Ways to Help Students Who Have an Individualized Service Plan (ISP)
Options Charter Schools currently run two full-school alternative programs in Hamilton County. In order for our schools to qualify for alternative education funding we must service students that fall under one of the five categories of eligible students: (1) Intend to withdraw or have withdrawn from school before graduation; (2) Have failed to comply academically and would benefit from instruction offered in a manner different from the manner of instruction available in a traditional school; (3) Are parents or an expectant parents and are unable to regularly attend the traditional school program; (4) Are employed and the employment is necessary for support and interferes with a part of student’s instructional day; or (5) Are disruptive (as defined in IC 20-10.1-4.6-1.6). In order to ensure the alternative program is providing needed services to help the students be successful, Individual Service Plans (ISPs) are written and tracked for each student.
Options has found that while strong relationships and high academic expectations are key, the heart to the success in alternative education lies within the development, implementation, and tracking of these ISPs for students. Professional development is provided to Options’ staff members on an annual basis to ensure standardization of goal writing and ISP tracking. Staff members are also given instruction sheets to help them teach students how to write meaningful goals as well as sample goals.
The student’s advising teacher initially writes the ISP for a student within the first ten (10) days of enrollment The advising teacher uses the family interview form, filled out by the administrator in charge of enrollments, as well as input from the student and family to write the initial ISP. Once the goals have been set, the advisor provides the rest of the staff with necessary information to help the student be successful. The advising teacher also puts an accountability system in place. These are listed in the services section of the ISP. Every six (6) weeks, then, the entire staff meets for several hours to go over every single student’s ISP. The staff members discuss the students’ academic performance as well as progress towards reaching their ISP goals. At this time, staff members discuss the implementation of the student’s ISPs as well as services being provided to see if they need to be updated or changed. Often, students have ever changing personal circumsta
nces that may influence the effectiveness of the current ISP. This meeting is a great time to update services or change the ISP to be more effective. During the meeting, students are assigned a color, red – not on track, yellow – some areas of concern, or green – on track, in a shared spreadsheet that also includes new services to be put in place for the students. This shared document is not shared with students or parents, it is a quick-guide for staff members to help all students reach their goals. This collaboration makes a huge difference in the successful implementation and accountability to success for reaching these goals. Following the six-week tracking meetings, advisors share with students’ parents/guardians the student’s current progress towards reaching his/her ISP goals. Finally, at the end of each school year, a final assessment of ISP progress is made.
Challenges or Obstacles:
- Time:
- A great deal of time is required to write meaningful ISPs and to provide the support needed for authentic implementation, tracking, and reporting.
- Teachers need to be allowed the time to have meaningful conversations with students as well as time to participate in full-staff tracking meetings.
- Students need to be allowed the time to reflect on goal writing and accountability.
- Practice and Education:
- There is an art to writing and implementing meaningful ISPs for students.
- Teachers responsible for this need to be supported by offering regular professional development, practice with case studies, as well as accountability to tracking and reporting.
Benefits and Successes:
- The major benefit is the academic success and social/emotional growth of students that have not found success in traditional school.
- Often alternative students have become disengaged with school due to not feeling like they are able to connect to the overall bureaucracy found in traditional school due to personal choice, family circumstances, or other factors.
- Through strong relationships and high academic expectations, Options is able to help students reconnect to school but the authentic implementation of the Individualized Service Plan is key to success.
Additional Information:
Click here for an example of a family interview sheet
Click here for an example on how to help students create ISP goals
Submitted by: Michelle Walden, Options Charter School