a little bit confusing.

Yeah, it’s my pleasure to talk about it.

So, our topic today is simply accommodations and modifications. Parents they’re listening. If your child is on an IEP or if you’re just starting this process, you may have run across these words and you may not have a clear idea of what the two mean or what the differences are or whether your child would work with one or the other.

And so I thought today we would just talk about. What these are and give you some examples just to, to give you a, um, a takeaway that you can apply to your personal situation as well. So, April, if you don’t mind, would you give us, uh, layman’s terms, definition of an accommodation and then of a modification? Let’s, let’s start with accommodations.

So, I’m so glad we’re talking about this today, because even if you’re a parent and you’re new to the IEP process or the 504 process, because you can get modifications with the 504, and I’ll touch on that later, many teachers and even myself, self as a school psychologist, really struggled with this concept.

And the biggest reason is we don’t get the right training. And so, if you’re feeling confused as a parent. Teachers and school psychs are feeling confused because we don’t have the right information and we weren’t trained. So, I’m so glad that we’re talking about it. When you think about an accommodation and a modification, in a nutshell, the difference is here.

Accommodations talk about how something is taught. A modification talks about what is taught. is being taught. So, that is kind of in a nutshell, the difference, the how refers to curriculum, the instructional methodology, the presentation, the response, the timing, and the what refers to the content in.

itself in terms of the delivery method of it, what you are teaching and how you are teaching it. So, it kind of comes down to leveling the playing field or adjusting what you are teaching in terms of the content curriculum itself. Does that kind of make sense?

It does. So, what I’m thinking is Sometimes your child may have both show up on the document.

Yeah, and it’s correct. And so, when it comes down to choosing an accommodation or modification, one thing I mentioned all the time is it never comes down to a dropdown menu. It should never be that your child’s IEP team or the 504 team says, Oh, your child has ADHD, they need extended time. Any type of instructional methodology or how to’s or the setups, whether it’s an IEP or 504, come down to the assessment.

So, what you choose is not based on a drop down menu or based on a disability. It’s actually based on the assessment. Need and all of that need comes back to the foundation for the education plan, which means the assessment, whether it’s a 504 assessment and they are 504 assessments or a special education assessment.

So, in the assessment findings, that’s where you’re going to find the good stuff. That’s where you’re going to find what your child needs. And also it should be based on strength. So, when it comes to developing an IEP, if your child is a visual learner, that’s the accommodations that you’re going to harness to get your child where they need to go.

For example, if your child has ADHD and they struggle with understanding time, Why would you offer extended time? Extended time giving them more time of something they struggle with is not going to help them give the tools that they need. It’s actually going to inhibit them. So, you want to pick an accommodation or modification based on what they can do and based on their strengths in order to achieve the goal or in order to achieve leveling the playing field.

So, I hope that kind of clarifies a little bit more about. What you choose and why

I love the way that you explain this, and I’m hoping that our parents are following us. So, accommodations, how something’s taught. Modifications, what’s being taught and, um, and I can picture different scenarios where I’ve seen this happen.

How can a parent determine whether that’s it. You’re saying we need to look at the child and not at the diagnosis. How can they figure out, like for specific challenges that their child may have, are we looking at the challenges or are we just looking at where are they academically compared to their peers?

Or how would they come in and how would they expect the team to, to talk about one or the other or both of these?

It’s a good question. Um, so, I go back to the assessment findings, uh, especially in terms of special education and IEPs. So. Inside the present levels of performance, which is that one page of the IEP for your parents that don’t know that kind of talks about the information and that page needs to be updated for every single IEP, including amendments and addendums so, that updated information is the what.

So, when you think about formulating an education plan, there’s kind of four different quadrants you want to look at what they know, which is the strengths, what they don’t know, which is their unique learning needs. That’s based on assessment findings and present levels, what they need to learn, which is What is the team going to be doing differently and how and what are the barriers that inhibit their learning?

