Delaware IEP Progress Monitoring: How to Track Your Child's Goals

Your child's IEP includes a set of measurable annual goals. Every quarter, you should receive a progress report on each of those goals. Most Delaware parents receive these reports, file them in a folder, and move on — without realizing that those documents are either the evidence that the district is doing its job or the evidence that it is not. Knowing how to read progress reports and track goal data yourself is one of the most powerful things you can do as an advocate, and it does not require legal expertise.

What Delaware Law Requires

Under the IDEA and Delaware's implementing regulations at 14 DE Admin. Code 925, school districts are required to inform parents of the child's progress toward annual IEP goals at least as often as they report progress for students without disabilities. In most Delaware school districts, general education report cards are issued quarterly — which means IEP progress reports must also be issued quarterly.

The progress report for each goal must include:

• The current level of performance on that goal
• Whether the child is on track to meet the goal by the end of the IEP year
• The measurement method used to determine progress

That last element is critical. A progress report that says "making progress" without stating what was measured, when it was measured, and what the score was, is not a legally adequate progress report. It tells you nothing you can act on.

Reading a Delaware IEP Progress Report

Progress reports come in different formats across Delaware's 19 school districts. Some districts use online portals; others still mail paper reports. Regardless of format, you are looking for the same information for each goal:

Baseline (from the PLAAFP): Where was the child when the IEP was written? If the IEP was well-written, each goal includes an explicit baseline — "as of September 2025, student reads 42 words per minute at 2nd grade level."

Current measurement: What did the district actually measure this quarter? This should be a data point from the same instrument used to establish the baseline — not a general teacher comment.

Expected trajectory: If the goal says the child will reach 80 words per minute by May, and it's January, the child should be somewhere around 60-65 words per minute if they are on track. Is the current measurement consistent with that trajectory?

Projection: The report should explicitly state whether the child is expected to meet the goal by the annual review date. If it does not say this, ask.

If any progress report you receive says "making progress" or "satisfactory progress" with no data attached, write to the special education case manager and ask for the specific measurement data underlying that rating. That data must exist — the district is required to monitor it. If they cannot produce it, that is a sign that progress monitoring is not happening.

Setting Up Your Own Goal Tracking System

You do not have to wait for quarterly reports. Delaware law gives parents the right to request copies of any education records at any time — including data collected as part of IEP progress monitoring. For most IEP goals, this is curriculum-based measurement (CBM) data: short, frequent probes that track a specific skill over time.

At the beginning of the school year, ask the case manager to send you the raw progress monitoring data for each goal on a monthly basis. Many teachers already track this data in systems like AIMSWEB or Amplify mCLASS. You are not asking them to do extra work — you are asking them to share data that already exists.

Create a simple spreadsheet for each goal:

• Column 1: Date
• Column 2: Score
• Column 3: District's trajectory target for that date (calculated from the baseline and the annual goal)

Plotting this data over time gives you a picture that is far more informative than a "satisfactory progress" rating. If the data points are consistently below the trajectory line, the child is not on track. If the data is flat — no growth over multiple measurement periods — that is a serious problem that warrants an IEP meeting.

When to Request an IEP Meeting Based on Progress Data

Delaware law allows parents to request an IEP meeting at any time. You do not have to wait for the annual review. Under 14 DE Admin. Code 925, if you have reason to believe the child is not making adequate progress, you have grounds to call a meeting.

The threshold for requesting a meeting based on progress data is not that the child has failed to meet a goal — it is that the data suggests the child is unlikely to meet the goal by year's end if the current trajectory continues. Waiting until the annual review to discover that a goal was not met wastes a full year of the child's education.

If your child's progress report shows:

• Consistently below-trajectory performance for two or more consecutive quarters
• Flat or declining data (no growth despite services)
• Missing data (the district cannot show you measurement scores)

...request an IEP meeting in writing. Cite 14 DE Admin. Code 925 and state that the progress data suggests the current program is not sufficient for FAPE. Ask the team to review the services, the goal difficulty, the frequency of instruction, and the provider qualifications.

The Delaware IEP & 504 Blueprint includes a meeting request letter template specific to progress monitoring concerns, along with a data interpretation guide that helps you determine when below-trajectory performance is a signal worth escalating.

Evaluating Whether Goals Were Appropriately Ambitious

One complexity in progress monitoring is distinguishing between inadequate services and inadequately ambitious goals. Sometimes a child meets all their IEP goals but remains significantly below grade level — because the goals were written too low. Meeting goals that were calibrated beneath the child's actual potential is not meaningful progress.

In Delaware's WRITES-based IEP framework, goals are supposed to be aligned to grade-level standards or, for students with more significant disabilities, to alternate academic achievement standards. If your child meets every goal but is still reading two years below grade level, ask the team: were these goals calibrated to move the child toward grade-level standards, or were they calibrated to be achievable?

This is a legitimate advocacy question. A well-calibrated IEP sets goals that are ambitious enough to represent meaningful educational benefit — not just measurable enough to be checked off.

What Happens When Goals Are Not Met at the Annual Review

At the annual review meeting, the team examines progress data for each goal and decides what happens next. For goals that were not met, the team must:

• Determine why the goal was not met — was the goal too ambitious? Were services insufficient? Was there a change in the child's circumstances?
• Decide whether to carry the goal forward into the next IEP year
• Consider whether additional evaluation or change in services is needed

A district that carries forward identical, unmet goals year after year without examining why they were not met and what needs to change is not providing FAPE. Each annual review must be a genuine analysis, not a copy-paste exercise.

If goals are repeatedly unmet, you may have grounds for compensatory education — additional services to make up for the educational benefit the child did not receive. The Delaware IEP & 504 Blueprint explains how to document a pattern of unmet goals and request compensatory services through a state complaint or IEP amendment.

The Connection Between Progress Monitoring and Your Paper Trail

Every progress report, every data sheet you request, every email you send asking about goal tracking — these are all part of the paper trail that matters if your child's case ever escalates to mediation or due process. Delaware operates a one-tier due process system, meaning a hearing panel decision is final at the administrative level. The strength of your case depends almost entirely on the documentation you built before the hearing.

Progress data that shows the child was not making adequate progress — and that you raised the concern in writing, and that the district's response was insufficient — is among the most compelling evidence you can bring to a Delaware due process proceeding. Building that documentation starts now, not after a crisis.

Keep every progress report. Save every email exchange about goal data. Note in writing every time you raise a concern about progress and what the district's response was. The Delaware IEP & 504 Blueprint includes a documentation system designed specifically for Delaware parents who want to build this paper trail without it taking over their lives.

See more United States guides →