Making the Most of Your Child’s IEP

Seven Tips for Parents of Children With Special Needs

At the beginning and end of each school year thousands of Portland area parents of children with special needs participate in developing an Individualized Education Program (IEP) with their local school. The IEP sets the education goals for the student for the coming year, and may include such things as classroom placement, extra-time for test taking, reading assistance, and speech, occupational or physical therapies.At our IEP meetings our son, Austin, is assessed and we get to hear about his academic strengths, weaknesses, physical abilities, fine motor skills and general personality. Like every other parent involved in an IEP, we hear this from a team of educators including teachers, therapists and administrators. For most parents, the IEP meeting is met with apprehension, consternation – and sometimes just plain dread.

To be honest, my wife and I find our IEP meetings emotionally exhausting. Parents who don’t do not have children on an IEP may not relate to this experience because they don’t have a team of professionals assessing their kids down to the minutia of their lives. It is hard. How strange it must sound when we (special ed parents) talk excitedly about our children mastering rudimentary tasks such as buttoning shirts, tying shoes, pronouncing R’s, and on and on. We measure miraculous progress in our children inch by precious inch.

Given all of the focus on progress (hopefully not regression), it’s no wonder that IEP meetings are emotionally charged, with parents frequently seeing educators as the limitation to progression, rather than an asset to the process. Over the pastfive years,my wife and I have learned a lot about the strategies that parents can adopt to make the most of their child’s IEP meetings. We’d like to share what we’ve learned through the following tips:

1. Do Your Research. My wife and I learned quickly that to get results in an IEP meeting, we had to suppress our emotional reactions and become advocates for Austin. To do this, we bought books on the topics, learned the law, and became knowledgeable about the process. My wife found WrightsLaw.com - a valuable special education resource and their book “From Emotions to Advocacy” extremely helpful. The U.S. Department of Education’s website also provided us with the law governing IEPs so I could learn what is allowed and not allowed. Through these resources and experience we became more knowledgeable about the process, more confident, and since we know our son best,  we were helping set our own goals for Austin’s education. In the IEP, we then were working with the educators to help Austin achieve his best results. Of course, we sometimes disagreed with the educators, but we held firm because this was our son and we know his capabilities better than anyone.

2. Don’t Cry. In the movie League of Their Own, Tom Hanks portrays a washed-up surly baseball manager. In a memorable scene, he yells at one of his young female players and she begins to cry. He exasperatedly yells: “There’s no crying in baseball!” My wife loves this movie. We remind ourselves of this line before every IEP meeting we attend. This is not the time to be emotional, so we neither overly celebrate Austin’s success, nor cry or cringe at the lack of progress. Like it or not, educating our kids is a business that is measured by the success of our children, and this is a dual endeavor engaged in by Parent and Educator. Consequently, an IEP meeting is a business meeting where we measure the progress of our kids against specific goals set for them. If goals are not met, then someone in that room needs to state why. The parent needs only to firmly require results and not rant, rave or cry. Remember that the administrators, principal, teachers and therapists are all there to see your child succeed. 

3. Know What You Want. About a year ago, my wife and I had a terrible IEP experience. We went in to the end of year IEP meeting without preparing, without viewing recent test scores or report cards. The IEP team, on the other hand, was prepared. They knew exactly what they were going to offer our son, which services they were going to provide and who was going to provide those services. During the IEP meeting we learned that Austin was doing better academically then we had known and we were presented test scores that surprised us. We went through the IEP like we’d been hit by a truck – just nodding and agreeing to everything put before us. After we left, we regained our senses and revoked our agreement to the IEP meeting and requested another one. With the new test scores, we set all new goals and decided to mainstream Austin. This was a huge change for us fraught with very difficult decisions. Looking back, we could have avoided a lot of hand wringing and anxiety had we prepared a little and knew what we wanted to do before going into the IEP meeting.

4. Get the Relevant Information. Tips 3 and 4 go hand in hand. It’s hard to know what you want if you don’t have up to date information. Special education teachers frequently test kids before the IEP meeting to provide an assessment of where the child is in relation to the goals set in their IEP. This is usually some type of standardized test or battery of tests, and these records must be given to a parent upon request. If you, as a parent, view the IEP as a business meeting, and arrive with much of the same information as the school, then you’ll be prepared to help determine the most appropriate goals, services and setting for your child. In turn, your child will have the best opportunity to succeed which is what both you and the school desire. 

5. Accommodate Schedules. Part of treating an IEP meeting like a business meeting is accommodating the schedules of all of the parties involved. Federal law requires that certain school personnel be present at the IEP meeting including parents, a regular education teacher, a special education teacher, a knowledgeable and qualified administrator, and any other individual who has specific knowledge or expertise about your child (i.e. therapists). One of these individuals must be able to interpret evaluations and explain the instructional importance and effect of the evaluations. If any of these people cannot be present, then my wife and I reschedule – and reschedule and reschedule – until all of the necessary parties can attend. The IEP is about the child. Everyone has input and can help this special child learn and grow. It is imperative that everyone who has a material impact on the education of the child be present. 

6. Schedule the IEP Meeting Early. If you, as the parent, are going to seek a change in schools, then the IEP meeting needs to take place well before the end of the school year. This will allow time for you and the school district to schedule a tour of the new school, arrange for meeting other special education teachers at the proposed location, and review the program offered. If the IEP meeting is set near the end of the school year, then there will simply not be enough time for you to make an informed decision. You do not want end up in a situation that is not meeting your child’s needs. 

7. Volunteer. One of the underlying themes in this article is that parents should be both informed and involved. Volunteering is part of that involvement. If you can’t volunteer in your child’s classroom during the day, then attend the parent teacher club meeting in the evening. Volunteer for school events. Do anything available to you to become familiar with the principal and teachers of the school. It’s human nature for teachers to become slightly more involved with those kids and parents who are their friends. Besides, volunteering is the right thing to do! 

Instinct drives us to be protective of our children. If you have a child with special needs, that instinct should be your motivation for finding out more about the IEP process. With a bit of planning, research and the right attitude, you’ll be better prepared to assist school personnel in fashioning the best IEP possible for your child.

(This article originally appeared in Metro Parent in September 2007.)