Teacher writing in a notebook

Tracking Accommodations and Modifications

One of the essentials in your toolkit for supporting students with accommodations and modifications is a tracker. Take notes about when students use their accommodations independently, when you need to suggest using the supports, when students choose not to use them, and the outcomes. This is quick and easy to do with a customizable tracker.

IEP/504 plan accommodations and modifications tracker

Download the tracker here.

How to Use the Tracker

You can use this tool in many ways.

You can use it to remind yourself which supports each student needs. This can be helpful as you plan lessons and as you teach.
The tracker can also help you keep a record of how often students use supports. This information can be valuable to the IEP team if they want to learn whether supports are working or need to be changed. The team may also want to know if students can use the supports without prompting.
A third way you can use the tracker is to gain feedback from an instructional coach or mentor. If you want to improve how you use accommodations and modifications, your coach can be a third-party observer and use the tracker to give you feedback about how you use the supports.
Evaluate the use of the accommodation or modification. Reflecting on notes from your tracker can help you find patterns. You may realize that a student won’t use an accommodation if they have to self-advocate for it. You may also learn that a student doesn’t need the support in a certain subject area. Or you may find that you can provide the most commonly used accommodations and modifications to your whole class with some tweaks to the classroom environment.
Suggest adjustments as necessary. Both IEPs and 504 plans are legally binding documents. As a result, you can’t make the decision to change or discontinue accommodations and modifications. But you can ask the student support team to revisit them if the data you’ve collected shows that something else might be more effective. Talk with the IEP case manager or 504 coordinator about setting up a meeting to discuss whether to make changes.

Giving All Students What They Need

Providing accommodations and modifications for students who learn and think differently can be challenging—but it’s entirely doable. With careful planning, collaboration with the student support team, and a way to track your efforts, you can make your classroom a place where all students have what they need to learn.

Explore

Here are nine reasons why students may refuse their accommodations.

Discuss

What challenge do you anticipate when it comes to implementing IEPs in your classroom?

Preview

On the next page, you’ll learn more about how to track progress on IEP goals.

Citation

Accommodations and Modifications in the Classroom