Make IEP Summaries Stand Out with Personalized Student Introduction Letters
As an educator with experience as a paraprofessional, general education teacher, and special education teacher, I’ve encountered a common challenge in all of these roles: paperwork. Each school year, I found myself either creating or receiving dozens of IEP summaries, 504 plans, behavior support plans, health plans, and more. While these documents are essential, the sheer volume at the start of the school year—combined with meetings, planning, new faces, and the general back-to-school rush—can make it difficult to fully absorb and internalize all the information.
Introducing the Student Welcome Letter: A Practical Solution
One effective strategy I’ve discovered is having students write an introduction letter each year. These letters allow students on my caseload to introduce themselves to their teachers. I print multiple copies, attach each letter to the IEP summary, and distribute them to the general education teachers. This simple practice brings several benefits:
Familiarization with the IEP: Creating the IEP summary helps me thoroughly understand each student’s IEP, catch any looming deadlines, and address immediate concerns.
Student Engagement: Writing the introduction letter encourages students to become familiar with their own supports and present them in a strengths-based format.
Attention-Grabbing: The personalized letter makes the IEP summary more engaging for general education teachers, service providers, and paraeducators, connecting the technical document to a student’s personality.
While I typically use this process with students who have IEPs, it can be adapted for any student. These letters can introduce a 504 plan, behavior support plan (BSP), behavior intervention plan (BIP), or health plan. Additionally, this activity can stand alone as a writing exercise that fosters self-advocacy—a critical employability skill. Self-advocacy leads to enhanced self-confidence, better communication skills, increased self-awareness, improved problem-solving abilities, and stronger collaboration skills (Forbes, 2024). Everyone benefits from being able to identify their strengths, interests, needs, goals, and contributions!
Step-by-Step Guide to Creating IEP Summaries and Introduction Letters
Step 1: Crafting the IEP Summary
Most IEP software systems generate some sort of IEP summary or IEP-at-a-Glance. If you do not have access to this feature, or you want to create your own synopsis, here is the simple format I use. Crafting a personalized IEP summary forces you to digest the contents of each student’s IEP and add context based on your knowledge of the student.
Disability: Provide the specific disability category and quantify its impact. For instance, instead of simply stating “SLD,” explain that the student has a Specific Learning Disability in auditory processing that affects reading comprehension. Or instead of “DHH,” explain that the student has profound hearing loss in the left ear, wears hearing aids in the right, and needs additional time to process with both receptive and expressive language. Offer as much practical information as possible.
Skill Levels: Detail the student’s present levels of performance in reading, writing, math, speaking, listening, and/or executive functioning. Highlight information that is particularly useful to teachers. For example, according to the standardized assessment, Johnny reads at 4.5 GE, however, in practice, using context clues and repeated reading, Johnny is able to decode and comprehend grade level materials. Or, Elizabeth can perform basic operations on whole numbers and solve simple one-step equations, however she commonly makes calculation errors and should use a calculator to access multi-step or higher-order problems.
Accommodations: Summarizing accommodations often reveals gaps or unclear guidance in the IEP. Make the accommodations actionable by explaining their duration, frequency, and context. For example, if the student needs extended time, specify how much and provide an example. If it is an alternate setting, list acceptable locations. If it is preferred seating, share parameters that benefit the student, such as near the instruction, away from the door, etc.
Goals: Summarize the student’s goals in simple language, focusing on academic, behavioral, and transition objectives. Teachers and support staff are typically most concerned with the specific skills the student is working on.
Behavior: Be cautious when summarizing behavior to avoid planting seeds of bias. Highlight any known concerns and solutions. For example, if you know a student tends to be defiant with substitutes, or needs to take a walk when frustrated, give your fellow educator a heads-up.
Health: Note any health concerns, such as asthma or diabetes, and provide relevant contact information (e.g., school nurse) or refer to the full health plan.
Notes: Use this section to share any additional helpful information, such as motivators, reinforcers, or communication preferences of parents.
Case Manager: Provide your contact information and that of any other service providers involved with the student.
Step 2: Brainstorming for the Introduction Letter
Now, it’s time to have students brainstorm for their introduction letter. I recommend using a mind map with a center bubble for their name and offshoot bubbles for strengths, interests, needs, accommodations, contributions, and goals. You can guide them with prompts to generate ideas for each area:
Strengths:
What is something you are proud of?
