My child has an IEP.. how can they get an F?

This is one of the most common questions I get as a teacher. Students with IEPs are entitled to many benefits to help them be successful in the classroom setting, however, the students still need to be part of the process. Here is what I mean by that.. So long as the accommodations are being met in the classroom, a student with an IEP still has the right to fail. An IEP simply levels the playing field; your student still needs to be willing to play the game! In fact, in my professional opinion, a few of the accommodations we allow in our IEPs actually are detrimental to the later success of our students with IEPs. "Extended time on assignments" is one of such a beast. This accommodation recognizes the fact that many students with learning differences need additional time to complete a task. We allow for assignments to be turned in late for full credit. This works reasonably well when a student is in early elementary school but by the time he or she gets to middle school, the following scenario happens like clockwork: a student knows he has extra time to complete an assignment, and so rather than doing what he can when he can, procrastination takes over. Soon, that student is facing not only the end of a grading quarter, but an amount of work to complete that has snowballed beyond all reason! Rather than allowing this to happen, a more reasonable and appropriate accommodation for extended time should read more like this: "Johnny will receive assignment X number of days before his peers to allow for extra time to complete the assignment." All assignment due dates are solid and there is not wiggle room on the back end with just changing the assignment time frame. If accommodations are not being used appropriately in the classroom, and you feel your child's failing grade is due to this, please have an open dialogue with the teacher and with your child's special education case manager. Perhaps your child truly needs more modifications to the curriculum, but if all parties are in agreement that modifications and accommodations are reasonable and being enforced, at that point, your child's failure or success is up to him. Remember, while no one wants to fail a child with a learning difficulty, the child still needs to hold up his or her end of the gig.