Parent Tips for Successful IEP Meetings

Feeling overwhelmed with your child’s IEP meeting approaching? Wondering how you can help more during the IEP process? Wondering what an IEP is? What is the difference between an IEP and an IFSP or 504 plan? How about special education and RtI? We use a lot of acronyms and terminology in schools that are a little confusing for parents. Let’s start by breaking down these terms, then exploring the actual IEP meeting process in this parent’s guide to the IEP meeting.

Special Education Terminology

First, an IEP is an individualized education plan written for students who receive special education services. In other words, IEPs are written for children with disabilities. This is not the same as Response to Intervention (RtI), which is a general education initiative for any students who are struggling.

Individualized Education Plans (IEP) different from Individualize Family Service Plans (IFSP). An IFSP is the document for children from birth through age 3. Once a child turns 3, they move from an IFSP to an IEP with their local school district. IEPs are written for children age 3 – 17 who have a disability and require special education services.

Both an IEP and 504 plan are written for children with disabilities, however, each child will only qualify for one. A 504 plan has a broader definition of disability. Thus, your child may not qualify for an IEP, they may actually qualify for a 504 plan. A 504 plan does not have all the same pieces as the IEP. Instead, a 504 plan focuses on the accommodations needed for a child school success instead of writing specific goals and benchmarks.

The Role of Parents in an IEP Meeting

Second, know that parents are a part of the IEP team. You are not merely invited because the law requires it, but because you bring valuable information about your child. Third, you see the progress from year to year. Teachers are given the privilege to work with our child for a year or two, but parents are there from the start.

Going into the IEP meeting knowing that you are a valuable part of the team helps open those lines of communication so much. To prepare for the meeting, it’s best to have some insider knowledge on IEP meetings and the written IEP.

As a special educator and a parent of children with special needs, I will share my knowledge to hopefully help you feel more confident and comfortable joining your child’s IEP meeting. Remember, your primary goal is meeting your child’s needs.

Before the IEP Meeting

There are a few key things that parents can do before the IEP meeting to make this meeting run a little more smoothly. Taking the time to learn more about the IEP process and special education in general is a great start. This shows your dedication to your child and your desire to act as a true part of the IEP School Team. This little bit of IEP meeting prep for parents goes a long way.

Know The purpose of IEP meetings

The yearly IEP meeting is an opportunity for the IEP team to sit down together to review your child’s progress. You will review the old IEP and your child’s progress made last year. Then you will write the new IEP at which time you will discuss your child’s present levels of performance, new goals, accommodations and modifications, placement, and testing.

The purpose of the IEP meeting is to ensure that your child receives the right special education supports and services to support his/her learning. This is one opportunity for you to discuss your child’s disability, strengths and areas of need openly with school professionals to write a document that will guide your child’s special education supports, services, and goals for the next year with the hope of beginning to close the gap between your child and his/her same age peers.

Set Up the Date and Time of the Meeting

Once your child qualifies for special education and an IEP, they will have a yearly IEP annual review meeting. This meeting must occur within a year from the IEP meeting last school year. So if you know your child had an IEP meeting last May, expect one this May or maybe even April. This is especially important if your child has a meeting near the beginning of the school year or right after winter break. We often need to remind our district that our son’s IEP meeting is in the beginning of September.

The school will usually try to schedule the meeting as close to the same date as possible from year to year. It’s not always easy and sometimes the date does need to move up by a week or two. But just knowing the timeframe for scheduling the meeting can be very helpful with ensuring you can attend.

How to Schedule the IEP Meeting

A school district representative will reach out to you to schedule the meeting. Hopefully they will e-mail or call asking for your availability to attend a meeting or at least offer a few options to see if any work with your schedule. The school district needs to try to work with you to schedule a meeting that you can attend, even if it is a phone conference. They do not get to determine the date and time and dictate this to you. Trust me, I’ve had a district try this!

Usually you will receive this phone call or e-mail from your child’s special education teacher. On occasion, the school psychologist or one of your child’s related service providers will set up this meeting. This may include a speech and language pathologist, occupational therapist, behavior interventionist, or even the school nurse.

If your child’s IEP meeting is nearing and you haven’t heard from the school district, don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s case manager, special education teacher, or even classroom teacher. Depending on your child’s case manager, this person may oversee 60+ students with IEPs each year. And I hate to say this, but sometimes meeting dates creep up on teachers, so it never hurts to reach out.

How to Prepare for IEP Meetings?