Those four quadrants also called the SWOT analysis in the business world. That’s the stuff that you want to look for in your child’s education plan to determine how we going to do it. And those accommodations and modifications are the how. So, most of the time, education plans or IEP goals, for example.

When schools determine IEP goals, they said, okay, well, April’s going to learn how to read eight out of 10 words in this time. Well, what about the how to’s? What are the setups to get there? That’s where the accommodations come into play and they’re based on strength. So, if I know I need to read eight out of 10 words, then what is the instructional methodology?

What is the presentation? What is the response that’s expected so I can achieve my goal? Mastery, and that’s the accommodations that you want to pick from. So, if your child exhibits strength with visual processing, then you’re going to be choosing accommodations that meet their need for visual processing.

But perhaps. Yes. Yeah. Even though you’ve adjusted the visual, you’ve adjusted the auditory, they’re really struggling and they need to do something at a different grade level, which means they’re not going to be compared to their peers or they’re given an alternate assessment. Then you’re going to think of modifications.

And again, you’re going to focus on the strength to get them there, but the modifications you choose are going to be based on. What they need. You’re adjusting the level of the test, how it’s being presented and what’s expected. So, they’re not going to be expected to do grade level performance, but they’re going to be expected to achieve mastery based on their disability and their unique learning. It’s you’re adapting.

The situation we’re talking about, ADHD. So, a lot of our parents are going to be related to ADHD, um, just because it’s such a common occurrence for a lot of our parents and it crosses over other disabilities too. So, you have a child who is overwhelmed with having 25 math problems for homework every night.

The team decides we’re going to adjust his homework to 10 to give him a shorter amount of time. Is that a modification or is that an accommodation?

You touched on one of the questions that I get all the time. And I got this question as a mom with my own kids on IEPs and it’s so misunderstood. So, I’m so glad you’re bringing it up.

Adjusting the amount of problems or decreasing the number of homework problems is not a modification. If it is not changing the core standards, so, like I mentioned before, for an accommodation, you’re adjusting the how a modification you’re adjusting the what. So, if the child is still expected to achieve the same standards for a math problem, but maybe they’re going to do 10 out of 20.

So, they’re still meeting the core curriculum. That’s an accommodation. The proof in the pudding, or what I like to call the secret sauce, is that if you word the accommodation a certain way on the education plan, it is an accommodation. So, many parents will nod their head when they hear this. But if they tell the team, well, My child can only do half of the homework problems.

And then this team says, actually, that’s a modification. That’s not true because the way it’s worded will determine if it’s an accommodation or a modification. So, if you say, I would like for my child to have less problems with the homework, but they’re still expected to achieve the same standards for the area of need.

That’s an accommodation, so, it really comes down to knowing how to word it and then proposing this to the team. So, when you write it on the education plan, it’s an accommodation instead of a modification.

So, what I’m picturing is if we have a child who’s in 10th grade and they’re working on what, what, what will make it early in the year, they’re still reviewing.

They’re working on multiplication problems. They’re doing every other problem of the 25. So, they’re still working on the two-digit and the five-digit multiplication. That’s an accommodation because they have less work, but they’re still doing the same difficulty level as everyone else in the class.

If on the other hand they’re only doing the two-digit multiplication and they’re never getting to the more advanced ones, that’s a modification because we’re keeping it at the lower level of complexity and they’re not working along with their peers to reach that same goal.

That’s exactly correct. So, you’re changing the standard, which is exactly what you said.

So, it comes down to the standard. So, if you think about it as a teacher, we’re expected to do the standards based on our grade level. So, when I taught my last couple of years, it was kindergarten. So, I was expecting the students to achieve kindergarten standards, but I had many students in my blended K class that were not at kindergarten level.

So, their IEP goals were based on they had modifications. So, they were based on a different learning mastery. So, they weren’t doing kindergarten standards. But some of them had accommodations, but then other areas where they struggled, it was a modification. So, I adjusted what I was teaching. It wasn’t the how I adjusted the what, and that kind of goes back to that nutshell of really what you choose based on your child’s needs, the assessment findings and their strengths.

