Understanding Individualized Education Program (IEP) Goals at Scale

Students with disabilities represent 15% of U.S. public school students. Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) inform how students with disabilities experience education. Very little is known about the aspects of IEPs as they are historically paper-based forms. In this study, we develop a coding taxonomy to categorize IEP goals into 10 subjects and 40 skills. We apply the taxonomy to digital IEP records for an entire state to understand the variety of IEP goal subjects and skills prescribed to students with different disabilities. This study highlights the utility of studying digital IEP records for informing practice and policy.