All students in Edmonton Catholic Schools who are identified as having special education needs must have an Individualized Program Plan. Students with special needs are identified using the Alberta Education Special Education Coding Criteria for Early Childhood Services to Grade 12. The IPP is located in PowerSchool and parents have access to collaborate with your child’s school team on the plan through the PowerSchool Parent Portal.
An IPP is:
- a plan of action to address your child’s specific education needs
- a collaborative team effort involving the student, parents, and school team
- a planning document that supports your child’s access to curriculum and relevant learning experiences by removing barriers within the learning environment
- a document for communicating student growth and progress
- a summary of the individualized goals that your child will work towards achieving
- an ongoing record to ensure continuity of programming from year to year
- a guide for transition planning
Parts of an IPP
- strengths, interests and learning preferences – ask your child’s teacher about completing an interest questionnaire
- assessment data – make sure the school has all current assessments and recommended strategies
- accommodations – these changes work within grade level curriculum and do not change the learning content. If your child is on an IPP and requires accommodations, these will be identified in the IPP. Examples include: extra time to complete a task, graphic organizers, shortened directions, alternate formats for assessments, adjusted seating, fidget tool, movement breaks or the use of technology.
- functional impact– highlights the barriers that your child is facing due to their diagnosis or disability. The barriers need to be identified to ensure that we are supporting the needs as best as possible with targeted instructional supports and strategies.
- goals and strategies – may include focus areas such as: literacy (reading, writing, communicating), numeracy, physical development (fine motor, gross motor), awareness of self and others (work/community skills, self-care, executive functioning) social emotional behavioural (self regulation, social interactions, safety to self and others).
- progress reporting – this is used to report your child's progress on the goals and objectives on their IPP.
- transition planning and year end summary – summarizes your child's growth for the school year. Highlighting areas of success, areas requiring ongoing improvement and supporting smooth transitions for next year.
Adapted and Modified Curriculum
Adapted Programming means programming that retains the learning outcomes of the Program of Studies and where adjustments to the instructional process are provided to address the special education needs of the student.
Modified Programming has learning outcomes that are significantly different from the Provincial Curriculum and are specifically selected to meet the student’s special education needs.
All students identified as having special education needs and receiving adapted or modified programming in Edmonton Catholic Schools require an Individualized Program Plan (IPP).
The School Team
To support your child’s IPP, all schools establish a school team that includes the classroom teacher(s), school administration and learning coach. Some schools may also have educational assistants available to support students as well as other additional school team members.
Additional School Team MembersAs part of the school team, there may be some of the following multi-disciplinary professionals:
| Division SupportsTo support School Teams, the following Division staff may be available as needed:
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