Ask almost any Special Education Advocate, and they’ll tell you that Present Levels is the most important section of the IEP.
Present Levels has several corresponding Special Education Acronyms, depending on what your school or state uses.
| PL | Present Levels |
| PLOP | Present Levels of Performance |
| PLP | Present Levels of Performance |
| PLAAFP | Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance |
The IEP process can be confusing and overwhelming. But I wholeheartedly believe that if parents would chunk it down and learn a few key sections, it would be much less frustrating.
Present Levels is one of those sections. (so is Prior Written Notice!)
I call it Present Levels or PLOP, for Present Levels of Performance. You may hear it referred to by other names and abbreviations:
For as important as this section is, it actually gets very little fanfare in IDEA. Here is the exact wording.
In other blog posts, I have referred to the 300+ page government booklet that discusses/defines IDEA. Not surprisingly, Present Levels is discussed and further defined.
I have included the full booklet below. Present Levels is discussed starting around page 127.
I point this out to you, not to bore you to death with my summer reading suggestion. But to point out that there is vigorous discussion about academic performance and functional performance.
This is important because I have heard from countless families who have been told, “IEPs are only for academics!” which is just not true.
If that wasn’t enough, IDEA and the Federal Register booklet have gone on to say:
With respect to the meaning of “functional performance,” the Department of Education points to how the term is generally understood as referring to “skills or activities that are not considered academic or related to a child’s academic achievement.”
This term “is often used in the context of routine activities of everyday living.”
The reason that examples of functional skills were not included in IDEA was because “the range of functional skills is as varied as the individual needs of children with disabilities” (71 Fed. Reg. at 46661).
But we can understand that “routine activities of everyday living” refer to skills and activities of daily living skills such as:
Ok, so it’s taken me over 400 words to get to my point.
And my point is: This is the most important section of your child’s IEP.
Me
This is the section that drives the IEP. The needs listed in present levels are what is used to develop goals. There should be solid, measurable baselines so that you have meaningful data that leads to meaningful progress monitoring.
All too often, I hear things from parents like, “I want my son in a social skills group, but they keep saying no.”
So I ask, “Are social skills listed as a need in Present Levels?”
And there’s your problem. The team is not going to develop goals to address anything that is not listed in Present Levels.
Here are some examples of present levels.
Teachers and IEP Team Members: Looking to write “Parent Proof Present Levels?” Check out that section in the Teacher IEP Toolkit.
If you have concerns about your child’s IEP, Present Levels is your starting point. If it is not complete, thorough and accurate, none of the rest of the IEP will be either.
Your child’s IEP goals will be developed based upon data and baselines that are in Present Levels. This is why it’s essential for parents to be participating in this portion of the process.
Before you submit that parent concerns letter prior to an IEP meeting, it’s essential that you review Present Levels.
Use the checklist to do a thorough review of your child’s Present Levels of Performance on their IEP.
The Federal Register discussion booklet is basically a booklet that lawmakers wrote to explain “what they meant” for certain portions of IDEA. To find a topic, I find it easiest to use the control-F function of your computer.
The discussion about Present Levels starts around page 126-127.