As a parent, you will want to prepare for the IEP meeting so that you can support your child the most. To begin, pull out your child’s old IEP documents. Yes, we do keep all of them! Take a look at their old goals and decide if these are still areas of need or if your child has made growth.

Then think about where your child continues to struggle. Are these the same struggles from years past? Has your child shown new struggles that need addressing at the IEP meeting? Are there other areas which are concerning for your child? Has your child shown any new strengths or interests? Write down your thoughts to share at the IEP meeting or even with your child’s case manager prior to the meeting. Need help brainstorming specific strengths and areas for improvement? Try our post on writing a classroom request letter.

Ask to Provide Parent Input Before the Meeting

As you are working to set up a date and time, talk with your child’s case manager to share any concerns or improvements about your child’s progress you may have noticed. Letting your case manager know your concerns before the meetings help to make sure nothing is overlooked. The last thing you want is to bring up a concern at the meeting and an additional person needs to attend the meeting to discuss this concern.

The IEP document includes a specific section for parent concerns. This section should highlight any and all concerns that you have for your child. This can include both concerns related to the IEP and concerns that are related to school or life in general. We even included busing concerns on the IEP.

Send a Draft Ahead of Time

While the case manager cannot write a draft IEP, they can write draft goals and accommodations. Most case managers will write a draft of the goals for the IEP prior to the meeting. This is merely to save time at the meeting as it can take case managers some time to write a good goal or multiple goals for your child.

However, please do keep in mind that any goals written prior to the meeting are merely drafts. These are not the goals that the team needs to accept and you can always accept some and change others or even add more goals.

As parents, we find it incredibly helpful to ask for a draft of the goals prior to the meeting. You may also ask for a blank copy of the IEP paperwork so that you can familiarize yourself with the sections and language. We have almost always received these a few days before the meeting and have never had a case manager refuse to share them. Although, some case managers may not actually write draft goals and may instead wait until the IEP meeting to write any goals. In this case, they would not have draft goals to send home prior to the meeting.

If this is the case, it is okay to ask the case manager or special education teacher about possible goal areas. This will allow you to research and learn more to better prepare. At no time should an IEP meeting come as a surprise for a parent. You should know going in which areas your child struggles and where your child shines.

The IEP Meeting at School

Most IEP meetings will take place at school. However, not all of them do, so it is okay to ask your school districts policy. We will cover what happens at an IEP meeting in this section.

Once you arrive at school, you will most likely check in at the main office. The secretaries will have you sign in and take a seat in the office where they will let your child’s case manager or another member of the team know you have arrived. Usually a staff member will come to greet you in the office and bring you to the IEP meeting location, but on occasion, the secretaries will point you in the right direction.

Who goes to IEP meetings

The list of who can attend an IEP meeting is always changing and varies by child to child. Depending on your child’s needs, different professionals will attend the meeting.

Your child’s IEP team will include:

1) Parents or legal guardians of the child

2) A regular education teacher if your child participates in regular education. This is often your child’s current teacher, but any regular education teacher familiar with your child’s grade could fill in.

3) The special education or related service personnel who work with your child or are familiar with your child’s needs. They may include a special education teacher, speech and language pathologist, occupational therapist, social worker, behavior interventionist, reading or math interventionist. And so many other professionals depending on your child’s needs.

4) A local education agency (LEA) representative who is knowledgeable about the general education curriculum and the special education services available within the district. This sounds really fancy but is often the building principal, special education supervisor, or school psychologist. This person ensures that the school district can provide what the team writes on the IEP.

As a parent or legal guardian, you may also invite:

1) A parent advocate for IEP meetings to help you to better understand the language of the document. Additionally, they can assist you to speak up for what you child needs.

2) Outside related service providers who work with your child or conducted an evaluation of your child to share with the team. These may include non-school speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, social workers, physical therapists, pediatrician, nutritionist, counselor, etc. Basically, you can invite anyone that you feel has knowledge of your child that would help when writing your child’s IEP.

3) Any person that you feel has special expertise about your child that you wish to invite. These may include a family member, personal friend, child care provider, coach, etc.

As your child grows older, additional personnel may attend your child’s IEP meeting.

1) Your child may actually attend their own meeting and each state has an age when it becomes required for the child to attend if he/she is mentally and physically able.

2) Transition service personnel will begin to attend the IEP meetings around the same time as your child. These professionals help you to make plans for your child’s transition to after high school life which may include college, work place skills, or even independent living skills.

