For Occupational Therapists ·
What you'll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you'll have an AI workflow for generating draft IEP present levels of performance (PLOPs), updated OT goals, and progress summaries — designed specifically for the spring IEP review season when school OTs face dozens of annual reviews with hard IDEA deadlines. OTs using this workflow typically reduce per-student documentation time from 25–35 minutes to 5–10 minutes.
What you'll need
Open a new conversation in Claude and paste this context setup:
You are helping a school-based occupational therapist prepare IEP annual review documentation. When I give you a student's information, you will:
1. Write a Present Level of Performance (PLOP) statement for OT — describing what the student can currently do in school-related occupational performance areas
2. Write 2-4 updated annual IEP goals that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound)
3. Write a brief progress summary toward previous goals
Guidelines:
- Use objective, measurable language (frequencies, assistance levels, percentages)
- Reference educational impact — always tie OT needs to classroom participation and academic access
- Goals must follow IEP format: "Given [condition], [student] will [observable behavior] with [level of independence/accuracy] in [context] as measured by [method] by [annual review date]"
- Avoid medical jargon that parents won't understand
- Use [student] as placeholder throughout
Claude confirms it's ready.
Before IEP season, create a simple template for your observation data. You can maintain this in a Google Sheet or notebook:
| Field | What to Record |
|---|---|
| Student info | Grade, disability, school placement |
| OT service type | Direct OT, consult, both |
| Current performance | Brief description of where they are now in target areas |
| Previous goals | Copy from IEP |
| Progress on previous goals | Met / emerging / not met + brief data |
| Teacher/parent concerns | Anything mentioned in the review meeting |
| Your target areas for next year | What you recommend |
Having this for each student means you can process 5–6 students per hour in Claude.
In the same Claude conversation (context already set), paste:
Student information for annual review:
- Grade: [grade]
- Disability: [disability category]
- Placement: [general ed / resource / self-contained]
- OT services: [30 min direct weekly / 30 min consult monthly / etc.]
Current performance:
[Describe what the student currently does in fine motor, self-care, handwriting, sensory regulation, or other OT areas you serve. Use your observation data and any objective measures.]
Previous IEP goals:
[Paste or summarize previous goals]
Progress on previous goals:
[Describe progress — met, emerging, not met, with brief data]
Target areas for next year:
[What OT areas need goals for next year?]
Teacher/parent priorities:
[Any specific concerns raised?]
Please write: PLOP statement, 2-4 new annual goals, and a brief progress summary toward previous goals.
Read the PLOP and goals for each student before entering into your IEP software. Check:
This review takes 2–3 minutes per student — much less than writing from scratch.
Copy the approved goals into Frontline, SpedTrack, or your district's IEP platform. Most platforms have text fields where you paste the goal language directly.
Quick goal only (you already have the PLOP):
Write 2 IEP goals for school OT. Student: [grade, disability]. Target: [area]. Current level: []. Measurement: [observation / work samples / standardized tool]. Setting: general education classroom.
Eligibility determination statement:
Write an OT eligibility statement for a student with [disability] whose [describe functional performance]. Explain the educational impact and why OT services are needed to support access to the curriculum.
Parent-friendly progress report:
Write a parent-friendly progress report on OT goals. Parent reading level: general public. Current status: [data]. Language: warm, specific, avoid jargon. Goals: [list].