I want to jump into. I have six. We’ll see, we’ll see if we, if we get through all six of them or not, just some different scenarios that might touch on something that some of our parents might connect with to kind of help get our head really wrapped around the differences here and what we might expect going into a team meeting, um, talking about this.

So, um, so, the first one is we, we’ve already talked about ADHD, but I’m going to throw this back out there again. So, we have a child with ADHD, a middle school child and they get out of their seat to sharpen their pencil without being asked. without asking to do that. So, this happens repeatedly. The teacher’s getting frustrated with it.

Are we going to put an accommodation in for this child so that they have a way to handle this impulsivity or is this going to be a modification? My guess is it’s going to be an accommodation. We’re going to find a way that they can work within the parameter of the classroom so that they get that movement need in while we’re working on how to stay in our seat until the appropriate time.

It’s a great question. Um, yeah. So, when it comes down to, when it comes down to accommodations, there’s kind of four different types. They’re actually sort of subtypes. Um, the first is presentation. So, that would be how the teacher is delivering the information. The second is response.

So, that’s how the student is responding. And then setting is one and finally timing and scheduling. So, setting is what you’re referring to. That’s where. Okay, the child’s expected to sit down. But we’re saying you can stand up. You’re not changing the curriculum by telling the student they can stand up.

You’re not changing the curriculum by giving movement breaks. That is not a modification. A modification would be changing or adjusting the curriculum. the test or changing or adjusting the standards. You’re not changing the standards by saying you can respond differently or we’re going to move your setting around.

That’s absolutely an accommodation.

Well, in my mind, as a parent who actually, this, this actually was my child, in my mind, By making this accommodation, and this, and this, this was a repeated battle that I did have back then in seventh grade, but by making this accommodation, then this keeps us from needing a modification later, because now this child’s able to learn and keep up with his peers.

If we’re sending them out in the hallway all the time, the risk is now we’re going to start to fall behind. And we’re going to need to make other changes because of the absence in the classroom. And this is why I feel so passionate about us having this conversation, because there’s ways to keep our kids on track and going if we can meet their needs.

Absolutely true.

Accommodations can be our friends.

Yeah. And that’s absolutely true. And, uh, And it starts from the beginning. So, it starts from the first education plan, whether it’s an IEP or a 504 plan. And so, when we don’t give the right setups for a child, meaning they’re not meeting their goals, that’s not because they’re not smart.

They’re not capable. It’s because we don’t have the right setups. So, I always tie this accommodations and modifications back to Amazon. When you order an Amazon package, especially if you have Prime, it’s amazing because the setups that they’ve developed make it so you order it online, it gets to the DC, it gets onto the delivery truck, it gets to your door.

The reason why Amazon is successful is because they have the right accommodations. They have the right setups. If your child isn’t making progress, it’s because the setups haven’t been done right. So, if they’re not doing well, or they’re getting like an F in algebra and they have accommodations, well, Gosh, we got to meet because we need to adjust those accommodations and change them up.

So, just because a child isn’t successful doesn’t mean we need to expect less and change it to a modification before you adjust the curriculum, you adjust the setup. So, you’re absolutely right. We need to presume kids are competent and make changes. If the setups aren’t working.

I love it. I love it. All right. So, now let’s look at a dyslexic third grader who can’t process print and material at the same rate as their peers. So, they’re in different classes. They’re in their social studies class or science classes. A lot of reading hit hitting them throughout the day.

Are we going to make an accommodation for them to be able to access that material? Are we going to modify what they’re learning because of their reading speed?

Again, it goes back to the assessment findings and the present levels. So, it goes back to there. So, it’s so funny when you say these scenarios, because it reminds me as a school psychologist, I’ll see on these Facebook groups and they’ll have all these new psychologists and they’ll say, here’s the test data.

