Readability of Individuals With Disabilities Education Act Part B Procedural Safeguards: An Update

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the readability of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B procedural safeguard documents, as distributed by each of the 50 U.S. states. Results were compared to the 5th- to 6th-grade readability guideline for documents recommended by experts in health literacy and health communication. Method: A commercially available readability software, Readability Studio (Oleander Software, 2009), was used to assess document readability. Text-based files of each IDEA Part B procedural safeguard document were analyzed using four readability formulas: Flesch-Kincaid (Flesch, 1965), Gunning fog index (Gunning, 1952), Flesch Reading Ease (Flesch, 1948), and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (McLaughlin, 1969). Results: No procedural safeguard document scored below an 11th-grade reading level. Seventy-four percent of these documents were found to be written at a graduate reading level-meaning these documents are written for a reader who is currently enrolled in a master's degree or higher education program. Conclusion: In an effort to decrease barriers to parent participation in the Individualized Education Planning process, those who administer IDEA Part B procedural safeguards should be sensitive to the potential mismatch between the literacy skills of the parent/guardian and the literacy skills needed to comprehend these documents. Developers of IDEA Part B procedural safeguards should account for estimated literacy skills of the general public as ongoing revisions to these safeguards are made.