Cornel: Preschool refusing to include potty training as a goal in IEP. Is this typical?
Goals: POTTY TRAINING GOAL IN IEP
Special Education Law and Advocacy
Hello. I came across this post while trying to WRITE the goal in the IEP. I see about going to a clinic and having a functional evaluation done. But I need help in giving the services in the educational setting. Does anyone have any advice or an example of a goal that was written to give these services?
I suggest googling “potty training goal in IEP. I tried and a # of interesting articles came up.
We are having a horrible issue with our school. Our son is special needs and potty trained for nearly a year now. In all environments, including vacations, he does fantastic. no issues at all. he does have a medical problem that makes him chronically and severally constipated. He is on meds to make him go potty and the school has always wanted to believe that his issue was due to his medications. We have had the GI doc write a couple of letters and have also had the Psychiatrist and Peds doctor write letters saying that he is potty trained and that these issues they are seeing is completely environmental. They are forcing my son to ware diapers because they say that he is soiling surfaces. They have never sent home clothes that were soiled enough to have leaked through onto other surface
My daughter can use the toilet and can stay dry if they are willing to take her at least every hour. Her sped teacher does not seem willing to take her that often to ensure her of being successful in toilet training. We have an addendum meeting next week (12/19) to address this and other issues. How can I ensure she gets all of the support possible in toileting?
The school district told me they don’t want to include toileting in the IEP and on top of that, my 6year old DS daughter is not guaranteed that only females will assist her in toileting. The district says that they cannot discriminate in hiring an aid so if it is a male and if there are no female staff available, it is possible that a male could assist my daughter in toileting. We do not accept this and are pushing back.
You can request that a different aide do the toileting. Even if she has a male assistant, there are probably other aides in the school as well and you have the right to request a female provide the toileting support. As for toileting in the IEP, the school’s focus is “accessing the curriculum” and things like toileting and feeding are not part of the academic curriculum so it’s usually addressed by an aide. Having specific accommodations in that area should be sufficient. You can request things like daily schedule, reviewing steps when using bathroom, modeling, using Velcro picture cards of the routine and moving when completed, with a positive reward system, etc. If the accommodations don’t help, then request a goal and you can show that accommodations aren’t enough.
What if the goal states the my son will stay dry for 120 mins.? Not necessarily urinate. (Having the same issues w my school).
I agree that the IEP should address the functional and academic performance of the student. BUT, it depends on how the goal is written. It is impossible to teach a child to urinate. IMPOSSIBLE. It is possible to teach a child to remove/don clothing, sit on toilet, wipe, wash hands etc.
Another route is to seek outside support. Sometimes the school is reluctant to develop a toileting plan because they just don’t know how. You could work with a behaviorist or enroll your child in a toileting clinic (often located within hospital’s developmental department). These services are often covered by insurance. This person/clinic can help you develop a consistent plan for home and school. Then you can present the plan to the school as you would an independent evaluation, and asked that it be adopted into the IEP.
And the IEP must include a statement of your child’s current academic and functional performance, and measurable annual academic and functional goals (§ 300.320).
Chuck is also right that many schools are ignorant to or simply ignore this. What can you do, now that you know all this? I think you can handle this two ways.
You can ask that the school conduct an evaluation of your child’s functional skills, including toileting. You could also ask for an adaptive behavior assessment. These assess a range of academic, communication, social, and functional skills and are especially helpful for children who are considered difficult to formally evaluate. Once completed, the results can be used to develop toileting goals and a toileting plan.
Cornel –
As Chuck wrote, the IEP should address both the academic and functional needs of your child.
The purpose of IDEA is to ensure that children with disabilities are prepared for future education, employment, and independent living (§ 300.1). Being able to toilet independently would certainly help these pursuits.
When the school evaluations, they must gather relevant functional, developmental, and academic information about your child (§ 300.304). Toileting skills are both functional and developmental.
When the Team develops the IEP, they must consider this same academic, developmental, and functional information (§ 300.324).
This is not uncommon. Federal law (IDEA) requires public schools to address functional needs in the IEP. Functional needs includes potty training. Some schools do not realize this. Others do, but do not want to go to the work of training a student.