Progress Monitoring Red Flags to Watch for in February
By: Becca Phillips, Advocate
By the time February rolls around, the school year is no longer “new” to you or to your child. Routines are clearly established, data has been collected and you’ve received progress reports, and IEP goals should be well underway. As both a former special education teacher and now a parent educational advocate, I see February as a great ‘checkpoint month’, as a time when as parents you can step back and reflect on the question: Is my child actually making meaningful progress, or are we just moving through the motions?
Progress monitoring isn’t just paperwork for schools. It’s the evidence that your child’s services are working (or in some cases…not working). If something isn’t right in February, more than halfway through the year, there’s still time to course-correct before the end of the year. By this point in the school year, your child should have:
Baseline data
Several months of direct instruction
Service minutes in place that have been consistently been occurring
At least one round of progress reports reporting on IEP goals
February is late enough to spot problems that have been occurring this school year, but also early enough to fix them. Let’s talk through some of the red flags I often see and what parents can do about them.
Red Flag #1: Vague or Generic Progress Report Data
If progress monitoring is done well, it will tell a story: where your child started at the beginning of the year, what supports are being used and services being implemented, and whether those supports are helping. If it’s done poorly, you’ll see vague statements like “Your child is making nice progress towards this goal”, there is missing or incomplete data, and no clear direction.
If you are seeing comments on progress reports such as “Making adequate progress”, “Improving with support”, or that they are “Continuing to work towards their goals” and you don’t see quantitative data that includes numbers, data, or specific examples, that’s a problem. Comprehensive progress monitoring should include percentages, frequency counts, level increases, and/or baseline vs. current performance data. Look for statements such as “Student increased their letter identification from 3/26 lowercase letters and 5/26 uppercase letters to 12/26 lowercase and 15/26 uppercase letters independently from the last progress report period.
If your child has vague or generic progress report data, ask for details and ask for data being used to measure each goal. If there is a lack of change or lack of growth, that indicates your child is “stuck” at their current levels and adjustments may need to be made. Ask if goals or services need to be revised, expanded, or increased.
Red Flag #2: IEP Services Don’t Match What is in the IEP
An IEP can look great on paper, but reality may not match. If you find in progress reports that services aren’t being delivered as written, be on the lookout for missed sessions, inconsistent service providers or lack of staff, substitute coverage without makeup minutes, or even pull out service minutes becoming push in only.
You can ask providers for services logs to review this information and remember that services listed must be provided exactly as written in the IEP unless they have been formally changed by the team, which you are a member of.
Red Flag #3: Behavior or Regression is Increasing
February is often the time of year when we see winter burnout showing up in children. This can look like:
Increase in meltdowns and/or emotional outbursts
School avoidance
Increased calls home for behavior incidents
Skill regression
Testing limits and pushing boundaries
Reduced energy from winter break
Executive functioning difficulties
Reduced academic focus and stamina
All of these things are data. It is providing key information about your child in the educational environment. Sometimes their academic progress may look fine on paper but emotionally or behaviorally your child is struggling or the opposite may occur where socially your child is thriving but academically they are slipping behind.
As a parent, share your noticings with the team - let them know what you are seeing at home and ask how that aligns with their school data. Progress monitoring should include behavior, engagement, and access, not just academics.
Red Flag #4: Accommodations Are Not Being Implemented Consistently
Accommodations are a crucial part of your child’s access to learning. If you hear your child making comments such as “They don’t give me my extra time anymore”, “My teacher isn’t letting me use my speech to text in their class” or “Nobody reminds me to do ___”, then progress data may not be fully accurate. The reason it may not be accurate is because your child in this case is not getting what their IEP promises to them.
If you hear your child making comments similar to this, as the team “How are my child’s accommodations being implemented and tracked during their daily instruction?” At the end of the day, if accommodations are not being used, your child may look like they are failing when the reality is, the system is failing them.
Red Flag #5: You Don’t Understand the Data Being Shared
As a former special education teacher myself and based on meetings I have sat in as an advocate, I’ll be honest - schools sometimes speak in acronyms and provide graphs or information with little to no explanation. If you ever leave a conference or a meeting thinking to yourself “What does that mean?”, “Is that a good or bad thing?”, or even wondering if your child is making enough or the expected progress, then progress monitoring isn’t working in regards to the parent side of the team.
Don’t be afraid to reach back out to the team and ask for them to explain in plain language what the information means and show you what progress should look like by the spring. It is not your job as a parent to have to decode the jargon and language in the IEP, you’re supposed to understand it and it’s important to ask for clarity when needed.
Red Flag #6: Staff Can’t Explain the Instructional Plan
Data drives instruction, it’s that simple. Progress data should connect to the instruction your child is receiving. If you ask the school team what strategies are being used and how they are teaching your child’s IEP goals. If the answers you receive are unclear, inconsistent, or overly general, then the team may be collecting that data without a strong plan behind it. If you receive vague responses, follow up and ask what specific interventions are tied to each goal. Progress monitoring is going to work best when it is linked directly to intentional teaching and not just qualitative data or observations.
In conclusion, strong February progress monitoring is going to look like:
Clear data
Adjusted goals if needed
Consistently implemented services
Accommodations implemented with fidelity
Behavioral awareness
Parent friendly explanations with language clearly defined
Instruction that is tied to your child’s data
When all of these pieces work together, progress becomes meaningful. When I was still in the classroom, progress monitoring was a core component to helping me guide and alter instruction. Now as a parent advocate, it helps families protect access. February is often a month that requires refining and remember that you do not have to wait until your child’s annual IEP review to ask questions. You are allowed to request meetings, data, service lots, and explanations at any point, especially now when there is still time to help your child finish the school year strong.
Progress monitoring is more than just a school task, it is a partnership between you as the parent and your child’s school team.
