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5 Tips for a Productive IEP Meeting

We had our IEP (Individualized Education Program) meeting last week, and it went amazingly well! For those of you who haven’t been through one of these meetings yet, it’s basically a regular meeting where you and your child’s teachers and therapists meet to discuss the progress that your child has made. After discussing how your child is doing now, the real purpose of the meeting is to come up with some goals for the future, and to then get them into his IEP.

I’m feeling long-winded today, so I’d like to give you some tips for preparing for IEP meetings, and then I will give you our personal experience below.

5 Tips for a Productive IEP Meeting:

1. Know when your child’s IEP is due! Do not depend on teachers to schedule these, otherwise it will always be a rush job. Put it on your calendar, and start making calls to teachers 30-40 days in advance.
2. Prepare Personal Notes. Write down your observations of progress made at home, current problem areas, and any questions that you might have. Chances are that you will forget the important questions when you’re at the meeting, so go prepared.
3. Invite Everyone! If your child attends any additional therapy, school, daycare, or even just has a babysitter, invite them all to the meeting. You want everyone to be on the same page in regards to your child’s development, and each person can provide a different insight to the progress your child has made.
4. Fight Fight Fight! You are your child’s best advocate. If the plans that are being presented to you don’t make sense, or if you want more of something for your child, don’t give up. There is a possibility that you’ll need to fight your way to the top of the School District to get what you want, but you do what it takes. If you are still not getting what you want, it’s time to find an advocate.
5. Follow Up. After the IEP meeting has finished, make sure that you follow up with everyone who was involved. Your goal is to ensure they all follow through with their stated goals, and sometimes they need a little extra push. Establish regular correspondence through email, notes, phone or even in person.

Here are a few other great resources:

• Tips for a Successful IEP Meeting
• Quick Tips For A Productive IEP Meeting
• Advocacy Tips and Techniques: Ideas by and from Parents and Those Supporting Parents and Children
• Redhead Momma – IEP Day
  

These meetings are not to be taken lightly, and can sometimes be extremely frustrating. Two weeks ago my wife called Colton’s preschool teacher to ask about his progress, and she said, “oh great! You’re on my call list.. we need to schedule an IEP meeting. I just realized his IEP is due in two weeks.” I was immediately upset, as these are legal documents that require input from a lot of different people. We should have been called a month beforehand!! Amazingly though, we got a meeting scheduled within a few days.

Things that went wrong:

1. Meeting was scheduled at the last minute
2. Preschool teacher just noticed a huge leap in social skills the same day as the meeting (coincidence? Doubtful. This was a big red flag for me.)
3. We were informed that because Colton is 5, the school district is pushing him into kindergarten. If we refuse, and put him into preschool for another year, they will not pay for a para or transportation. This is a big issue, big enough for another blog post :)
4. Preschool teacher did not have notes and plan ready for the meeting.

Things things went well:

1. Everyone was able to attend, to include his therapists from Kid Talk.
2. Goals were re-evaluated thanks to great input from everyone, and new goals were established.
3. Very thorough evaluations from each of his teachers and therapists were given.
4. Everyone shared contact information, and made a plan for regular communication.

At the end of the meeting, we all walked away confident in our future goals and extremely happy with the progress that my son has made in the past six months. I feel better about this IEP meeting than I ever have, and it’s because I was able to get all of Colton’s therapists to attend the meeting. They are now communicating daily via email, and it’s been amazing.I’d love to hear any stories that you may have about your experiences with IEP meetings!

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