Have you ever won an award or special recognition?
What subjects do you enjoy the most?
Which classes or topics are easiest for you?
What would your friends or family say you are good at?
What are your positive qualities?
Have you ever been a leader? In what area(s)?
Interests:
What activities do you enjoy?
Do you have any hobbies?
Do you collect anything?
Sports? Clubs? Teams?
Do you have any artistic skills?
What sort of music do you like?
How do you spend your free time?
Needs:
Are there specific skills you need more help with?
How do you learn best?
What supplies or materials do you need to study?
What environment is best for you to concentrate?
How do you stay organized?
What support do you need from teachers to succeed?
What kind of feedback do you find most helpful?
Accommodations:
Do you have an IEP or 504-plan?
If so, what accommodations does it include?
Is there any technology that would help you learn?
Do you need to take breaks? Work in a quiet space?
Do you need extra time to finish tests or assignments?
Do you prefer information visually, auditorily, or both?
What changes to the environment would help you learn better?
Do you need help with organization? With prioritizing your tasks?
Contributions:
What are your strongest personal qualities?
How can your strengths help others?
Are there subjects you could teach to others?
How do you make other people feel included or welcome?
How do you contribute to team activities or projects?
What are your leadership skills?
What are your soft skills?
Do you have people skills?
Goals:
What habits do you want to develop? Or break?
Is there a new hobby or skill you want to learn?
Are there any academic skills or subjects you’d like to develop?
What can you do to prepare for life after high school?
How could you become more independent or responsible?
Are there any extracurricular activities you’d like to join?
Are there any leadership or soft skills you’d like to improve?
How could you take better care of your health or well-being?
Step 3: Organizing Ideas into an Outline
Once students have brainstormed, they should review their mind map, select the most relevant ideas, and organize them into a graphic organizer. The outline typically includes:
Paragraph 1: Strengths and interests
Paragraph 2: Needs and accommodations
Paragraph 3: Contributions and goals
Step 4: Writing the Rough Draft
Students can now expand on their outlined ideas to create 3-5 sentence paragraphs. Provide them with an essay skeleton, including the general structure of a business letter, sentence starters, and transition phrases. They can then plug in the ideas from their graphic organizer to construct an essay.
Step 5: Personalizing the Letter
Students can now remove the “scaffolding.” Encourage students to delete any remaining prompts and add their own stylistic touches, phrasing, or personal flair. The goal is to avoid a “cookie-cutter” result and ensure the letter genuinely reflects the student’s personality.
Step 6: Providing Feedback
You can choose between peer feedback or teacher feedback. Peer feedback offers a valuable learning experience, but it might make students feel vulnerable, especially early in the year before they've built strong relationships. If you opt for peer feedback, consider making it optional, allowing students to choose their partners, anonymizing the feedback, or offering the choice of teacher feedback instead. Regardless of the option you choose, emphasize the importance of confidentiality, respect, and constructive criticism.
Step 7: Revising and Publishing the Letter
Students now polish the letters, integrating feedback and making corrections. Once it is ready to publish, they can add additional personalization. If you are printing the letters, they can be added to fun stationery. Students can also decorate their letters with stickers, stamps, stencils, clipart, etc.
Step 8: Sharing the Letters
These letters make a strong impact when printed and attached to the IEP summary. I typically share these letters with everyone who needs to see the IEP information, including general education teachers, paraeducators, support staff, and service providers. Depending on delivery methods, you can place a plain sheet of paper or a confidentiality form on top. You can also share the letters electronically—it is more attention-grabbing to have students share from their own student emails, which provides a learning opportunity around email etiquette. You can also have students hand-deliver their letters to their teachers, giving you an opportunity to talk about introductions, handshakes, and small talk!
Conclusion: Empowering Students Through Personalization
This is a lesson you can replicate using the ideas in this post. If you’d like ready-to-use materials, check out this lesson, which includes Google Slides with speaker notes, a mind map, a graphic organizer, a letter template, a feedback form, an IEP summary template, and samples of each.
This makes a great back-to-school lesson, or you can use it during the holiday season to distribute letters with schedule changes at the beginning of the second semester. It offers a comprehensive survey of the writing process, from brainstorming through publishing. It also provides an excellent opportunity for self-advocacy and generates numerous natural moments to discuss ability awareness and various real-world social and professional skills.