What should I do? I’m always thinking, I don’t know the child. How could I make this thing?

But true. And yes, we do have to keep, keep this in mind.

Yeah, we have to keep this in mind.

Parents listening. If your child is, is a third grader with dyslexia, this is not saying this is what they have to do. I’m just trying to give some very generic things.

No. And so, every child is different. Yeah. And it’s absolutely true. But you have to go back to what can they do, what do they need to learn and what do we need to do differently? So, you always go back to the assessment findings. And if your child wasn’t tested this year, then you look at that IEP, that present levels of performance section on the IEP is gold.

So many times teams and parents and even advocates will say, well, we need to focus on the services. We need to focus on the goals. No, you don’t. You need to focus on the present levels because that dictates how we craft the rest of the IEP. There should be accommodations listed in the present level section.

There should be the strengths. There should be the unique learning needs. Basically it’s the blueprint for the rest of the education plan. So, if you don’t know what to choose, look at what’s there. And if there isn’t things there, or the team hasn’t updated it, Well, gosh, golly, when you meet with your team, you’re like, you know what?

There’s not a lot of information here. You’re saying all these things to me as their teacher, but I don’t see this in the present levels. I’m confused. Can you tell me what this looks like? And then when the teacher explains it during the meeting, you’re like, that’s amazing, let’s write it down in the present levels.

Okay. They really struggle in this. And you notice that they do this really well. If you give them these tools. Let’s add it to the present level section. Now, when we go to the accommodation section, we know to choose A, B, and C accommodations because teacher, you already said this is an effective tool for them to succeed.

So, in this situation, our teacher may have Notice that the child, the aptitude is there when they’re listening to the verbal cues. It’s when they’re reading, it may be different. So, the teachers observe these differences they’re going to bring to the table. All right, so, we need to add in a read aloud component or something like that, that, that would help the child still access the material along with their peers.

Okay, so, at the time you come to the team meeting, these observations should have already been started. And some some tools should have been tried, but if we’re at the beginning of the school year, we don’t have that information yet. So, how do they bring the present levels? If it’s at the very beginning, maybe you’re meeting in August right before school begins.

That’s a great question. Um, so, in order to have an effective education plan, when I talk about having what’s called the five keys to productive IUPs, assessment is number one. Number two is parent input. So, when you come together at the team meeting, it should never be that you haven’t spoken to the team as a parent, or you don’t have the same paperwork that they do.

So, even if the team is meeting, it shouldn’t be meeting the first week of the year, but usually within the first 30 days, um, even if it’s a transition IEP or they’re new, you should have, yeah, you should have draft documents as a parent. Now, in order to have that, some schools in some states will say, yes, we’re going to give it to the team.

So, you should be having. Progress reports as a parent, you should be having the present levels page, even perhaps proposed goals. All of that you should have in your hands before the meeting. If you don’t, then you can ask for it. So, when you get the invitation to come to the meeting, or if you’re calling a meeting yourself and you’re like, I need an IEP, you need to put in what’s called a parent letter of attachment.

Here’s what my concerns are. Here’s what I want to talk about. Here’s the proposed changes I’m suggesting, and then you can offer what’s called a parent report, which is you’re saying, here’s the data I’m seeing at home. Here’s all the stuff that we have, and you can attach that to the IEP. So, when you come together at the team meeting, All the present level stuff shouldn’t be new.

It should be stuff that you’ve already seen. And if it isn’t, well, gosh, you know, I am so sorry. I’m not able to fully participate in the meeting. We’re going to either have to delay this meeting or we’re going to have to reconvene because I, I can’t meaningfully participate if I don’t have the same information as you.

Well, and, and you bring up a very good point. Parents, I tell you all the time, you know, your child more than anyone else. So, you’ve seen what’s happening at home. How are you It may not be a schoolwork that you’re doing. Maybe you’re reading a book together as a family compared to your child reading a book on their own.

