PLAAFP examples for teachers: how to write a PLAAFP statement from data

The most useful PLAAFP examples for teachers show the step most present levels statements skip: turning the special education data you already have into a few plain sentences about what the student can do now, what gets in the way, and what that means for goals. A PLAAFP that starts from data writes the goals for you. One that starts from adjectives writes nothing.

Below: what the regulation asks for, a five-part pattern, and examples to borrow the shape of.

What does a PLAAFP statement have to include?

PLAAFP stands for present levels of academic achievement and functional performance. The federal regulation says the IEP must include “a statement of the child’s present levels of academic achievement and functional performance, including— (i) How the child’s disability affects the child’s involvement and progress in the general education curriculum (i.e., the same curriculum as for nondisabled children); or (ii) For preschool children, as appropriate, how the disability affects the child’s participation in appropriate activities” (34 CFR 300.320(a)(1)).

Two things live in that sentence. Where the student is now, academically and functionally. And how the disability affects access to what classmates are learning. Your state’s IEP form will have its own boxes and headings; follow those. The two ideas underneath don’t change.

How do you write a PLAAFP statement from data?

Five parts, in this order.

1. A strength, specific. Not “is a joy.” “Retells the main events of a story heard aloud in order, with details.” Strengths tell the team what to build from.

2. Current performance, with numbers and sources. What the student does now, measured the same way you’ll measure the goal: “On three one-minute reads of unfamiliar second-grade passages in September, read a median of 48 words correctly per minute with 91% accuracy.” Name where each number came from: classroom checks, a curriculum-based measure, a district screener, an evaluation.

3. A comparison point. Where classmates or the grade-level expectation sit, so the gap is visible: “Grade-level classmates in the same class read a median of 87 on the same passages.” Use your district’s benchmark or your own class data, and say which.

4. The impact on the general education curriculum. What the gap means in the room: “Reading at this rate, he cannot finish grade-level science and social studies texts in the time given, and misses content he understands when it’s read aloud.”

5. The need that leads to a goal. One sentence that points straight at a goal: “He needs instruction in decoding multisyllable words and repeated reading practice to increase his reading rate and accuracy.”

What do PLAAFP examples for teachers look like across skills?

These use invented students and numbers. Borrow the shape.

Math. “Amara adds and subtracts two-digit numbers without regrouping accurately and explains her steps using base-ten blocks. On five weekly checks in September, she solved a median of 3 of 10 two-digit addition problems that need regrouping; grade-level classmates averaged 9 of 10 on the same checks. She writes the full sum in the ones column instead of carrying, so multi-step word problems in her math class stall at the first calculation. She needs explicit instruction in regrouping with place-value supports that fade over time.”

Written expression. “Jordan tells detailed, organized stories aloud. Across four writing samples from the first month of school, he wrote a median of 2 complete sentences in 10 minutes, with capital letters and end punctuation in about half of them; the class median was 7 sentences. Written assignments in every subject stay unfinished or are replaced by drawings. He needs instruction in sentence construction and a planning routine, with access to speech-to-text while those skills grow.”

Communication. “Sofia greets familiar adults by name and uses her picture communication book to request preferred items at snack. Over two weeks of daily checks, she asked for help with a task using her book in 2 of 20 opportunities, and waited without responding in the rest. Without a way to ask for help, she sits through independent work without starting. She needs instruction in using her communication system to ask for help and take breaks across the school day.”

Transition-age student. “Amir, 16, keeps a detailed schedule of his part-time volunteer shifts on his phone. On five checks of job-application tasks, he completed 2 of 6 sections of a paper application independently, needing verbal prompts for dates and references. This limits his participation in the career-readiness course, where applications are graded independent work. He needs instruction in completing applications with a personal information sheet he can use without an adult.”

What should a PLAAFP leave out?

• Adjectives about character. “Lazy,” “sweet,” “unmotivated.” They aren’t present levels, and families read every one.
• Grade equivalents with nothing behind them. “Reads at a 1.5 grade level” says less than the words-per-minute number it came from.
• Scores without dates or sources. A number with no date can’t be compared to anything next year.
• Needs that don’t lead anywhere. If a need in the PLAAFP has no goal, service or accommodation attached, the team should ask why.

Where does the data for a PLAAFP come from?

From the checks you already do, collected on purpose in the weeks before the meeting. Three short checks of the same skill, the middle score, the date and the source. An IEP data collection sheet kept for each goal holds exactly that, and a quarter of progress monitoring in special education is next year’s present levels already written in pencil.

Add family input in their words, and the student’s own when they can give it. “At home he reads comic books to his little sister” belongs in a strengths line. It’s data too, and it’s often the most useful sentence in the whole statement.