Baseline vs Present Levels: What Goes Where in an IEP

Two teachers read the same IEP. One says, "The baseline is in the present levels." The other says, "The present levels are the baseline." Both are half right, and the mix-up shows up later as goals that cannot be measured.

This guide separates the two ideas and shows where each number lives.

What the rule requires

Section 300.320(a)(1) requires "a statement of the child's present levels of academic achievement and functional performance," including how the child's disability affects the child's involvement and progress in the general education curriculum. Section 300.320(a)(2) separately requires measurable annual goals, and (a)(3) requires a description of how progress toward those goals will be measured.

Notice what is not in the rule: a definition of "baseline." The word is practice language. The present levels are the legal requirement. The baseline is how a careful team makes that requirement useful for measuring.

The short version

The baseline is a piece of the present levels, not a rival to it.

What Utah says goes inside

Utah's State Board of Education, in a technical assistance guide on writing present levels, says a PLAAFP should contain three things: the student's current performance, baseline data, and the impact of the disability on progress in the general curriculum. It adds that baseline and current performance data are the starting point for writing measurable goals, and that data should be current, specific, measurable, and match the annual goals.

Utah's list of data types teams may consider is broad: parent and teacher input, report cards, statewide assessments, universal screenings, progress monitoring, curriculum-based measurements, and more. It also says to leave out past data that no longer applies.

What a fourth-grade example looks like

Utah's guide includes a sample PLAAFP for a fourth grader with a reading fluency disability. In it, oral reading fluency assessments over four weeks show the student reading 52 words correct per minute at a first-grade level and 24 at the fourth-grade level, against a spring fourth-grade benchmark of 115. That paragraph carries the baseline, the comparison, and the context in a few sentences.

The impact statement is a separate part of the same document. Utah says it is not enough to state that a student has a disability. The statement should say how the disability affects progress in class.

Where NCII fits

NCII's goal-setting guide says the baseline score should be placed in the present levels statement, and that the team should include data showing how the baseline compares with same-grade peers, for example the student's score beside the benchmark at the same point in the year. For how to get the score itself, see how to set an IEP baseline.

A second example: counts out of opportunities

Another Utah sample describes a seventh grader with a significant cognitive disability who is working on math vocabulary. The present levels give the data as counts with a total: she matches or identifies "more" and "less" in 8 of 20 opportunities (40 percent), and generalizes shapes to real objects in 12 of 25 opportunities. Other skills are stated with a percent, such as 98 percent for "same" or "equal," along with the kind of material used.

Two habits are worth borrowing. The count and the total appear next to the percent, so a reader can see how much data stands behind it. And each number names the task, so the later data can be taken the same way.

The same sample adds information from parent input and from assessments completed with the parents on named dates, and then it states the impact of the disability on access to the general curriculum. The baseline sits inside that picture. It does not replace it.

How the baseline and the goal connect

Utah's goals guide says each annual goal has a condition, a target skill or behavior, and a criterion. The criterion should be set from data the team has gathered, with the current data stated in the present levels. In other words, the criterion is the baseline plus the growth the team thinks is realistic and ambitious.

That is why the two sections should be read together. If you change the baseline, check whether the criterion still makes sense. If you change the goal, check whether the present levels still carry data for it. The next guide, writing measurable criteria for IEP goals, shows how.

A layout you can reuse

This keeps each piece in one place so a reader can find the number quickly. Your district's IEP form may have its own boxes. Use them, and keep the same logic inside.

Behavior and functional goals

Utah's goals guide says that if a goal addresses behavior, the PLAAFP should include a baseline measurement of that behavior. It also says to determine when the behavior typically occurs and what the function might be, using sources like a functional behavior assessment, record review, or observation data. A sentence such as "has difficulty with transitions" is a description. A baseline is a count or timed record of those transitions. See behavior frequency and duration data for how to collect it.

Where the mix-up shows up

• Goal with no matching data. The goal says reading fluency, and the present levels only list a report card grade.
• Baseline without the context. A score appears, but nothing says what the tool was or how it compares with peers.
• Present levels without any number. The paragraph is vivid, but nothing in it can be measured later.
• Old numbers carried forward. A baseline from two IEPs ago is still pasted in.
• Different measures. The baseline was a screener, and the goal is monitored with a classroom quiz.

Form layout is local

Where the baseline goes on your form, who fills it in, and how long a present levels statement must be are set by your state and district. Federal rules leave those details open. Ask your case manager for a model your district approves, and check it against the checklist above.

For plain definitions, see the glossary.