#75 Is AI Writing Your Child's IEP: What Every Parent Needs to Know

April 10, 2026

When you open your child’s most recent IEP and read through the goals, does it actually sound like your kid? Or does it feel a little generic, like it could have been written about any student with a reading difficulty? If something feels off, you might be right! There’s a quiet shift happening in special education classrooms, and today we’re talking about the two main reasons why IEPs are losing their individuality: a gap in teacher training and the sudden, massive rise of AI-generated documents.

Let this be a reminder that AI doesn't know your child. It knows patterns, it knows professional-sounding language, but it doesn't know what your child actually needs to succeed. Today, we’re looking at how to spot a generic IEP, why a plausible-sounding PLAAFP can be a trap, and how you can ensure your child’s legal documents stay focused on the individual human being sitting in front of you.

My free resource, Is AI Writing Your Struggling Reader's IEP?, walks you through exactly what to look for when you open your child’s document and what the research says about the current state of IEP quality. Grab it now at https://www.literacyuntangled.com/ai-iep!

Would you like to understand reports, ask the right questions, and get schools to take you seriously? Together Through Dyslexia 6-month program provides expert mentorship for parents of dyslexics and struggling readers, and you can claim your spot now at https://www.literacyuntangled.com/together-through-dyslexia!

My mini-course, From Lost to Empowered: How to Get Your Struggling Reader: The 3-Step Evaluation Request Blueprint for Parents of Struggling Readers, is available now! This 3-step evaluation request blueprint walks you through everything you need to know, from documenting concerns with the right details to writing the evaluation request letter with language that triggers legal timelines, to handling what to do when schools try to push you off, and so much more. You can break through the barriers NOW and get instant access at https://www.literacyuntangled.com/from-lost-to-empowered.

Topics Covered:

The gap between knowing the law and the clinical reasoning required to build a plan for the complex individual human being sitting in front of you [1:47]
A look at the numbers and why more than half of special education teachers are now turning to AI to help manage the paperwork burden [2:50]
Why it’s important to realize that will AI knows what an IEP should look like, it doesn't actually know your child [3:43]
Breaking down the PLAAFP and how a vague description guarantees a vague plan [4:37]
How to spot a generic, plausible-sounding PLAAFP even when the language looks professional and complete [5:41]
The hidden risks of using AI as a parent to navigate the process and why a confident answer isn't the same as an accurate one [5:56]
How to get your hands on my new free resource: Is AI Writing Your Struggling Reader's IEP? [7:19]

Key Takeaways:

Federal law calls it an “Individualized Education Program” for a reason. If the goals could apply to any student in the building, they aren't good enough for your child.
AI is excellent at producing plausible, high-quality text, but it’s based on patterns rather than your child’s specific evaluation data and learning profile.
The PLAAFP is the engine of the IEP and when present levels are vague, the entire document loses its ability to drive meaningful progress.

When you're ready to work with me, here are 3 ways I can help you:

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Episode Transcript

(0:00 - 4:08)
Studies consistently find that IEP goals across the country are frequently low quality, vague, generic, not connected to what the evaluation actually said about the child. I'm Jenny Sherson, ex-special educator turned dyslexia interventionist. It wasn't so long ago that I too was overwhelmed by balanced literacy versus structured literacy, education speak, and everything in between.

Fast forward after many, many hours of self-driven education, and you'll see I've built a thriving dyslexia practice helping students from age 6 to 18. My specialties? Working with a quote-unquote difficult, almost always to read, student, and breaking down the complexities of dyslexia into everyday language strategies and action steps. I want to ask you something.

When you got your child's most recent IEP, when you opened it up and read through the goals, the present levels, the services, did it feel like it was written about your child specifically? Did it feel like someone sat down and really thought through who your kid is, what the evaluation said, what they need, or did it feel a little generic? A little like it could have been written about any kid with a reading difficulty. If it felt generic, you might be right. And there's a reason for that.

Actually, there are two reasons, and both of them are happening right now, quietly, in special education classrooms across the country. Today we're talking about what's actually going on behind the scenes when IEPs get written. Not to scare you, but because you can't advocate for what you don't know is happening.

Here's the first thing you need to know. Becoming a special education teacher requires passing a standardized exam. In most states, that's the praxis.

And the praxis tests whether someone knows the content, the laws, the terminology, the categories of disabilities. What it doesn't test very well is whether someone can look at a real child, read their evaluation data, understand their specific learning profile, and build a plan that actually fits that kid. And that gap between knowing information and applying it to the individual child, it shows up in the research.