So, in this situation you’ve already noticed these things with how they’re responding to material. So, and that’s, that’s where we’ve talked about this before. You’re, you have power to come in and say, this is what I’ve noticed. So, that becomes part of the data that we’re looking at. Correct?

And the key is you want to attach it to their record.

A lot of times people will be like, well, I’m going to make a statement. I said, that’s awesome. But statements need to be attached to the IEP. Um, and so, even if you bring in paperwork, it doesn’t necessarily attach the IEP. And we all know if it wasn’t written down, it didn’t happen in terms of the IEP education plans.

So, in order to attach it to the educational record, you go through what’s called FERPA. And like I mentioned earlier, have what’s called a parent letter of attachment. So, parents have the power through FERPA to be able to amend a child’s record or say, I would like this input attached to my child’s record.

So, when you get an invite to a meeting, it’s not just, Hey, there’s a meeting, but you can respond to that invitation. You can say, Hey, thanks so much for setting this up. Here’s what I’d like to talk about, or I’d like so and so teacher to come to the meeting, or I would like that the teacher stay for the entire meeting and they’re not excused because they’re important, you know, their stuff is so important, or I would like so and so not to attend because we’re having a lot of data.

Difficulties. You have a lot of power as a parent to be able to attach stuff to your record and also participate. But if you don’t participate through written communication and you do it through tons of emails or tons of phone calls, it’s, it’s so stressful and it’s so much work and then it doesn’t get on the IEP.

So, talking about the team though, um, because I did want to ask about this. Yeah. If a parent is, say, we’re seeing that, um, I don’t know, we’ll, we’ll go, we’ll go, go, go, go back to our ADHD and time issue. Um, so, we’re seeing that we do really well in short segments of time. We’re able to, to keep up with everything.

This child is having high level conversations on every level. They’re able to research, they’re able to, to learn. That’s not an issue. But. They can just get shut down because of that, that time issue and, and we’re feeling like some accommodations would help support them and help them keep going. But the team doesn’t agree with us.

How do we, how do we work when we’re in disagreement? here. Or do you have any tips for, for what our parents can do if they do face that situation?

Yeah. So, I go back to what I’ve been saying before is that it’s not based on a dropdown menu or the team is like, well, we can’t do that. It’s based on need. So, choosing an accommodation or modification goes back to the present levels page and it goes back to the assessments.

So, if your parents are struggling at the table and they’re getting blowback from the teachers, then when that happens, first of all, As an advocate, I ask a lot of questions and then I do a lot of like reflective listening and seeing what’s successful. So, what I find effective is when a general education teachers in the meeting and they’re talking about present levels, I’ll say, okay.

What is my child doing that you see that’s successful? What tools do you find really help them? And then they’ll talk about, well, you know, they’re really struggling to be able to pay attention and they can’t finish their work. Thank you so much for telling me that. What have you found really works? Oh, well, if I just do this and I do that, then it really gets them where they need to go.

Oh, okay. So, that sounds like that’s a great tool. What do you feel like would help my child make progress? This is a great question to ask. And then it basically tells them to tell the team what kind of accommodations or modifications are needed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then you harness on that. Okay.

Well, I see what you’re talking about here is not in the present level section. Let’s add that. Okay. Then we get to the accommodations. Oh yeah. Remember we put that in the present levels. So, there we’ve already chosen our accommodation. So, instead of being a position based argument, which is what you’re referring to, teachers versus schools saying we can, we can’t based on.

It’s our policy or this, it’s not, it’s based on need. So, if the teacher mentioned earlier in the IEP meeting and it’s on the present levels page that the child benefits from A, B and C accommodations, well, there you go. Then it’s like, oh, you remember you talked about it. Okay, here, now we’re going to put it into the goal.

Because remember accommodations and modifications need to be inside the goal. So, it’s in the accommodations and modification section and it’s in the goal. So, that way you’re kind of circumventing a battle and you’re focusing on need. And then if there’s any confusion, you can say, I’m so confused. Let’s go back to the assessment.

