Teaching · Special Education

Start the IEP with what the student is good at.

Ask the student, in plain words, what they like, what they are good at, how they learn best, what is hard and what they want to get better at. The inventory turns their answers into a strengths profile and a draft sentence for the present levels statement that the team can edit and read back to the student.

Start an inventory What you get

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Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Special Education toolkit, $99 for 100 items.

The strengths inventory

Read the questions aloud or hand the device to the student. Records use initials or a code. The example is made up.

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What you get

Teaching · Special Education$19 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with: A strengths and interests inventory for each student, in their own terms: interests, eight self-rated strengths, how they learn best, what is hard and what helps, goals, an idea for after school and what keeps them going. The summary gathers the strengths and preferences and drafts a sentence for the present levels statement.
Who it is for: Special education teachers and case managers preparing an IEP, transition coordinators gathering preferences and interests, and the students themselves, with a family member or teacher helping as needed.
Format: Browser inventory that works on a phone or tablet the student can hold. Several saved inventories, so a student’s answers can be compared year to year; printed with the profile or as a blank paper version; CSV with one row per inventory; export and import a file.
Access: $19 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Special Education toolkit ($99) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives: The Special Education space in Caveat Teaching.
Support: Questions about an order, access or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

Drawn for this page. Strengths outside the classroom, like building a coop, are real strengths, and they make good starting points for goals.

How to use it

Start a record with the student’s initials or a code and note who is answering and how.
Read each question aloud if that helps; the student chooses interests and rates each strength.
Ask how they learn best, what is hard and what helps, in their words.
Ask what they want to get better at and what keeps them going.
Read the draft sentence back to the student, edit it with the team, and print the profile for the IEP meeting.

Start an inventory

Why ask the student

Strengths are required, not optional

IDEA requires the IEP team to consider the strengths of the child when developing the IEP, and from the IEP in effect when the student turns 16, transition planning must take the student’s strengths, preferences and interests into account. Asking the student directly is the most reliable way to know them.

The student’s words

The statements were written for this page and are not a scale; answers are not scored. A student who says “not really” to telling stories is telling you something useful. The draft sentence uses the student’s answers in third person so it can go into the present levels with light editing. Read it back to the student before it goes in.

Privacy

Records use initials or a code, never a name, and stay in this browser. A printed inventory becomes part of the education record once the school keeps it.

Sources

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act regulations, 34 CFR 300.324(a)(1)(i) (the team considers the strengths of the child) and 300.320(b) and 300.43(a)(2) (transition services based on the student’s strengths, preferences and interests).
34 CFR 300.321(b) (the student is invited to IEP meetings where transition is considered).
Wehmeyer, M. L., and Shogren, K. A. (2017). The development of self-determination during adolescence. In M. L. Wehmeyer et al. (Eds.), Development of Self-Determination Through the Life-Course (pp. 89–98). New York: Springer.
National Technical Assistance Center on Transition: the Collaborative (transitionta.org), age-appropriate transition assessment resources.
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, 34 CFR Part 99.

The example student is made up. The inventory records a student’s own views; it is not a test or an assessment of skills, and it holds no state rules. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.