Start the Meeting with a Positive Message

All meetings will begin with introductions. We write down the names of the different people at the table so we know the people our son or daughter will interact with throughout the school year.

However, after introductions are completed, we like to start the meeting with a positive. The school team will do this by listing off your child’s strengths, which is a good start. This gets everyone focused on what your child does well. Yet we prefer to go another step further.

How Parents can Help?

We bring with use three very valuable items. First, bring a framed photo of your child to place in the center of the table. This keeps the focus on who matters most at these meetings and no what is easiest for the school district. Second, bring along a little treat to share. We tend to bring in Hershey kisses or other mixed package of individually wrapped packages. Third, bring your Parent IEP Binder with all your child’s documentations.

If you want to get a few kinds of chocolates but don’t want a whole bag of each, you can take a trip to the dollar store. Most dollar stores offer smaller bags of candy, so you can buy a few different kinds of $5. Bringing in a little treat goes a long way to raising spirits, especially if your child’s meeting is later in the day. After the meeting ends, we leave any candy behind for the school personnel.

Your Child’s Strengths

When your child’s case manager shares your child’s strengths, go one step further. While these strengths are written onto your child’s IEP and the team can add lots of strengths, once your case manager moves on to the next page, these tend to get forgotten.

Write these down where everyone can reference them throughout the meeting. We love to use a large easel to write our child’s strengths on one side. Then when we share our child’s needs or areas to grow, we can write these on the other side. This keeps the meeting focused on our child and his/her needs, not a form document.

If there isn’t any easel paper around, use a sheet from the notebook you brought along. Write down the strengths on one side of the page. As the meeting progresses, you can references the strengths to keep the meeting focused on your child.

The IEP Meeting Agenda for Parents

Most IEP meetings will cover the same basic structure. Each piece helps to build and write the next pieces of the IEP>

Introductions

This is exactly what it sounds like. Each member of your child’s IEP team will introduce themselves, state who they are, and their role in the meeting. This includes parents and any support that the family brings with them to the IEP meeting.

During this time, the LEA, who often oversees the paperwork of the meeting, or your child’s case manager will pass around a sign in sheet. Your signature does not mean you agree with the plan that will be written. Instead, it merely shows who attended the meeting.

Excuse an IEP Team Member

If a team member who was listed on the official IEP invitation is not in attendance for today’s IEP meeting, each district has their own process to excuse the team member. Sometimes the district will wish to excuse the team member and continue with the meeting, others will ask a new person in a similar role to attend the meeting, and still others will wish to reschedule the meeting.

Know that if the team is asking to excuse a specific team member so that the IEP meeting may continue, you as a parent can request to reschedule the IEP meeting if the person’s specialization is discussed at the meeting. You have the right to confer with any person listed on the invitation prior to the development of the IEP document.

On the other hand, do know that most districts will do their best to include all necessary school personnel at each IEP meeting. They do not want to do the extra paperwork necessary to excuse team members if there is not a true justification for the absence.

Child Strengths

Your child’s case manager will most likely come with a few ideas to add to the IEP document to highlight your child’s strengths. Usually they ask each of the professionals who work with your child and hopefully talked with you about this as well.

While the case manager shares, feel free to add additional strengths or even disagree with any that they highlight. This is a great time to focus on what your child does well and how these strengths can help your child to accomplish the IEP goals written later.

We suggest writing these strengths down so that you can reference them throughout the meeting. It is best if they are written so everyone can see them, but having your own notes is better than nothing.

Parent Concerns

Usually your child’s case manager will have discussed these with your prior to the IEP meeting. However, the LEA or case manager running the IEP meeting, will ask that you share your concerns while writing these down. They may add in any additional concerns you have shared as well. Parent input is important on every IEP as you are your child’s advocate and expert.

You can share concerns related to your child’s disability and areas of need. However, your concerns can also relate to your child’s life and school in general too. Share any concerns you have for your child even if they do not directly relate to your child’s IEP.

Health Information

For many students with an IEP, this section has information on passing their vision and hearing screening but an overall healthy child. This section will share if your child wears glasses, has allergies, or needs any medications.

However, if your child has any health issues, these will be explained in more detail here. Usually the nurse will do most of the sharing here by summarizing past IEP health sections. You are necessary to share any new developments in regards to your child’s health.

Present Level of Performance

Your child’s present level of performance state what you child is currently able to do. This section states how your child is currently doing in school. It will highlight your child’s test results, performance assessments, and possibly even their growth on the goals from their previous IEP.