Let’s go back to the present levels. What is it saying here? Oh, okay. It’s saying this. Well, tell me more what you mean. And then it’s not a battle to get what you’re asking for, Because you already have the data to support it because the team is telling you what works for that child.

It was like, so, now the teachers have brought that accommodation to you instead of you having to, to bring it to them.

Yeah. Um, very, very, very good advice there. Um, what about we’ve now put these in place where a few months down the road and, um, How do we know if something and I think I know your answer, but I want to hear it. Anyway, what are some red flags to know whether they’re not working?

Uh, the accommodations and modifications.

Yes.

That’s a great question. Um, so. If your child has progress reports and all IEPs need to have progress reports, there’s progress reporting periods. So, typically they’re aligned with the report card schedule. So, if your child is in elementary or middle school, they might be on a trimester period. So, every time there’s a grading period issued like a semester or trimester, they should be getting progress reports.

That is the goldmine. So, if you get those progress reports and you’re noticing Well, it’s saying if it doesn’t say anything, that’s a red flag. It should be giving an update. Specifically, are they making progress and why? And if they’re not making progress, that’s a red flag. Also, if your child is telling you, I’m really struggling with this, this is so hard for me, or you’re getting back tests or assessments and you keep on seeing the same issues happen.

So, here’s an example. At middle school and high school, a lot of times kids will get, um, have an option to use the learning center or what’s called the resource room to be able to take their tests in a quiet learning environment. I had a client recently where there was a sub all the time in the middle school in the high school, and then the sub will say, well, you can’t go to the learning center or you haven’t earned the privilege.

The child started failing the test. So, when it came time for the progress reports, the parent got back the progress report and they were blank. And so, we asked for an IEP and we asked the teacher, we’re like, okay, we noticed you’ve been gone a lot. And when the sub is there, they weren’t letting them utilize the accommodation, so, this isn’t working.

So, we changed the format from the teacher having to be the one to say, yes, you could go to the learning center to the child was given the choice to say, I would like to use my accommodation and go to the learning center. So, we tweaked the accommodation based on the progress reports and the student reports to adjust the accommodation to their needs.

Okay. Okay. Yeah, I like that. The, um, I do remember the, the progress reports were not always consistent. Um, but that would always trigger an email from me asking for more information from whoever was supposed to have been submitting it. But, um, but I was, I was the parent who was always sending. message to everyone.

It’s, I had my progress reports before the report kids ever got home because, and that was always going to thank you that they had forgotten, you know, trying to get the others out and it would trigger a chain of reactions where everybody else got theirs after that too. But we always worked well together.

Usually a very good relationship when my kids were in school. All right. Well, I want to, I want to wrap up this topic by having you give us some advice. I’m going to read a statement and have you repeat the statement and finish it. It’s just the beginning of something and it kind of triggers a way for you to give some advice to our listeners.

All right, so, the first one that I have is the biggest misconception I see about accommodations and modifications is.

The biggest misconception that I see, um, for accommodations and modifications is, the biggest misconception is basically that you can’t have a modification and be in general education.

That is the biggest misconception, hands down. And I’ve seen it as a mom. I’ve seen it as a school psych, and I’ve seen it as a teacher. Well, if they’re in the general education program, they can’t. Have a modification. And it’s just kind of like we do that here and that is simply not true. So, that’s the biggest thing that I’ve seen for like 20 years.

It’s something that I actually used to think as well, that, um, especially at the high school level, if they’re going to have modifications, they must be on the alternate graduation plan and not on the college bound plan. Um, but from what we’ve talked about today, I see that’s not necessarily true. It may be, or it may not be, depending on the child.

Exactly.

All right. So, the second one I have, um, the ideal outcome of an IEP meeting regarding accommodations and modifications is when?

That’s a tricky question. The ideal outcome for an IEP meeting is for accommodations and modifications is when? Did I get that right?

