One of the first tasks an IEP committee must do is decide what services are necessary in order for a particular student to reach his or her goal. The committee members must ask themselves what each student's needs are and how those needs can be met. The committee might consider whether assistive technology and therapies are necessary, as well as any in-class modifications that are essential in reaching agreed-upon goals.
IEP goals should be measurable, and although everyone will agree that it is good idea to challenge a student, an IEP team should always make sure that the goals are reasonable for the student's academic level. The goals must be actions that can be achieved within the school year, and they should contain short-term objectives that serve as benchmarks.
If the student needs a large number of services, the time required to complete all the activities might overwhelm the student's schedule. To prevent this, the IEP team must determine which services require someone to help deliver the service, in order to avoid taking up too much of the student's academic time.
Another consideration for the IEP team is the location of services. Should the student be pulled from the classroom to receive services? A push for inclusion in the classroom in recent years means that many parents would prefer their child to remain in the classroom as much as possible. In order to generate ideas, the IEP team must ask itself if there are some services that can be done in the classroom, and which ones require the child to be pulled out of class. The most important factor in this decision should always be the student's dignity, which should be upheld at all times.