If you are new to the IEP (Individualized Education Program) process or you are starting a brand new school year, the IEP can feel like a daunting document that can confuse and overwhelm many parents of kids with learning differences. Each student’s IEP is created by an IEP Team. An IEP Team will include:
Interventionist – for example reading specialist, speech language pathologists, therapists, social workers, or school psychologists
General Education Teacher – most often your child’s class room teacher or teachers if your child rotates classes for various core academic subjects
District Representative – for example principal, or assistant principal or deans or special education coordinators or advisors for the District
Parent – parent(s), guardian(s), caregivers, or advocate
Special Education Resource Teacher – designated special education teacher(s)
An IEP Team meeting is held in which a concrete plan is developed for that centers the student highlighting their strengths and identifying areas where they require intervention or additional support or resources to make meaningful advancements toward achieving educational goals, life skills, or to successfully transition from high school to post secondary education or career paths. prepare for independent living, further education and future employment.
As the parent of a child with an IEP, you are a critical member of your child’s IEP Team. While a school representative makes the final decision school representative makes the final decisions on behalf of the district as to which services and accommodations are granted, but parents are guaranteed the right to “meaningfully participate.” Cultural silencing in the special education system has made it difficult for BIPOC parents to realize meaningful participation. We are often ignored, dismissed, and not seen as the subject matter expert on our own children. Here are 5 strategies to assert your voice and ensure that your child has the benefit of you as their most effective advocate during the IEP process:
Prepare
1. Prepare – Before your IEP meeting request all reports pertaining to your child’s progress, performance, and behavior. Each member of the IEP Team, including PARENTS, should receive reports with enough time to thoroughly read and understand the contents in advance of the meeting. The number of days in advance of a meeting that you are required to have reports varies from state to state but if you are presented with a report without the sufficient time you need to process it, request another meeting date, citing that you are unable to meaningfully participate without having read the information in advance.
2. Read Baby Read – Parents must thoroughly read through all reports and come to the meeting with written concerns or questions about anything you have read that you disagree with or do not understand. Often times reports are written with education and technical professionals in mind and not parents or caregivers. This means that the documents may be dense and have terms within that you have to look up. Reference our Special Education Vocabulary tool as a resource to help you. As you read your child’s reports, go over your child’s Management Needs section in the IEP. This is a list created by the IEP Team to tell teachers how to make accommodations so that your child can access the classroom lessons and make appropriate progress doing their classwork or homework. Management needs may include accommodations like:
- Providing seating near the teacher
- Providing more time to complete tests and assignments
- Getting your child Assistive Technology like audio books or laptops for note taking
If you are preparing for your child’s first IEP meeting and there are not existing Management Needs in place, draft a list of strategies that have been working at home or in other environments for your child and offer them as suggestions during your IEP meeting. If your child had an IEP the year prior, gather information before the IEP meeting by asking your child how they received accommodations and looking at work they brought home. You may find that items need to be added. Be careful about removing items from the list. Once services or accommodations are taken out of an IEP it can be difficult to get them added back at a later time.
3. More Information is Better – If you think it can help paint the most vivid and detailed picture of who your child is in every area of his/her life, bring it. Anyone who works with your child for example a therapist, a sports team coach, a doctor or private evaluator, even a babysitter or after school care provider can provide a letter that describes how your child performs, behaves, and interacts with peers while under their supervision. It can even be helpful to have your child write a letter sharing their valid lived experiences as a student and what they think would be helpful. The documentation that you bring should help identify patterns and progress.
- Are there patterns of underperformance or competence that suggests changes should be made to my child’s management needs and services?
- Does my child’s performance and work sample demonstrate that my child is making appropriate progress in meeting their goals?
- Are there environments where my child is more successful and if so what is the context and can that be translated to other spaces?
- What are some of the strategies that are working and not working for my child?
All of these documents, work samples and letters can be submitted to be discussed at the IEP meeting. If the other members of the team refuse to consider them, then they are hampering your right to meaningfully participate as a member of the IEP team. Don’t accept this. Remember you have a right to meaningful participation.
4. Come Prepared – In addition to reading all the reports thoroughly, you should write down your questions, concerns, and ideas ahead of time and bring those notes or lists with you. You should also organize all of your supporting letters and documentation as discussed in point three. In addition to all of this paperwork, it is okay to ask a trusted friend or advocate to attend with you. Of course, you can be logical and objective, but unlike everyone else at the table, the child in question is yours and talking about your child’s struggles is emotional and stressful. Bringing a friend or advocate can provide moral support. They can also help you review what happened at the meeting afterward. They can take notes for you and remind you about points you may have forgotten to mention. They can also speak up in the meeting if you are feeling overwhelmed or you think you are not clearly articulating your points.
5. Follow-up is Everything –
Immediately following meeting:
Type up any notes you or your friend/advocate took during the meeting and share the key decisions with the rest of the team via email or hard copy BEFORE the IEP is finalized. This way, the agreements made will be clear to all.
After you receive the finalized IEP:
Read the entire document, like every.single.word! If anything is wrong, you must move to correct it immediately. When it comes to IEPs, your silence is your agreement.
Throughout the school year:
Use the IEP as an instruction manual.
- Talk with your child’s teachers about how management needs will be provided.
- Ask for work samples and other documentation to see how your child is making progress on their goals.
- Hold regular non-IEP meetings with your school administration whenever you see that the IEP management needs and services are not being provided.
- Whenever your child shows signs of struggle, document that activity as well as strategies that worked to support your child.
To be sure, this work can be time consuming at first. However, if you make it part of a regular routine, advocating for your child can and will get easier. There is so much power in parent advocacy so don’t let cultural silencing deny your child the benefit of your voice.
t amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam sed libero et tellus bibendum tincidunt. Fusce id bibendum eros. Sed vel massa sit amet odio ullamcorper pellentesque. Nunc et luctus risus. Vivamus interdum, mi eget scelerisque commodo, sem eros scelerisque ex, in fringilla justo sapien id urna. Integer tincidunt, eros in fermentum malesuada, purus libero ultricies risus, a tincidunt metus odio sit amet erat. Sed a dignissim nunc. Vivamus eu massa eget dolor venenatis vehicula. Nullam consequat dolor nec justo gravida, quis rhoncus justo dictum. Nulla facilisi. Cras sodales consectetur ligula, id iaculis dolor vulputate nec. Nulla facilisi. Integer in facilisis era
