After an evaluation is completed and the school says your child is eligible for special education services, the school district will schedule a meeting. Often the school district will schedule one meeting to do both: explain the evaluation results and immediately discuss the IEP. While this approach is fine, you may request two separate meetings so you can review and consider the evaluation results on your own before making decisions about the IEP.
Evaluation results include a lot of numbers and information. Taking time to just review the report again at home will probably help you ask important questions about how to educate your child. Or you might want to look up some of the terms in the report on the Web so you have more information about your child’s disability before going to the IEP meeting and writing the education plan.
How To Prepare For An IEP Meeting
Make your own list, but here are some questions to consider:
- What do you want for your child?
- What are your child's strengths, needs, and interests?
- What are your major concerns about his or her education?
- What has and has not worked so far?
You, the parent, are a member of the Team. What you say counts! Do not be afraid to ask for what you need. Ask questions. Bring a friend to take notes. At the IEP meeting, the Team — that includes you (the parent), your child’s teacher, a special education teacher, the principal or special education administrator, and anyone you invite — will discuss:
Procedural Safeguards
A school district representative at the IEP meeting will give you a multi-page document called “Procedural Safeguards.” Based on my experience, he or she will pass it across the table to you as if it has poison on it and say, “These are your Procedural Safeguards.” But no one will explain what that means. Ask them! Then read the document when you get home and keep a copy. (See below: “What If You and the School Don’t Agree?”)
A statement of the child’s present level of educational achievement will be discussed and recorded in writing. The Present Level statement should include both academic and non-academic aspects of your child’s performance. It will make observations such as: “Scott is reading at the first-grade level — two grades below where we would expect him to be,” or “Susan has trouble remembering verbal instructions and does best when provided with short, written instructions for each task.”
Goals and Objectives
This discussion identifies at least one (and usually several) annual goal(s) that your child can reasonably complete in the next twelve months. The Goals statement must include a description of how and when to measure your child’s progress. (See below: “Measuring Progress.”) Examples of goals are:
- “By the end of the first grading quarter, Margaret will categorize objects according to one attribute (such as color, size or purpose) in two out of five questions, on two out of five days as observed and recorded by staff.”
- “By the end of the first semester, Malcolm will read words from the first-grade word list at sixty percent accuracy for five days as observed and recorded by staff.”
- “By January, Eric will on seven out of ten opportunities draw a picture to correctly identify common themes from two stories as observed and recorded by staff.”
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Measurement of Progress
How each goal is measured is extremely important. Grades do not measure the progress on a goal. The child’s achievement should be measured by objective tests, preferably administered by someone other than the teacher. For example, if your child received the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT) when she was evaluated and it showed she was reading at the third-grade level when you would normally expect her to be reading at the fourth-grade level, then giving the child a repeat of the Wechsler at the end of the school year would be an objective way to measure her progress."
Minutes of Service
The IEP must state the amount of time (usually in number of minutes per week or number of school periods per week) during which your child will receive all specific special education instruction and any related services, including occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, transportation, and recreation. The number of minutes should specify how much time your child will participate in each: regular education classrooms and special education classrooms.
Related Services
If your child needs related services (see glossary) to benefit from his or her education, these must be written into the IEP. The statement should also specify frequency (the number of minutes per week when such services will be provided) and key objectives.
Date of Service
The IEP must state the beginning and ending date of each service.
Transition Services
If your child is 16 years old or older, the IEP must include a description of transition services, a coordinated set of steps designed to assist the student in moving from school activities to post-school activities.
Progress Reports
The IEP must describe how the school will report to you your child’s progress throughout the year. You must receive what I call an “IEP Report Card” at least as often as regular report cards (usually quarterly). An IEP Report Card should tell you what specific progress your child is making on each IEP goal.
Typically, the school will send home a copy of the IEP goals and mark them “achieved,” “progressing,” or “not yet started.” If you wish to receive the report on your child’s progress in a different format or want it to include more specific information, ask for it. You can also get progress reports more often than quarterly. Ask for what you need, be it weekly, biweekly, or monthly.
Placement
The IEP must identify where your child will receive services (in the regular classroom or somewhere else). The law says the child must be educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE) (see glossary), which typically is the regular education classroom.
Re-Evaluation
A comprehensive re-evaluation must take place at least every three years. It may, however, be conducted more often if the parent or teacher so requests. A parent should always make this request in writing. If you, the parent, feel your child is not achieving the short-term objectives of the current IEP, you may request a comprehensive re-evaluation, one focusing on a particular need, or both, on a more frequent basis.
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What If You and the School Don’t Agree?
IDEA provides specific procedural safeguards to protect your child’s rights. If you and the school disagree on the educational plan, placement, or any other issues affecting your child’s education, your ultimate remedy if to file for a Due Process Hearing.
A Due Process Hearing is a legal proceeding similar to a trial. You are not required to have a lawyer in order to have a hearing, but the school district will have a lawyer and I recommend that you do not participate in a hearing without your own lawyer present.
Other IEP Meeting Details
Your Signature
At the IEP meeting the school staff will often pass around a sheet for everyone in the room to sign their names. Your signature does not mean you are agreeing with the IEP. It only attests to your attendance at the meeting.
Written Notice of Action Refused
If at any time during the IEP meeting you, the parent, ask for a goal or service for your child and the school staff say they will not provide the service, then ask for a written notice of action refused. At the end of the IEP meeting, or within ten days following the IEP meeting, you should receive the written notice and it should state what you requested (for example, “60 minutes per week of physical therapy”), all the reasons the school refused to comply with the request, and what, if any, services it is providing instead.
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