Developing and Editing Educational Legal Communications
Meredith Avera
Content Writer
Proofreader
Editor
Adobe Acrobat
Microsoft Teams
Zoom
In my time in special education, I was initially surprised at the amount of legal and professional writing that was required on a day to day basis. The most important aspect was developing and writing Individualized Educational Programs, which are legal documents that seal a student’s right to special educational services. These documents required my writing and editing to be incredibly thorough, as they were legally binding to the school and the state. They included objective professional descriptions of a student’s present level of disability and their needs in the classroom and researched goals for the student to accomplish.
With these documents (as well as the other required reports, such as behavioral intervention and progress monitoring), I would spend time editing my work and reading over the work of others so that they are clear and cohesive as well as compliant to legal restrictions.
Here is an example of an introduction for a legal special education document (names and details have been changed for privacy):
John Doe is a vibrant and excitable young man, entering the 8th grade in the fall of 2022. John receives special education services from Contra Middle School under the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder with the additional diagnoses of a Specific Learning Disorder. John presents with a current reading level of Emergent 4th Grade and a mathematics level of Mid-Year 3rd Grade as per his STAR Progress scores, taken 03/25/2022.
John has participated in small group lessons and core classes that have a lower student-teacher ratio. These interventions have shown to be successful for John, and they are recommended for his 8th grade year. John also receives small-group support for social and emotional skills where he works toward goals such as conflict resolution and participating with large groups of peers. A similar small group is considered essential to aid John in transitioning to 8th grade.