How Do You Know if Your Child’s School Adjustments Are Actually Working?

A good adjustment isn't one that sounds good on paper. It's one that is effective for your child.

One thing I hear a LOT from parents is that the school has told them they’re already making adjustments. And they probably are. But that’s not really the question I want answered. I want to know: are they actually helping? Having reasonable adjustments written into an IEP or learning support plan is one thing. Having those adjustments consistently implemented, monitored and reviewed (and actually making a difference for your child) is another.

So if your child’s school says adjustments are already in place but your child is still struggling, it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to ask for more. First, I’d take a closer look at what’s already happening.

Documented, implemented and effective are three different things

When we're talking about school adjustments, I think it helps to separate three things.

Is the adjustment documented? Is it actually written into your child’s IEP, learning support plan or other school documentation?

Is the adjustment being implemented? Is it actually happening in the classroom, playground or other relevant setting? Is it happening consistently? Are the relevant teachers and support staff aware of it?

Is the adjustment effective? Is it actually making a meaningful difference for your child?

These questions are related, but they're not the same.

Sometimes we see an adjustment written in a plan and assume that means it's happening consistently across different classrooms, teachers and settings. And sometimes an adjustment is happening, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's working.

That's why I don't think the conversation can stop at, “Yes, we're already doing that.”

My next question is: “Great. How do we know it's helping?”

What would it actually look like if the adjustment was working?

Whether an adjustment is working really depends on the individual child and the barrier we're trying to address. We need some idea of the starting point and what we're hoping will change.

For example, imagine a child is only managing to write two sentences during a writing lesson. The school introduces sentence starters, scaffolds or assistive technology. If the purpose is to help the child produce written work, we might look at whether they're now writing more, completing more of the task or better able to demonstrate what they know.

Or perhaps a child is becoming dysregulated because they're overwhelmed by the noise in the classroom. Their adjustments might include ear defenders or access to a quieter space. In that case, we might be looking at signs of dysregulation during the school day, whether they're recovering more easily and what the family is seeing before and after school.

Monitoring doesn't have to mean collecting mountains of data or asking teachers to document every single time an adjustment is used. It might be teacher observations, work samples, participation, frequency of incidents, attendance, parent observations or what the child tells us.

The important thing is having some way of comparing where the child is now with where they were when the adjustment was introduced. Otherwise, how do we know whether it's helping?

The adjustment might be right but still not be implemented effectively

There's a term used in education called fidelity of implementation. It sounds much more complicated than it needs to be. Essentially, we're asking how well the adjustment is actually being implemented.

Take movement breaks as an example. Your child's plan might say they have access to movement breaks, but I'd want to know more than that.

How often are they happening? Who is prompting them? Does the child have to recognise for themselves that they need one? Are they being offered proactively, before the child becomes dysregulated, or are they only being suggested once they're already overwhelmed?

It's the when, the why and the who.

If movement breaks are only happening occasionally, or once the child is already highly dysregulated, we can't necessarily conclude that movement breaks don't work. We first need to know whether the adjustment is being implemented in the way it was intended.

If you want more help understanding what reasonable adjustments can look like in practice, I go into this in much more detail in my EmpowerEd Parent Guide to School Adjustments.

What happens at home matters too

I have seen this time and time again. A classroom teacher says that a child is fine at school, but the family is seeing a child who comes home completely dysregulated. They might be melting down every afternoon, utterly exhausted or becoming increasingly distressed before school in the morning.

Sometimes the conclusion becomes that it isn't a school issue because those behaviours aren't being seen at school. I really want to challenge that.

Just because you can't see the dysregulation doesn't mean it isn't happening.

We know much more now about children masking at school, particularly girls. A child appearing to cope throughout the school day doesn't automatically tell us what that school day is costing them.

So if a parent is saying, “My child is falling apart when they get home,” I think that information carries weight. Rather than debating whether the problem belongs to home or school, I'd much rather ask what could be changed during the school day to lessen the load for that child.

And the child's voice matters too. Depending on their age and communication, we can ask simple questions: Does this help? Do you use it? What helps in the classroom? What makes things harder? Is there a reason you don't use this support?

Sometimes an adjustment looks perfectly reasonable to the adults around the table, but the child isn't using it. We need to understand why.

Adjustments need to be reviewed

How often an adjustment should be reviewed is very case dependent. For something new, somewhere around two to five weeks can give us an opportunity to trial it and then look at what we're noticing. For established ongoing support, a review might happen each term.

What I don't want to see is an adjustment simply sitting in a plan all year with everyone assuming it's still appropriate because nobody has raised it again.

And sometimes we shouldn't wait for the planned review. If your child's wellbeing or learning is deteriorating, incidents are increasing, attendance changes, your child tells you something isn't working or you receive significant new information such as a diagnosis or professional report, that's a reason to have the conversation sooner.

Four questions to take to your next school meeting

If you're going into a meeting and the school tells you they're already making adjustments, you don't necessarily need to arrive with another huge list of things you want added.

I'd start by asking:

1. What adjustments are currently being provided?

2. How do we know whether they're working?

3. Who is responsible for making sure they're happening and monitoring whether they're effective?

4. When will we review them again?

And if the school can't currently tell you how they know an adjustment is working, that doesn't have to become an adversarial conversation. It can simply become an opportunity to agree on what everyone could look at over the coming weeks and when you'll come back together to review it.

Teachers really are doing their best. They're also managing classrooms full of children with different learning, behavioural, social, emotional and wellbeing needs. Things get missed and things that were agreed in a meeting can get forgotten. That doesn't automatically mean the school doesn't care about your child, but it also doesn't mean you need to assume everything is happening exactly as planned.

It's okay to stay on top of it, check in and ask questions.

And if you're thinking, “I should have asked this months ago...”

Parents often tell me they feel guilty. Why didn't I realise? Why didn't I ask? Why wasn't I more on top of this?

I understand that feeling. I've felt that guilt countless times as a mum too. But something I'm working on myself is remembering that guilt is backwards-facing. Responsibility is forward-facing.

Now that I know what I know, what can I do differently?

You don't have to have known the right questions six months ago. You can ask them now.

And if there's one thing I'd like you to take away from this, it's this:

A good adjustment isn't one that sounds good on paper. It's one that is effective for your child.

So keep asking questions. Not because you're trying to catch anyone out, but because that's how we work out what your child actually needs next.

Not sure what to ask about your child’s support?

If you’re reading this thinking, “Okay, but I’m still not really sure what I should be looking for,” my free School Support Guide is a good place to start.

It will help you get clearer on the support your child is receiving, what might need another look and the questions you can take into your next conversation with the school.