These performance levels are then compared to their same grade level peers. This will clarify how the child’s disability impacts your child’s school day and involvement in the general education curriculum.

The present level of performance helps to drive the goals section of the IEP document. This is the perfect time to brainstorm with the team the areas where your child needs to improve or struggles in school and life in general. We like to write these areas on the same paper as our child’s strengths. Thus, as we move forward, we can write goals and accommodations to work on our child’s needs while using their strengths to help them.

Goals

Next, the team will write the IEP goals for your child. The number of goals that are written are different for each child and depends on the needs of your child. Some children may have as few as just 1 IEP goal. Other children may have upwards of 10 IEP goals. There is NO MAXIMUM number of IEP goals that the team can write. The needs of your child drive the goals written on the IEP.

However, it is important to note that these goals are meant to be accomplished in one year. So, the team will want to keep the goals manageable for the child. This may mean having 1 – 2 goals per area of need, however, this is not a maximum limit and if more goals are needed to help the child to close the gap, then write additional goals.

Look at your child’s area of need or struggles. Determine which of those areas need to have specific goals to help your child to succeed. Some of these areas of needs will group together with one overarching goal with the other areas becoming specific benchmarks. It’s also important to note that not every area of need will become a goal or benchmark, some of these work better as accommodations and modifications.

Goal Components

Each goal is broken down into key components. Each written goal will have a person or team who who monitor and work with the child on the goal. These may include the child’s regular education teacher, special education teacher, or any related service provider.

The goal will begin with their child’s present level of performance. What is your child currently able to do with regards to this area. Once the team knows what your child is able to do, the IEP team will determine what progress is reasonable for your child to make in one year, which may bring them to the expect level of their peers or may still leave the child with a smaller gap. This is the target for the goal. Every goal needs a target so that the team is able to tell if the child is making progress toward meeting the goal and if the goal is met.

Every goal is tied to a state standard that all same grade level peers are working on. This ties the goals to the district grade level curriculum.

Each goal is then broken into benchmarks. Some goals may have only 1 benchmark, others may have multiple benchmarks. The benchmarks are the smaller steps needed to make progress towards the overarching goal. Each benchmark will also have a target and a way to target or log progress on the benchmark and how often.

Benchmark Targets

There are multiple ways for special education educators and related service providers to write benchmark targets. Often time targets are written in percentages for accuracy. The percentage targets are higher than the baseline percentages of what the child is able to currently do.

The IEP team can also write targets in number of trials. So instead of using a straight percentage, the benchmark or goal is measured in a certain number of trials. Trials work well with goals that involve writing and behavior. They may involve days per week, classes per day, or number of times a specific skill is done.

Consideration of Special Factors

Many children with an IEP do not have any consideration of special factors. If all NO boxes are checked, this section is rather easy to complete.

For children who do have special factors, there are a number of different factors to consider. If your child is deaf or hard of hearing or blind, they will require additional supports such as sign language, braille instruction, or special itinerants or interpreters.

Another big area of special factors is assistive technology. Assistive technology is any technology that can help a person work around their challenges. These can include word prediction software, switches for communication, mobility aids, and other special utensils and tools for helping to complete a task.

A final area the team must consider is language and cultural needs. If the child’s native language is not English, including children who are deaf, there are other options that the team needs to consider for your child. These may include English language services, translators, or special training for the staff.

Accommodations and Modifications

This is a big topic for most students. The accommodations and modifications are the tools that your child needs to meet their goals, find success in the general education curriculum to the maximum extent possible, and participate in any extracurricular activities offered to all students in the school. While there is no extensive IEP accommodations list, do ask your child’s case manager to share the accommodations they believe will help your child.

This is when that list of strengths and area of need really comes to mind again. Begin with your child’s goals. What supports will your child need to meet their goals? Then look at any areas of need not previously addressed. Will any accommodation or modification help your child with those specific needs? How can their strengths support their learning?

The team will need to consider both accommodations and modifications to a variety of instances. First, the team will discuss those needed for the classroom setting. What does your child need for success in their classroom and to meet their goals?

Next, the team will consider accommodations and modifications for assessments. This includes classroom assessments given, district-wide assessments, and state mandated assessments. Children may participate in any of these assessments with no accommodations or modifications, with special accommodations, or participate in only part of these assessments or alternative assessments.

Finally, the team will need to consider if any members of the team will need special training to provide these accommodations or modifications for your child. Most of the time no extra training is required, however, sometimes school personnel may need special training or supports.

