A person-centered plan can help those involved with the focus person see the total person, recognize his or her desires and interests, and discover completely new ways of thinking about the future of the person.”
— Beth Mount & Kay Zwernik, 1988
All too often, it can feel like the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meeting focuses on a student’s weaknesses, challenges and skill deficits. When it comes to identifying and leveraging a student’s strengths, IEP teams sometimes get stuck. Is it any wonder why these meetings are stressful, tense, and often adversarial?
Hosting a Person-Centered Planning meeting may help.
Person-Centered Planning is an ongoing problem-solving process to help people with disabilities of any age plan for their future. In person-centered planning, groups of people focus on an individual and their own vision of what they would like to do in the future. While it is a process often used with adults, it can be initiated at any age. It is especially helpful during the transition years of high school and beyond.
Person-Centered Planning requires the commitment of a team of individuals who care about the person. They help further by taking action to make sure that the strategies discussed in planning meetings are implemented. Through this process, a team helps to identify opportunities for the student to develop relationships, participate in their community, increase control over their own lives, and develop the skills and abilities needed to achieve these goals.
The traditional mindset of service delivery has focused on “diagnosis” (what is wrong) and “prescription” (what should be done within the currently available support systems). Person-Centered Planning looks at ways to integrate the sometimes-divergent voices of IEP team participants (including the student, family, and advocates) within the context of a different kind of meeting.
Person-Centered Planning shifts the conversation away from looking at what is available to what might be possible. In fact, imagining possibilities is essential to the process. Having an open mind to all aspirations or desires of the student is fundamental, regardless of how small or unlikely those desires may seem to be to the professionals.
Person-Centered Planning invites some new and unique questions:
- How can we look at this student in a different way?
- How can we support this student in gaining control over their own life?
- How can we increase opportunities for participation in the community?
- How can we recognize the student’s desires, interests, and dreams?
- How can we develop a plan to turn dreams into reality?
New Roles, New Outcomes
A major difference between the team at a Person-Centered Planning meeting and a traditional IEP meeting is who is invited. In Person-Centered Planning, the student/family determine who will and will not be part of this planning group. Some groups are quite large, while others are quite small. The team may or may not include a parent, teacher(s), or school administrator, depending on the desires of the student. Each member of the team is present because of their interest in the student, not because attendance is mandatory or required.
The student themselves, along with others they choose, can be involved. Person-centered approaches to planning work best when there is a facilitator and a person to record what is being shared. The facilitator — someone who is neutral and unbiased — leads the group through the process, handles conflict, and ensures equal opportunity for all to participate. Others participants might include parents/guardians, other family members, friends, professionals, and anyone else who has a personal interest in the student.
Because everyone on the team is there by choice, connection, and a deep interest in the student, there is an absence of “adversarial” roles found at times in the traditional IEP meeting. This serves to communicate the positive, forward-looking purpose of people from a variety of backgrounds meeting to work toward goals created with the focus individual. The emphasis is on “personal commitment and knowledge as the basis of involvement and authority rather than professional role or administrative responsibility.”
The Process
The tools needed for a Person-Centered Planning meeting are pretty simple: a flip chart or large pieces of paper to record the information shared, with several different colored markers. The process follows a few concrete steps:
Personal Profile
The first step is to develop a personal profile. The meeting to develop the personal profile usually occurs several days before the planning meeting so the participants have time to reflect on what is shared. The meeting, which takes about two hours, may use graphic symbols in place of words to help stimulate creativity and encourage participation.
This includes a history or personal life story of the student. This is accomplished by everyone sharing past events in the person’s life. The student themselves, along with parents and family, may share background, critical events, medical issues, major developments, important relationships, etc.
Next, a description of the quality of the student’s life is shared. Areas to be considered include community participation, community presence, choices/rights, respect, and competence.
Personal preferences of the focus person, things the focus person enjoys doing, and things that are undesirable to the person also appear in the personal profile.
The Planning Meeting
The next meeting is the planning meeting. Here, the group will begin by reviewing the personal profile. Participants can make additional comments and observations.
Next, the team reviews trends in the environment and identifies ongoing events that are likely to affect the focus person’s life.
Then, the fun begins. The student and others share visions for the future. Through brainstorming, participants are challenged to imagine ways to increase opportunities. The group identifies opportunities and obstacles.
The conversation then can move to talking about ways to make the vision a reality. The group is ready to identify strategies, resources, and action steps for implementing the vision. It helpful to look at short-term and long-term action steps, and then identify services that can be responsive to the individual’s needs.
Follow Up
It is important to remember that Person-Centered Planning is not a product, but rather the beginning of a process that continues throughout a lifetime. Therefore, the group involved should agree to meet regularly to review activities.
