Every grading period, school SLPs write a progress report for each IEP goal on their caseload. For a caseload of 50 students with two or three goals each, that is well over a hundred short paragraphs, usually written in the same week as report cards. This guide covers what an IEP progress report has to contain, a formula that keeps each comment short and defensible, and progress report examples for speech therapy across articulation, language, fluency, pragmatics, AAC and phonological awareness, including what to write when progress is not enough.
What IDEA Requires
IDEA requires each IEP to describe how progress toward the annual goals will be measured and when periodic reports on that progress will be provided to parents, for example quarterly reports issued with report cards (34 CFR 300.320(a)(3)). Your district sets the schedule and usually the form. What the law does not do is tell you what a good comment looks like, which is why the same goal can produce "making progress" from one clinician and a data-backed paragraph from another.
IDEA also requires the IEP team to review the IEP and revise it as appropriate to address any lack of expected progress toward the annual goals (34 CFR 300.324(b)). A progress report is often the first place that lack of progress is written down, so write it in a way that would support that conversation.
The Four-Part Progress Comment
Most strong progress comments fit in three to five sentences and answer four questions in order:
- Where did the student start? The baseline from the IEP or the last report.
- Where are they now? Current data, at the level and with the support named in the goal.
- Under what conditions? Cue level, setting, task, and whether the data is independent.
- What happens next? The next step in therapy, and anything the team or family can do.
Then select the progress code your district uses. Common sets look like: goal met, sufficient progress to meet the goal by the end of the IEP, insufficient progress, and not yet introduced. Make sure the code and the sentences agree. A comment describing a flat line of data next to a "sufficient progress" code is the inconsistency a parent will notice first.
Progress Report Examples by Goal Area
Articulation
Goal: produce /r/ in all word positions in structured sentences with 80% accuracy.
Comment: At the start of the IEP, Student produced /r/ correctly in 3 of 20 sentence-level attempts. This quarter he produces /r/ in the initial position of words in sentences in 15 of 20 attempts without cues, and in medial and final positions in 9 of 20. Vocalic /r/ ("er," "ar") is the main remaining target. Next quarter we will practise vocalic /r/ at the word level and begin short reading passages. Code: sufficient progress.
Expressive Language
Goal: use complete sentences with a subject and verb when describing a picture in 8 of 10 opportunities.
Comment: In September, Student used a complete sentence in 3 of 10 picture descriptions, most often naming objects ("dog, ball"). She now uses complete sentences in 7 of 10 descriptions with a sentence-starter card, and 5 of 10 without it. Next quarter we will fade the card and add "and" to join two ideas. At home, asking "What is the dog doing?" rather than "What is that?" gives her the same practice. Code: sufficient progress.
Receptive Language
Goal: follow 2-step classroom directions without visual support in 8 of 10 opportunities.
Comment: Student follows 2-step directions with a picture schedule in 9 of 10 opportunities, and without pictures in 6 of 10, up from 3 of 10 at baseline. Errors are mostly on directions with time words ("before," "after"). Next quarter we will target before/after directions and share a short list of these phrases with the classroom teacher. Code: sufficient progress.
Fluency
Goal: use an easy onset or light contact during moments of stuttering in 4 of 5 structured speaking tasks.
Comment: Student now uses easy onset in 4 of 5 structured tasks in the therapy room, meeting the criterion there. In classroom observations he used a strategy in 1 of 4 opportunities to speak. He has chosen answering questions in science as his first classroom goal. Next quarter we will practise that situation and check in with his science teacher monthly. Code: sufficient progress (generalization ongoing).
Pragmatics / Social Communication
Goal: maintain a conversation topic for at least 3 turns with a peer in 4 of 5 conversations.
Comment: Student maintained a topic for 3 or more turns in 2 of 5 small-group conversations this quarter, the same as last quarter. He maintains topics he chose for longer than topics a peer chose. We will add a visual "topic card" and practise asking one question about a peer's topic. Because progress has been flat for two reporting periods, I would like to review this goal with the team. Code: insufficient progress.
AAC
Goal: combine two symbols on a speech-generating device to request or comment in 8 of 10 opportunities.
Comment: Student combines two symbols in 5 of 10 opportunities during snack and play routines, up from 1 of 10, almost always to request ("more bubbles"). She uses single symbols to comment. Next quarter staff will model comments ("look," "funny") on her device during the same routines. Using the device at home during meals would help her see it as her voice everywhere. Code: sufficient progress.
Phonological Awareness
Goal: blend 3 spoken phonemes into a CVC word in 8 of 10 trials.
Comment: Student blends 3 spoken sounds into a word in 8 of 10 untaught probe words for three sessions in a row and has met this goal. She is now working on segmenting the same kind of words into sounds, which matches what her reading group is practising. Code: goal met.
When Progress Is Not Enough
The hardest comments to write are the ones that report little or no change. Resist softening them into "is working hard." A clear comment protects the student, because it gives the team a reason to act, and protects you, because it shows you noticed. Include:
- The data, plainly: the same or lower than the last report.
- What you have already changed (cues, materials, frequency, setting).
- Possible contributing factors you can document, such as attendance or missed sessions, without speculating.
- What you propose: a revised approach, a team meeting, or a review of the goal.
If missed sessions are part of the story, have the numbers ready. See missed speech therapy sessions: make-up rules and records.
Words to Avoid in Progress Reports
- "Doing great" or "doing well" without a number behind it.
- Unexplained jargon such as "vocalic /r/," "CVC" or "SGD" in a report for families. Add a two-word explanation the first time.
- Percentages without the count when the number of trials is small. "2 of 3" is clearer than "67%."
- Predictions about when a student will be discharged or "caught up."
- Comments that do not match the goal. If the goal says "in conversation," word-level data does not show progress toward it.
Writing a Hundred of These Without Losing a Weekend
- Keep data where the report is written. If session data is on paper in one binder and the report is typed in another system, most of the time goes to looking things up.
- Write from your session notes. A note that already records independent and cued trials per goal is most of a progress comment. The free SOAP note generator shows that structure, and the SOAP note examples by goal area pair with the comments above.
- Batch by goal type, not by student. Writing every /r/ comment together keeps your wording consistent.
- Draft early. Pull data two weeks before the deadline, so a missing probe can still be collected.
For how to collect the data in the first place, see IEP progress monitoring for SLPs. When the report shows a goal is met, the next one often comes from the free SLP goal bank, and the annual review prep guide covers the end-of-year version of this work. In SLPDesk, progress reports are drafted from the session data already recorded against each goal, so the numbers in your comments come from the same place as the data.