Advancing Data-Driven Decisions for Students With Disabilities

In today’s schools, ensuring that students with disabilities receive a high-quality education is not just a legal obligation—it’s a moral imperative.

A new Lead IDEA Center resource, “Principal Navigator: Strengthening Services for Students With Disabilities,” offers strategies for tackling common challenges and emphasizes the principal’s role in setting up a schoolwide system for tracking progress, identifying students who are not meeting Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals, and guiding data-driven interventions. The navigator features two main issues schools face in meeting these challenges:

1. Missing the Mark: Decisions Without Data; and
2. High-Intensity Needs.

If you find yourself looking for ways to ensure students with disabilities benefit from meaningful education experiences and consistently make progress toward their IEPs, you’re not alone. Many school leaders find themselves asking: How can we ensure that students with disabilities are truly learning and thriving in our classrooms? 

The answer lies in building intentional, data-driven systems that support every learner. The navigator provides actionable strategies to improve teaching practices and enhance service delivery, with a strong emphasis on the principal’s role in creating systems that work.

Building a Schoolwide System for Success

One of the most critical responsibilities of school leaders is to establish a schoolwide system that ensures students with disabilities are making consistent progress toward their IEP goals. This system should include:

• Clear expectations for inclusive instruction and collaboration between general and special education staff.
• Ongoing professional development focused on evidence-based practices and differentiated instruction.
• Regular data collection and analysis to monitor student progress and adjust instruction accordingly.
• Collaborative problem-solving teams that use data to identify students who are not meeting goals and develop targeted interventions.

When these elements are in place, schools can move from reactive to proactive in supporting students with disabilities.

The Effects of Decisions Without Insight

Despite best intentions, many schools struggle with using data effectively. Educators often have access to a wealth of information—assessment scores, progress monitoring data, behavioral observations—but lack the systems or training to use it meaningfully.

This can lead to decisions that are not grounded in evidence, resulting in missed opportunities to support students. For example, a student might continue to receive the same intervention for months without progress, simply because no one is tracking the data closely enough to notice.

To address this, school leaders must ensure that data is:

• Accessible: Teachers and support staff should have easy access to relevant data.
• Actionable: Data should be used to inform instruction, not just compliance.
• Shared: Collaborative data discussions should be a regular part of team meetings.
• Timely: Data should be reviewed frequently enough to allow for mid-course corrections.

Advancing Data-Driven Decisions

The navigator emphasizes the importance of data-driven decision-making as a cornerstone of effective special education services. This means using data not only to track progress but also to guide instructional decisions, allocate resources, and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions.

Principals play a key role in this process. They must:

• Set the expectation that every student’s progress matters.
• Provide time and structures for teams to analyze data collaboratively.
• Ensure that data is used to identify gaps, not just celebrate successes.
• Support staff in using data to differentiate instruction and adjust supports.

By embedding data use into the fabric of school culture, leaders can ensure that students with disabilities are not just included but also are learning and thriving.

Leading With High Expectations

Perhaps the most powerful lever school leaders have is the ability to shape beliefs. When principals lead with high expectations for students with disabilities, it sends a clear message: These students can achieve at high levels, and it is our responsibility to help them get there.

This mindset must be reflected in:

• Instructional practices that challenge and engage all learners.
• IEP goals that are ambitious and aligned with grade-level standards.
• Classroom environments that are inclusive and supportive.
• Conversations that focus on strengths, not just deficits.

When school leaders model this belief system, it influences the entire school community—and transforms outcomes for students.

Advancing Data-Driven Decisions

To ensure students with disabilities are making meaningful progress, schools must use data not only to guide instruction and services but also to monitor access to the general curriculum and progress toward IEP goals. This involves evaluating current data practices and making strategic improvements.

1. Document Data Practices: Identify what data is collected, how and when it’s gathered, who collects it, and how it’s used to support students with disabilities.
2. Gather Stakeholder Feedback: Engage general and special educators, families, and students to understand the effectiveness and usability of current data systems.
3. Assess Data Quality: Review the accuracy, completeness, and relevance of the data being collected to ensure it reflects students’ needs and progress.
4. Analyze Data Use: Examine how data informs IEP development, instructional decisions, and resource allocation.
5. Identify Gaps and Improve: Look for areas where data collection and analysis can be strengthened to better support decision-making and student outcomes.

Moving Forward

As a school leader, you have the power to create a culture where every student is seen, supported, and successful. Start by asking: What systems do we have in place to ensure students with disabilities are making progress? And more importantly: What can we do better?

Looking for more strategies to strengthen services for students with disabilities? Check out the navigator, which features short-term, mid-term, and long-term solutions to tackling this issue.

Krysia Gabenski is editorial director at NAESP.