How to Write IEP Goals

March 13, 2023

Without a doubt, learning how to write IEP goals was the hardest part of the IEP writing process for me. To this day, I constantly overthink IEP goals and play around with the wording of them. An IEP goal is the driving force behind an IEP, so it’s important to get them right. When you follow this guide, you’ll be an IEP goal writing pro in no time!

How to Write IEP Goals That are SMART

A SMART IEP goal is one that is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant and Timely. You’ll notice aspects of these characteristics incorporated into the 5 parts that are needed to write an IEP goal.

SPECIFIC

A specific IEP goal should be able to be read and implemented by anyone. It should never be vague. If the student moves, the new teacher should be able to easily implement the goal as written.

MEASUREABLE

Goals should always be observable and measurable. It should specifically state what the student needs to do in order to be successful. Things like ‘react appropriately when upset’ shouldn’t be used. Why? How will you know when a child is upset, or how will you know when it’s an appropriate reaction. Consider things like “will use a breathing technique when crying”. Remember, my definition of an ‘upset student’ might be different than your definition of an upset student.

ATTAINABLE

Goals should be based on the student’s present level, and what is reasonable for them to achieve. They are not based on state standards.

REALISTIC/RELEVANT

Goals should be important for the specific child. They should be unique to the child you are writing an IEP for. Goals can be influenced or inspired from goal banks or other students, but at the end they should be tweaked to meet the needs of an individual student. Copy and Paste is not our friend here.

TIMELY

Goals should be able to be met in one year or less. What can you reasonably expect a child to accomplish in that time frame?

Goals and Objectives – What’s the difference?

Goals and objectives have a different purpose, but are formatted the same way. Objectives should be written using the same rules as when you write a goal. We write objectives for the same reason we plot pit stops when taking a long car ride. Have you ever planned a vacation or trip that was an 8 hour drive. If you leave your house at 10 am, sure you know that you should be there at 6 pm. But, I’m willing to bet you check the clock more often than that. I’m betting you probably know what town you should be in by 12:00 and where you hope to by 4 o’clock.

Pretend you should be in Town A at 12:00. If you arrive there at 12:15, you aren’t that far off schedule. You could make those 15 minutes up with no problem. But, what if you arrive there at 3:15. You know there’s no way you can hit your final destination by 6 pm.

That’s why we write objectives. To give us checkpoints. At those check points, you can see if you are right where you need to be, a little off, or way off. Then, you can change your instruction as needed.

The 5 Parts Needed to Write IEP Goals

It doesn’t matter what order you write them in, but when you write IEP goals and objectives these five things must be included. See if you can find them in the examples at the end of this blog post.

Condition

What will be the trigger to know it’s time to track the goal? Or, what materials does the student need? What will you give the student in order to work on this goal area?

Behavior

What specifically does the student need to do? Do they need to write something, read some words, solve a problem, etc?

Criteria

What accuracy and on how many trials? This is a bit controversial, but we always include a score AND a number of trials. So think things like, “earn a 5 on a teacher created rubric on 3 out of 4 writing assignments” or “solve 60% of math problems of 4 out of 5 trials”. This ensures a student is doing the desired thing more than once.

Method of Measurement

What will you use to measure progress? Checklists, student work, benchmarks, weekly spelling tests, rubrics, etc. are all common methods.

Time Frame

For goals, use one year or less. For objectives, think of how long you expect it to take for the student to meet the objective. Think of your natural pit stops and how long it will take the child to reach that target.

Phonics Goal and Objectives

GOAL: When presented with a text that has multiple opportunities to read a multi-syllabic word, Student will accurately read 85% of the multi-syllabic words on 3 out of 4 trials as measured by weekly cold reads of 3rd grade level reading passages by Date.
OBJECTIVE 1: When presented with a list of words that have a diphthong, Student will accurately read 85% of the words on 3 out of 4 trials as measured by teacher created lists of ten words by Date.
OBJECTIVE 2: When presented with a list of multi-syllabic words that are open, closed, and/or -le syllables, Student will accurately read 85% of the words on 3 out of 4 trials as measured by weekly cold reads of 3rd grade level reading passages by Date.
OBJECTIVE 3: When presented with a list of multi-syllabic words that are r-controlled vowels, vowel team, and/or CVCE words, Student will accurately read 85% of the words on 3 out of 4 trials as measured by weekly cold reads of 3rd grade level reading passages by Date.

Math Goal and Objectives

GOAL: When presented with a set of addition or subtraction word problems within 20, Student will use his math tools and/or a calculator to accurately solve 80% of the problems on 3 out of 4 trials as measured by teacher-created math worksheets by Date.
OBJECTIVE 1: When presented with a set of addition or subtraction equations within 20 and a teacher-completed scaffold (i.e., 5 cats + 4 dogs = ___ pets), Student will use math tools and/or a calculator to accurately solve 80% of the problems as measured by teacher-created math worksheets by Date.
OBJECTIVE 2: When presented with a set of addition or subtraction equations within 20 and a blank scaffold (i.e., ____ cats + ____ dogs = ___ pets), Student will use math tools and/or a calculator to accurately solve 80% of the problems as measured by teacher-created math worksheets by Date.
OBJECTIVE 3: When presented with a set of addition or subtraction equations within 20 and a blank scaffold without the operation (i.e., ____ cats ? ____ dogs = ___ pets), Student will use math tools and/or a calculator to accurately solve 80% of the problems as measured by teacher-created math worksheets by Date.

Writing Goal and Objectives

GOAL: When presented with a set of sentences with punctuation errors, Student will identify and correct 70% of the errors on 3 out of 4 trials as measured by weekly sentence editing worksheets by Date.
OBJECTIVE 1: When presented with a sentence with ending punctuation and capitalization errors, Student will identify and correct 70% of the errors on 3 out of 4 trials as measured by weekly sentence editing worksheets by Date.
OBJECTIVE 2: When presented with a sentence with errors with commas, Student will identify and correct 70% of the errors on 3 out of 4 trials as measured by weekly sentence editing worksheets by Date.
OBJECTIVE 3: When presented with a sentence with errors with quotation marks, Student will identify and correct 70% of the errors on 3 out of 4 trials as measured by weekly sentence editing worksheets by Date.

Behavior Goal and Objectives

GOAL: When transitioning to a new activity or class, Student will have the correct materials needed on 80% of transitions for at least 3 out of 4 weeks as measured by teacher-created checklists by Date.
OBJECTIVE 1: When transitioning to a new activity (i.e., going from a math center to a technology lesson), Student will get the correct materials needed on 80% of transitions for at least 3 out of 4 weeks as measured by teacher-created checklists by Date.
OBJECTIVE 2: When transitioning to a new class (i.e., going from math class to ELA class), Student will have the correct materials needed on 80% of transitions for at least 3 out of 4 weeks as measured by teacher-created checklists by Date.