The Importance of Baseline Data in Every IEP Goal

By: Becca Phillips, Advocate

As an educational advocate, one of the first things I look for in an IEP is simple, but powerful and that is clear baseline data of a child’s performance, especially as it relates to their IEP goals. Without baseline data, an IEP goal is just a guess or an assumption of present levels. With baseline data, the team can measure real progress, adjust instruction as needed, and ensure your child is actually benefiting from their special education services.

Yet, I often see IEPs still contain goals such as: “By (date), Student will improve reading comprehension when given an instructional level text”

Improve from what (baseline)? By how much? In what timeframe? When answering comprehension questions verbally or in writing? Inferential questions, literal comprehension questions, or both? Baseline data and projected performance and goals needs to be quantitative with real numbers and percentages. 

What is Baseline Data and What Does Good Data Look Like?

Baseline data describes your child’s current level of performance before instruction in that area or targeting that skill deficit begins. It answers the question of “Where is my child starting right now at this moment?”

A strong baseline includes:

• The skill level your child is currently demonstrating

• The conditions under which it was measured

• How often the skill is occurring

• The accuracy or independence level

So instead of saying “The student struggles with reading fluency and accuracy”, which is extraordinarily vague and not comprehensive, you want baseline that says “The student currently reads 42 words per minute on a 2nd-grade instructional level passage with 70% accuracy when given no adult prompts or support.” That number becomes the anchor for the goal. Without it, progress can’t be objectively measured.

A strong baseline answers the questions: What skill? How often? Under what conditions? What level of accuracy or independence? For educators, writing IEP goals using baseline data is not just about compliance, it provides data for effective instructional planning, accountability, and equity for students with disabilities.

IDEAs Requirement of Baseline Data…and data in general

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) doesn’t use the exact phrase “baseline data,” but it has regulations that require it.

In relation to the Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP) section of an IEP, specifically referencing 34 CFR §300.320(a), states that the IEP must include a statement of the child's present levels of academic achievement and functional performance and how the child's disability affects the child's involvement and progress in the general education curriculum. Additionally, this section of the regulations requires statement(s) describing how the child is progressing toward meeting their annual goals from their starting baseline data. In an annual IEP meeting, it is important that the Present Levels include progress your child has made since their annual goals written last year based on last year's data.

A well written, comprehensive Present Levels section of an IEP is going to include your child’s current level of functioning and performance, which includes baseline data at that time. If the present levels section is vague, the goals that follow (include baseline data related to the proposed goal) will be vague too. Goals must be based on actual data from evaluations, assessments, observations, and progress monitoring.

Additionally, under 34 CFR §300.324, the IEP team must review your child's IEP periodically, but not less than annually, to determine whether the annual goals for your child are being achieved. This includes utilizing data to determine if the child is and has made expected progress towards their goals and the general education curriculum or if revisions are needed ,

Why Baseline Data is Crucial for Your Child

Baseline data is not just educational. It helps enforce goals, prevents vague or inflated progress reports, allows parents and the school team to track real progress and improvement, support an increase in services if their progress stalls, helps identify ineffective instruction or interventions early, and creates accountability. 

As someone who reads and reviews countless IEPs, missing baseline data is one of the biggest red flags. It can lead to goals that may look nice on paper if written with detail, but don’t actually move the child forward or allow us to determine if the growth projected is realistic. 

As an educational advocate, I have seen very well-intentioned teams struggle with progress monitoring because the starting point was not clearly defined. When this baseline data is missing or vague from the start, progress becomes hard to document and often makes instructional decisions very difficult.

Common Problems I Often See & What to Ask for in an IEP Meeting

Common problems I see when reading IEPs in relation to a lack of baseline data include: goals with no numbers, present levels copied over from last year with little to no new information, objective teacher opinions without data, baselines that don’t match the most recent evaluations or testing, and progress reports that saying your child is “making progress” with no concrete evidence. 

If you see any of these things, it’s okay to pause the meeting and ask for data or reach out to the team and ask for additional information. Here are powerful, parent-friendly questions you can ask:

• “What data was used to write this goal?”

• “Where is my child starting right now?”

• “How was that performance measured?”

• “What does success look like in numbers or percentages?

• “How will progress be tracked?”

• “Can we/I would like us to add the baseline to the present levels section?”

You are not being difficult when you ask these questions or request additional details and data to your child’s IEP and related documents (ie. progress reports). You are being thorough, intentional, and informed.

IEPs are not just documents, they are legal agreements. Without clearly written baseline data, services become hard to defend, easy to reduce, and honestly impossible to enforce. WIth the right baseline data, annual goals will become specific, measurable, trackable, clear, and defensible, which is exactly what IDEA intends.

In conclusion:

As a parent, you don’t need to be an expert in special education law or IDEA and state regulations, but you do deserve clarity. Baseline data is meant to provide you and the school team with concrete information about where the child is performing right now and helps to show if growth is occurring.

If a goal doesn’t tell you where your child is starting, how progress will be measured, and what success looks like, it needs to be revised to state that information. Baseline data is the foundation of every effective and well developed IEP. Without it, progress becomes a promise or a hope instead of proof. Every strong IEP begins with knowing exactly where the student (your child) stands.