The most important part of the IEP is often the one we rush through: the section on student strengths, preferences, and interests. That “little box” should be the engine that drives every goal, accommodation, and intervention-not a paragraph we fill in once a year and never look at again.
The Box We Fill In and Forget 
If you’ve sat in enough IEP meetings, you’ve seen this play out. Someone asks, “What are their strengths and interests?” A parent or teacher offers a few ideas, we type a short paragraph, everyone nods-and then the team moves straight into deficits, data, and services. The rest of the IEP is written as if that strengths section never existed. We don’t revisit it when we draft goals, choose interventions, plan reinforcement, or talk about behavior. Then, a year later, we ask the same questions, fill in the same box, and repeat the cycle.
When we treat strengths, preferences, and interests as a formality instead of a foundation, we miss the very information that could make the IEP more engaging, effective, and meaningful for the student.
What That Section Is Actually For
The strengths and interests section is not there to make everyone feel good before we “get real” about needs. It is there to answer three critical questions:
Who is this student at their best?
How do they learn, communicate, and connect most effectively?
What truly matters to them right now and in the future?
Those answers should shape how we address every identified need. Strengths are not the opposite of needs; they are the tools we use to tackle those needs in a way that preserves dignity, builds confidence, and increases buy-in. Preferences and interests tell us where motivation and natural reinforcement already live. Ignoring that information makes our job harder and the student’s experience less meaningful.
What This Section Is Not
It’s equally important to say what this section is not about. Centering student strengths, preferences, and interests does not mean lowering expectations, making everything easy, or turning school into nonstop entertainment. It does not mean eliminating demands, replacing robust instruction with “fun” activities, or filling every gap with prizes and things just to keep students quiet. When we do that, we may keep the peace for a moment, but we rob students of the chance to learn skills that truly matter.
Instead, using this section well means designing authentic and meaningful opportunities to learn socially significant skills- learning how to learn skills, behavioral skills, reading, written expression, communication, problem-solving, self-advocacy, regulation, and real-world independence. High expectations and rigorous learning can absolutely coexist with honoring who a student is; in fact, we are most likely to reach those high expectations when we teach in ways that connect to their real interests and ways of learning. We still teach hard, important skills-we simply do it in ways that respect the learner instead of working against them.
How Strengths, Preferences, and Interests Should Drive the IEP
Imagine writing an IEP in this order: you start with strengths, preferences, and interests-and you never stop referring back to them.
Present levels
Present levels describe what the student can do and how they do it before they describe what is hard. We connect each area of need to at least one existing strength or interest. For example, Jordan’s strong visual memory and love of drawing will be used to support reading comprehension and written expression.Goals
Instead of asking, “What skills are missing?” we ask, “Given who this student is, how can we help them grow next?” Goals can:Leverage strengths (e.g., using a student’s love of building to work on following multi-step directions).
Build on genuine interests (e.g., reading goals centered around topics the student chooses).
Explicitly support self-advocacy and decision-making
Using strengths and interests is not about making work easier; it’s about making important learning more accessible, sustainable, and meaningful.
Instruction and intervention
Instructional strategies should reflect the learning profile we already described. If a student learns best with visuals and movement, those aren’t add-ons-they’re the default. If a student prefers familiar adults or small groups, we build that into how new skills are taught before we expect success in large, noisy settings. We still expect students to meet goals; we’re simply choosing pathways that make success more likely.Reinforcement
Reinforcement systems should be grounded in real interests and autonomy, sometimes coupled with clip charts or token boards vs generic systems that have nothing to do with what motivates the student. When we know what a student actually cares about-topics, activities, social connections-we can design reinforcement that feels respectful and relevant, not controlling. The goal is not to “buy” compliance, but to support engagement in learning that matters.Behavior support and regulation
When a student’s strengths and preferences are honored, behavior can be addressed systematically and with relevance because the environment finally fits the learner. We can use their strengths (e.g., problem-solving, humor, creativity, movement) as part of regulation and coping plans instead of relying solely on external rewards or consequences. We are still teaching boundaries, replacement behaviors, and safety-just in ways that align with how the student experiences the world.Transition and long-term planning
For older students, strengths, preferences, and interests are the backbone of transition planning. College, work, and community goals should reflect who the student is-not just what services exist. That section gives us the raw material for real conversations about “What do you want your life to look like?” and “What are we building toward together?”
Bringing the Section to Life All Year Long
If we want this part of the IEP to matter, we have to treat it as a living document, not a yearly snapshot.
Teams can:
Check in regularly with students and families about what’s working, what’s changed, and what they’re currently interested in.
Keep a simple “strengths and interests log” that teachers and related service providers can update across the year.
Use student voice tools (including visuals, sentence starters, AAC, or simple surveys) so even students with complex communication needs can share what they like, dislike, and want more of.
Start every IEP review or progress meeting with, “Where have we seen this student shine lately?” and, “How can we use that more?”
This doesn’t require more paperwork-it requires a shift in mindset. Instead of seeing the strengths section as a box to complete, we see it as the lens through which we read-and revise-every other part of the plan. Then the IEP should and can be implemented to truly support the students in front of us.
A Call to Recenter the IEP on the Student
When we rush through strengths, preferences, and interests, we end up with IEPs that are technically compliant but emotionally empty. They describe a list of problems to fix, rather than a person we’re committed to knowing and supporting.
When we slow down and let the Student's Strengths, Preferences, and Interests section truly lead, the IEP starts to sound-and feel-different. Goals become more relevant. Instruction becomes more engaging. Behavior support becomes more humane. Most importantly, the student is no longer a passive subject of a document; they are the author of their own story, with a team around them that is actually listening.
If your school or district is ready to move beyond “filling in the box” and toward IEPs that genuinely honor who students are while still teaching rigorous, socially significant skills, Practical Solutions for Behavior and Instruction LLC can partner with you. Through training, coaching, and collaborative problem-solving, we help teams design strengths-based, student-centered IEPs that drive meaningful change in classrooms-not just on paper.
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