Yeah. So what’s the main thing that you’re looking for in regards to accommodations and modifications? What would be the ideal situation?

The main thing that you’re looking for with any one of those kind of, um, education plan options is, are those the tools that are effective based on the child’s needs? So, are they working and are they effective? If they’re not effective, then that means they need to change.

So, you’re looking for effectiveness efficiency. You’re also looking for are they based on strength, meaning are they able to capitalize on what the child does know to get them where they need to go, which means they’re achieving the goal.

For parents feeling overwhelmed by navigating IEPs, and we could even include 504s too, but for parents that are feeling overwhelmed in advocating for the child’s needs, I want to say.

So, for parents feeling overwhelmed, navigating the IEP process, I want to say that you have the power. To change the trajectory in their plan. So, I always go back to the Amazon thing, because if you’re not getting your packages delivered correctly, let’s say you’re using UPS or you’re using the post office and constantly the post person is not giving you your packages, you don’t have to keep doing things the same.

Way, that’s exactly true with IEPs. I get so many clients that will say, Oh, it’s the past three years. I’ve been so terrible. And I’ll ask them the same question that I’m going to tell you. Well, did you meet with a team? Did you call an IEP? Have you hired other advocates? What did you do to adjust your communication and documentation?

And they were like, I didn’t even know I had the option. So, what I want to tell your listeners is that you have the option to change. It doesn’t mean you’re going to change the other people on the team, but you have the option to change your. Your approach and when you change your approach, not only do you have a better experience, but because you are a consumer and IEPs are a service, you can adapt and adjust your methodology to advocate to work better. Better for you.

Well, April, before we go, I want to hear more about what you’re doing in your, in, in your own advocacy, how parents can work with you. You have a lot of things to offer parents. I want you to listen to this because she just has some great options for you. And, um, how they can get in touch with you, where your website is, all, all, all of the good stuff now.

Uh, so, our website is riseeducationaladvocacy.com. Um, if you want to reach out to me as a parent and you’re thinking about doing an intake, it’s riseeducationaladvocacy.com/contact inside of our website.

We have a bunch of different tools and resources. We have a free blog. One of our blogs talks about accommodations versus modifications. We also have do it yourself workshops, which means. You can get the tools that you need in the resource and the fillable templates. We also offer a teacher’s pay teacher’s store.

You can go to Rise Educational Advocacy, which basically walks you through what to ask for and how to get it. If clients are interested in working with me, my style is different from other advocates because I use my All the information that I learned as a school psychologist to work collaboratively and focus on strengths and empower parents by understanding their choices at the table and training them to feel comfortable at the table, um, no matter what their role is.

Is so parents can contact me on Instagram https://instagram.com/riseedadvocacy or LinkedIn. And I also have a YouTube channel now, Rise Educational Advocacy, where they can get more tools and tips and tricks to make their experience better at the table.

Excellent. Excellent. Um, listeners will have all of those links in the show notes.

If you’re listening on Apple, I’m having a hard time getting the podcast links there, but there is a link to the webpage and that has, that will have everything there too. If you’re on YouTube, just check the video description. It’ll be down there for you as well. So, April, thank you. This has been informative.

I had a grasp on accommodations and modifications, but I have a deeper one now and I, I appreciate you going through some of those, practical examples, even though parents, again, we were not giving you your tools of what you want to go do. Just some examples of, of what might happen. But, um, but I’m hoping that that was helpful to get an idea of what the difference was and what you might be asking for as you watch your child, um, as they’re learning and can, can bring your own input to that IEP table the next time you have a meeting.

So, thank you, April.

You’re so welcome.

As we wrap up today’s episode, remember that understanding accommodations and modifications is key to unlocking your child’s potential. By advocating for their needs and collaborating with their educators, you can empower them to succeed. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.

And don’t forget to subscribe to our channel for more helpful tips and advice. Thanks for joining us today, and I’ll see you next time.