From Assessment to Action: What is an “ISP” and how can it support my child?

If your child is experiencing learning related barriers in school, you may have heard a friend, teacher, or psychologist recommend putting your child on an ‘ISP’ (also sometimes called an IPP or IEP). In Alberta, an ISP refers to an ‘Instructional Support Plan’. This is a document that is intended to facilitate communication between school staff, parents and the individual student, regarding the needs and strategies that are effective for the student. Depending on the format of the document, the ISP may also outline goals that drive programming. Unlike a report card, which reports your child’s level of ability to meet curricular outcomes for that school term, an ISP is a ‘living’ document that evolves over the school year and carries over from year to year. It also allows parents to feel included in their child’s education plan throughout their time at school.

Parents sometimes wonder if an ISP means their child won’t need to meet the same standards as everyone else in the class; however, most of the time, the ISP is meant to document the accommodations and strategies in place that allow your child to access the curriculum and demonstrate their skills. Just like you may wear glasses to read the words in this blog, school accommodations help students demonstrate what they are truly capable of. For example, a student with ADHD may require a desk closer to the teacher so their attention can be monitored and redirected. A student with a learning disability in written expression may use assistive technology, like speech to text, or respond orally to tests, in order to demonstrate their knowledge of the subject without being hindered by their writing barriers. The purpose of the ISP is to get to know what the student truly knows, so that the classroom is an inclusive, equitable space, and the child can achieve their true potential. The ISP can also indicate specialized goals to help move the student forward in their academic journey. These goals could be social skills goals, speech-language goals, organizational goals, self-advocacy goals, etc.

There are some situations where students require completely modified programming — where they may complete coursework at a different grade level than their peers, perhaps due to a cognitive disability. In this situation, the ISP may document how their programming is altered and the goals that are a priority in their programming.

It is important to note that an ISP is not always necessary, and does not need to stay in place for your child’s entire academic career. As students head into high school, where courses become streamed based on ability level and post-secondary requirements, many students no longer require an ISP. This also occurs around the time where your student naturally becomes more independent and able to vocalize their needs in the classroom. If your school has recommended removing your child from an ISP, view this as a celebration! It shows your child has developed the skills needed to advocate for themselves and are functioning well in the classroom. If you feel your child still requires certain accommodations, discuss with the school how this would be handled without an ISP, or if keeping the ISP in place is still necessary. After high school, post-secondary schools will look at medical diagnoses and psychoeducational assessments to determine accommodation eligibility. It may be helpful to have your child receive a psychoeducational assessment in their later years of high school in order to prepare for the transition to post-secondary.

It’s also helpful to note what the ISP does not do:

• The ISP does not guarantee your child has access to an educational assistant or a specialized classroom. In Alberta, school boards have their own funding formulas to determine when additional funding is provided to a school for special education needs. Generally, most learning needs are met within the classroom, without additional funding, using what we call universal supports. These are accommodations and strategies that are generally accessible in the school setting, like assistive technology.

• The ISP also does not also “guarantee” better grades. While having the right support in place will certainly help your child’s achievement, an ISP doesn’t mediate all the factors that go into academic success. Your child’s level of motivation and interest in learning, the appropriateness of curriculum to your child’s learning profile, and various classroom dynamics, among other factors, play a role in your child’s achievement. If your child is on an ISP, I encourage families to work on their child’s resilience, as ultimately, their willingness to keep going when tasks are hard will lead to success, not the ISP itself.

In her book, “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, Carol Dweck writes about helping children to foster a “growth mindset”, which is the perspective we can get better at things through effort, persistence and learning. When your child is finding difficulty with long division and says, “I can’t do long division!”, a parent fostering a growth mindset would remind the child, “Long division is hard. You don’t know how to do long division, yet. But let’s keep working at it. You will get there, just like you did with learning your times tables.” When we foster a growth mindset in our kids, we connect their previous successes to their effort and the strategies they used to learn something before. We focus on the power of “yet”, which implies we will eventually master this, it may just take some time and creative solutions. Parents fostering a growth mindset don’t blame others or the “system”, but focus their energy on what is in their control to help their child. This mindset also attunes children to what strategies are helpful, so their child can learn to self-advocate at school.

So, what if you feel your child needs an ISP? How do you as a parent go about putting your child on an ISP?

In Alberta, a child’s eligibility for an ISP is determined by the school based on an identified special education need/diagnosis, typically identified through assessment by a professional. If your child has a psychoeducational assessment, the school will use that data, as well as school based data, to determine suitability for an ISP. If, for example, your child’s needs can be met through small accommodations in the classroom, an ISP may not be necessary. However, if your child’s identified intellectual, behavioural, physical, or communication needs require more individualized supports, making documenting special education needs necessary, the school will recommend an ISP. If you are unsure whether your child meets this criteria, seek out the professional at the school who oversees this process. In Alberta, it is often the principal or their designate, like an assistant principal, school counsellor, or special education facilitator. If you are unsure who to contact, speak to someone in the school office, and they can direct you! Remember to include the classroom teacher in these conversations, as they are in the best position to comment on how your child functions in the classroom.

If your child’s needs are appropriate for an ISP, the school will write the ISP and use the data and recommendations from assessments to inform what goes into the ISP. While parents do not write the ISP, they do have the opportunity to be involved by reviewing it and indicating their agreement to it. It’s important to trust the expertise of your student’s school team, and you are encouraged to ask questions along the way if aspects of the ISP don’t make sense or if you feel adjustments are necessary.

If you are interested in more information about psychoeducational assessment, your child's learning concerns, or need help navigating school su

pports, reach out to Onyx Assessments. Our psychologists offer a wide variety of assessments and parenting consultation to help you navigate the challenges of being a caregiver.

References

Alberta Education. (2004, June). Standards for Special Education (Amended June 2004) (ISBN 0‑7785‑3778‑1). Edmonton, AB: Alberta Education. Retrieved from https://open.alberta.ca/publications/0778537781

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.