Studies consistently find that IEP goals across the country are frequently low quality, vague, generic, not connected to what the evaluation actually said about the child. New teachers entering the field knowing the rules, but not always having the clinical reasoning to apply them to the complex individual human being sitting across from them, that is problem number one. And it's been building for a while.

Problem number two just arrived on top of it. I want to share a number with you, and I want you to actually sit with it for a second. In the 2024-2025 school year, 57% of special education teachers reported using AI to help write IEPs.

That's more than half. And 15%, that's one in seven special education teachers, said they used AI to write IEPs in full. I want to be fair here, because this isn't about blaming teachers.

Special education teachers are overworked, period. Their caseloads are enormous. The paperwork burden in this field is genuinely crushing, and I understand why a tool that helps manage it is so appealing.

But here's the problem. AI doesn't know your child. AI can generate language that sounds professional and specific.

It can produce goals that look measurable and well-written. It can fill in every single section of an IEP document and make it look complete. But it's doing all of that based on patterns, based on what IEPs generally look like, not based on what your child's evaluation actually said, not based on what your child actually needs.

(4:08 - 4:28)
Think of it this way. If you asked AI to write a birthday card for your best friend, it would produce something that sounds like a birthday card. It might even sound warm, but it wouldn't know what your friend has been going through this year.

It wouldn't know the thing that would actually make her feel seen. It would be a birthday card. It just wouldn't be her birthday card.

(4:28 - 7:42)
That is what's happening with IEPs. And for a document that federal law literally calls an individualized education program, that matters. So let me zoom in on one specific part of the IEP, because it's the piece everything else is built on.

It's called the present levels of academic achievement and functional performance. Most people call them PLAF or PLOPs, or sometimes just present levels. This section is supposed to describe where your child actually is right now, their strengths, their challenges, how their disability specifically affects their ability to learn.

And from that description, every goal, every service, every accommodation is supposed to flow directly. When the PLAF is accurate, specific, and provides baselines, the rest of the IEP has a fighting chance of being meaningful. When the PLAF is vague, when it says something like student struggles with reading and benefits from support, instead of painting a real specific picture of that child and providing baselines, the goals that follow are mostly guaranteed to be just as vague.

And vague goals lead to services that may or may not actually address what your child needs. Now here's the thing about AI. It's really good at producing plausible sounding PLAF language, professional, complete.

It's all the right sections, which means a generic AI generated PLAF can be very hard to spot if you don't know what you're looking for. Here's something else I want you to hear because it's important. This isn't just about what's happening when teachers write IEPs.

It's also about what happens when you turn to AI to help you navigate the process. If you type your child's situation into chat GPT and ask, is this good IEP goal for my child with dyslexia? You'll get a confident, well-written answer. But AI doesn't know your child's evaluation.

It doesn't know your state specific requirements. It doesn't know what was actually said in the meeting or what the school proposed or what the data shows. It's going to give you an answer that sounds right.

That doesn't mean it is right for your kid. The IEP process requires someone who actually knows the law, knows how to read evaluation data, and knows how to apply all of that to the specific child sitting in front of them. That is not something any AI can do for you.

So here's what I want you to walk away with today. Your child's IEP is a legal document that is supposed to be built around your specific child, their specific evaluation, their specific strengths and needs. Generic language, whether it comes from a template or from a habit or from AI, it's not good enough.

And knowing that is the first step. I've put together a free resource that pairs with this episode. It's called, is AI writing your struggling readers IEP? It might not be as individualized as you think.

And it walks you through what the research shows is happening right now. What it means for your child's document specifically and what to look for when you open up your child's IEP. There's a link in the show notes where you can grab it.

(7:42 - 8:29)
And if you're looking at your child's IEP right now and something feels off, if you have an annual review coming up and you want someone who's in your corner who actually understands this process, that's the work we do together inside Together Through Dyslexia. The link is in the show notes. You don't have to figure this out alone.

Until next time, bye-bye. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Literacy Untangled. If you loved this episode as much as I did, head on over and rate and subscribe so you never miss an episode.

If you want to continue the conversation or share your takeaways, head on over to our Instagram at Literacy Untangled and comment on your favorite part. I can't wait to hang out with you again soon. Bye!

#75 Is AI Writing Your Child's IEP: What Every Parent Needs to Know

Before You Go...
Are You Making These Reading Mistakes?

Are You Making These Reading Mistakes?

#75 Is AI Writing Your Child's IEP: What Every Parent Needs to Know

Before You Go...Are You Making These Reading Mistakes?

Are You Making These Reading Mistakes?

Before You Go...
Are You Making These Reading Mistakes?