Accommodation vs Modification

This is a topic that is often confused by school personnel, so it is extra important for a parent to understand these terms.

An accommodation changes how a student learns materials, but does not change what the student learns. These are best suited for students who are learning the general education curriculum and are placed into a regular education classroom with related service supports. Accommodations may include changes to the learning environment, how children access the curriculum, how children show mastery of the curriculum, and the ways children practice the skills and ideas taught.

Modifications actually changes what the student is expected to learn. This means that you child may learn a different curriculum than their same age peers. These are best suited for children who are pulled out of their regular education classroom for academic classes where they are working on standards from previous grades to build master or skills. Modifications are where the child receives something different than the rest of the peers, lessens the number of standards or ideas that the child is responsible for learning, or changes the complexity of the concepts learned.

IEP Placement

Finally, the IEP team needs to consider the least restrictive placement for your child. The team will do this by looking at a variety of IEP placement options. IEP placements are on a continuum from no support in the regular education classroom to an alternative school. However, the IEP team always needs to consider the Least Restrictive Environment.

Least Restrictive Environment

The Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) means that each child is placed into the same learning environment as their same age peers to the maximum extent possible. For some children with an IEP this means only related service providers pulling the child out of the regular education setting. Other children may need an entire class outside of the regular education setting or a different class within the school. However, other children may need an alternative school in a different town or even to live at the alternative school. Thus, this will change for each child depending on their needs and level of support.

The IEP team will consider how much time your child spends in the regular education classroom as well as the amount of time spent receiving special education services outside of the classroom and inside the classroom. These numbers come from the amount of minutes the children receive both special education supports and related services and where those services occur.

Transportation and Extended School Year

Within placement, the team will also discuss transportation. Will your child use the same buses and transportation as all the general education students or does your child require any special transportation both to school and within the school setting? This can include specialized equipment for buses, training for bus drivers, or elevators, lifts or ramps to move within the school.

Finally, the IEP team will consider Extended School Year services. These are services that take place during breaks from school. For most schools, these are offered during the summer break for a set number of weeks. Every district offers a different length of program, but many programs are around 1 – 2 months (or 4 – 8 weeks) for summer services. Generally the supports offered during the summer are to maintain skills instead of improve skills, so the amount of services is less. For us, this has usually been half the amount of services received during the school year, but will vary for each child.

Concluding the IEP Meeting

Once the IEP is written, the LEA will provide you some documents. First, you will receive a copy of the procedural safeguards, or at least offered one. You may choose to take an additional copy or know that you already have a copy. Second, you will receive a copy of your child’s current IEP document that the team has written. Usually the LEA will need to print a copy from their computer for you. Sometimes they have a printer in the IEP meeting room, other times they will need to excuse themselves to pick up the document.

Final Signatures

Prior to printing the document, the LEA will usually discuss two forms with you. The first form is permission to release information to Medicaid for the purpose of receiving payment for provided services from Medicaid. You have the right to grant permission or deny permission and neither decision should have any impact your child’s services. You should not see any bill for these services EVER. In addition, you can withdraw your consent in writing at any time.

The second form you may receive is a conference recommendation form. This form usually states your child’s eligibility category and the purpose of the meeting you attended. This is when you provide consent for your child to receive the special education services provided on the IEP document. You do not have to give consent, but then your child will not receive the special education services outlined on the IEP.

This form also includes an optional waiver to waive a 10 school day interval before beginning a change of placement. If your child isn’t changing placement, this isn’t required. However, you can choose to waive the 10 day period and have your child’s placement change take effect sooner or choose to wait the 10 days before the change in placement occurs. Again, this is completely your choice and neither decision will change the IEP, just when the new placement begins.

Create a Parent IEP Binder

We highly suggest that you create a parent IEP binder for any of your children who have an IEP. This is so important to keep track of your child’s documents and help to keep you informed. You will want to keep a few things inside of this IEP binder.

IEP Meetings- Parents’ Rights

Keep a copy of the Procedural Safeguards or parents’ rights provided by the school district. Whenever the school district updates this document, do ask for a new copy for your binder. You only need to keep one copy of this document.

Parent Rights in Regards to the IEP Meeting

Important parent rights include providing written notice of any changes to your child’s placement, evaluation, or identification with regards to special education. This notice should sent 10 days prior to the changes occurring.

