Assessment and Program Planning
Assessment and Program Planning
This domain tests how teams evaluate DHH students, determine eligibility, and build IEPs that connect assessment data to services and measurable goals.
Core rules and concepts
- Eligibility requires a disability and an adverse educational effect; an audiogram alone is not enough. Teams should document how hearing loss affects access, communication, and progress in the general curriculum.
- Use multiple measures: audiological data, communication and language assessment, cognitive assessment chosen with caution, academic achievement, functional listening, and social-emotional/behavioral information. Verbally loaded IQ tests can underestimate DHH students.
- The IEP includes present levels of academic achievement and functional performance (PLAAFP), measurable annual goals, special education and related services, accommodations, and LRE justification. For DHH students, the communication plan should be explicit.
- Accommodations change access (FM/DM system, interpreter, captioning, preferential seating, extended time); modifications change content or expectations. Do not use modifications to mask inaccessible instruction.
- Progress monitoring should be frequent and tied to goals. Transition planning begins by age 16 in IDEA, and earlier in many states.
Worked example
A seventh grader with moderate bilateral loss is failing science. The evaluation shows a noisy classroom, no FM use, and vocabulary gaps. The team should not lower expectations; it should add consistent FM use, preteaching of science vocabulary, and a goal for functional listening and vocabulary, then monitor. The reasoning links the assessment data to access and instruction.
Traps that cost marks
- Denying services because the student "seems fine" with amplification.
- Writing goals that are actually placements or accommodations.
- Using one score to make high-stakes decisions.
- Overlooking social-emotional and self-advocacy needs.