This is one of the most, if not the most, important part of the IEP. This is where the IEP team lays out what the student will be working on with special education support over the next year. Generally, the goals written by the special education teacher fall into the reading, writing, math, and socioemotional buckets. So you might see a goal for reading comprehension, one for multivariable equations, and one for work completion or managing frustration. Related service providers, like speech and language pathologists or counselors, will also write their own goals so there might also be goals from them on communication, self-regulation, or other skills. Generally, looking at a student’s goals gives you the best sense of where the student is and the biggest thing the team thinks they need to work on. 

Each goal will have two key parts– the goal itself, which should be measurable and easy to understand– and a baseline which says where a student is now. You might also see benchmarks, also known as objectives. These are ways to break down the goal for monitoring at report card intervals. Fun fact, if you didn’t know– special education teachers are responsible for reporting on each student’s progress towards each goal at report card intervals. So when you do report card (or they do, depending on the school), they are also writing narratives on every single goal. That’s one of the main reasons that special education teachers work to keep goals to a minimum– don’t assume that all of a student’s needs are covered by their goals. Instead, assume that the goals are the biggest needs and the special education teacher was refusing to do bonus paperwork for the lesser needs. In line with this, a lot of goals will also tell you how the parent will be notified of progress. Regardless of language, assume that when the report card goes home, parents are supposed to also get a goals’ progress narrative. 

Goals are always after the present levels. In some districts, they are the last things in the IEPs. In others, they are in the middle, but they are always after the present levels.

Every single district will have measurable annual goals and baselines. Some districts split up the baselines, like listing an academic and functional baseline. Some don’t. Some list the quarterly benchmarks in the IEP. Some don’t. Some districts use goal writing tools that write weird, generic goals. Some don’t. But because IEP goals are the heart of an IEP, every single district will have them– and will have the goal and the baseline in separate boxes.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the federal law behind special education, says that IEP goals have to be measurable, help the student move towards meeting grade level standards, meet the student’s other educational needs, and have benchmarks to ensure progress monitoring. The exact wording is below.

34 C.F.R. § 300.320(a)(2).