You have the right to revoke your consent at any time either orally or in writing. This will end all of your child’s special education services, including related services. The district must acknowledge your revocation in writing within 5 days.

The school district must provide you with notice of IEP meetings at least 10 days in advance and the meeting shall take place at a mutually agreeable place and time. This notice should include the purpose of the meeting and who will attend from the school district.

Current and Old IEP Documents

We suggest keeping all of your child’s IEPs in your Parent IEP Binder. We keep the newest copy of the IEP right under our parent rights document. Then each additional IEP is placed behind. This ensures that at anytime we can flip back to an older IEP document.

This helps when your child is showing limited growth. If you happen to notice that your child continues to struggle, you can use the old IEPs to support increasing special education supports and services. Your child may need additional minutes with a special education teacher, additional related services or an increase in minutes of the related service, or to qualify for extended school year. Having these documents at your fingertips really helps you to make the argument for your child to receive the supports and services needed.

Progress Notes

Keep all the progress notes sent home with each IEP. These are usually sent home with report cards at each grading period. However, some districts may opt to send them more often. The frequency of progress notes is documented on the IEP in the goals section. Look for a section that references schedule for determining progress. This states how often you should receive these progress notes.

These help you to quickly see where your child is making growth, how quickly your child is or isn’t making growth, and where your child continues to struggle. Sometimes the progress notes may indicate that your child needs more or less support in an area because of the amount of growth noted. Other times the progress notes helps us to see the need for extended school year or support during time off of school.

Evaluation Documentation

Along with keeping all of our child’s IEP documents, we also keep the evaluation documents from each evaluation cycle. With special education services, an evaluation determine if your child qualifies. This occurs before the first IEP is written. Then your child is evaluated, or at least considered for evaluation, every 3 years. Sometimes a school district and parents may skip an evaluation if both parties are in agreement.

Having all of these documents right at your finger tips can help you feel more prepared and ready for your child’s IEP meeting.

IEP Meeting Tips for Parents

As you prepare for your child’s IEP meeting, there are a few tips to keep in mind. These tips will help you prepare for the IEP meeting and keep the meeting focused on your child.

Tips for Before the IEP Meeting

1. Before the IEP meeting, make a list of changes you would like to see made to the IEP to best support your child. This may involve the writing of new goals, changing minutes or services provided, or even adding accommodations for the classroom or testing. If possible, speak with your child’s case manager about your concerns prior to the meeting.
2. Make a list of questions that you would like to ask at the IEP meeting. If you received a blank copy of the IEP document or draft goals, you can even write your questions directly on the blank IEP. To best prepare your questions, ask for as much information as the school will provide you including draft goals, testing information, and possible placement options.

Day of the IEP Meeting

1. Bring your child’s previous IEP, evaluation results, the meeting invitation with participant names and titles, as well as a picture of your child, a notebook, your questions, and a treat. Having the previous documentation is so helpful if you need to reference something and we love to have the list of participants right in front of us to help with knowing the professionals in the meeting.
2. If you feel overwhelmed, do invite a parent IEP advocate, family member, or friend to support you during the IEP meeting. If possible, ask this person to assist you by taking notes and helping you to ensure your questions are answered.
3. While you may not be an expert in education, you are the expert on your child. You have been with your child since birth (or adoption) and know their strengths, struggles, passions, worries, and dreams. You intimately see how little changes can affect your child and how your child’s disability impacts their every day life.

After the IEP Meeting

1. Thank the other members of your child’s IEP team for their dedication to your child. Let them know how optimistic you are for this new IEP year and the growth your child will make.
2. Start your Parent IEP Binder right now. Add in any previous evaluation results and IEP documents you have in your home. If you haven’t kept any, that’s okay. Start adding the IEP document and any paperwork you receive from the school to your binder from this point forward. Keep the evaluations and IEPs from year to year so that you have documented your child’s growth and needs.
3. Do not let the IEP meeting seem rushed. If you have more questions or feel that more time is needed than the school LEA allotted, ask to reschedule a time to finish the IEP meeting. You can ask for an IEP meeting at any time. You do not have to wait until your child’s annual IEP meeting is approaching. If you feel that something needs changing or updating, request an IEP meeting to discuss these changes.

How do you feel going into your child’s IEP meeting? Please drop us a comment below and let us know which tips and explanations you found most helpful. Have other tips for parents, we’d love for you to drop them in the comments too. Looking for more ways to support your child at home? Subscribe to our newsletter for families for more practical solutions to real-life parenting problems and a few freebies too!

Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.

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