It’s Time for the IEP
March 21, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Just emailed our school district about Charlie’s upcoming IEP meeting—for the past two years, the district has been sending us a letter with the time, without first asking us when we can meet. My husband Jim and I are both college professors and teach classes throughout the week—Monday April 7th at 11.30, when the district informed me our meeting will be, I’ll be teaching my students about the many types of participles in ancient Greek. I’m hoping that this question of the time of the IEP is the main and even the only conflict—since we first met with a Child Study Team in St. Paul in the spring of 1999, we’ve had our full share of contentious, unproductive, and depressing meetings.
In preparation, I always review the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. My friend Liz Ditz over at I Speak of Dreams recently attended a Wrightslaw seminar on special education law and advocacy and I hope to get to one of these in the not too distant future; Liz has posted a summary of what she learned. I’ve also found the parent guides provided by the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities to be very helpful and practical. The guide on developing your child’s IEP contains a very helpful section on how you, if you are a parent, can most effectively participate in the IEP meeting (suggestions for how your child can particpate, too, are included). The guide suggests what you can do before and during the meeting, what to do if you do not agree, and what to do after the IEP is finally developed.
Over time, IEP meetings for Charlie have become much more positive and have sometimes even been simply a good conversation about his progress and challenges, and how we can best help him and help each other in this. For the past two years, we have brought an advocate (our home ABA consultant), but this year I think we’ll be all right on our own: We shall see.
I have a feeling that you will be absolutely alright on your own!
Good Luck!
And let’s hope they are reasonable about arranging a decent time Professor Chew! (not that they might really need a reminder of the level you are working at in the same profession.)
The Wrights Law Conferences are great. I have all of their books and used them constantly when M was in school. Especially From Emotions to Advocacy. I think it is a must have book. What a pain when they pick the IEP time. We had that here too.
Thanks for the links – I have an IEP meeting coming up next monthas well.
i’ll be thinking of you both!
I just finished my 2nd IEP meeting for next year’s IEP. This year is much better than last year and the year before (which culminated with lawyers, tape recorders, and, after much grief, a suitable settlement for compensatory education for my son).
The biggest hurdle we had to get over was to convince the school district team members that and IEP meeting wasn’t just a brief get-together where they handed us a piece of paper for us to sign (after they scribbled a few illegible sentences into the “parent comments” section). We made it clear that the team was going to take the time to do it right. I’ve had other parents tell me that their IEP meetings consist of one teacher and one administrator and last about 15 minutes. Not ours. We have sp ed teacher, aide, mainstream teacher, speech therapist, OT, autism specialist, district rep, psychologist, and principal. (Yeah, the due process thing really changes their attitudes about IEP meetings.)
Best of luck, Kristina. If your son is already in a classroom where he is doing well and doesn’t need to transition next year, things should probably go smoothly. But don’t hesitate to call another meeting and/or bring an advocate if you start feeling like you are getting steamrollered!
I second the recommendation of From Emotions to Advocacy, and I also review IDEA 2004 and my state’s “interpretation” of it frequently.
And, best wishes to you. I feel as if I could write a book about my experiences with IEP meetings, and my child is younger and less affected by autism than Charlie.
I really liked “From Emotions to Advocacy” too! Here’s to a peaceful, productive IEP meeting.
We bring an advocate, too, and Grandma takes notes so that we can focus on the conversation and the issues. Amigo now attends his, too. Afterwards, we have a tradition of going out for a simple supper to let the stress wear off.
Okay. Here’s an impression from the teacher side (from someone who has also been a parent at the IEP).
I understand the temptation to simply set the meeting date and time and tell parents “that’s when we can do it.” That’s what my son’s case managers did in high school (in a larger district than I now teach in), and I’d often have to call and modify the time, especially when I was going to school to get my own teaching certificate. The high school also had a clerk who was setting meeting times and didn’t always know teacher schedules, which was why they wouldn’t contact me to see what worked for me; the clerk scheduled the time and it was up to me to let them know if I needed something different.
I don’t do that as a case manager, with rare exceptions. My district prefers that we don’t do it that way. My district also prefers a 10 day notice to the parents, but if I can’t contact a parent with the authority to sign (and I document, I’ll try calling at least three times, work, home and cell, and use e-mail if it’s given to me–and you’d be surprised how many live-in girlfriends/boyfriends are the ones who take responsibility for making it to kid meetings but have no legal authority to sign for the parent), then I’ll set the meeting and that’s the way it is. You’d be surprised at how many parents won’t answer a phone call from the school, or who ignore repeated messages on cells, home phones, and work voice mails. Or will call the school after seeing the number on their Caller-ID, demanding that the secretary tell who called them (without listening to their voice mail–when I’m making phone calls, I tell the secretary who I’ve been calling for just that reason so they can refer the parent on to me).
The biggest challenge I face as a special ed teacher is rounding up the general ed teacher at a time when they can meet, without getting in trouble with my administration for calling in too many roving subs to cover the meetings. I can’t preempt a prep time, unless the teacher volunteers it of their own free will. If I schedule the teacher during a class, I need to get a sub for the teacher–and I’m the one who has to do that. I have done as many as five IEPs in one day, when I’ve had no option but to schedule a roving substitute, so that I can get my best value out of the sub. I don’t recommend doing that, even with easy IEPs that simply require a reupping of learning disability goals and accommodations. By the last two IEPs I’m brain-dead.
In my experience, autism initial/three year eligibilities are extremely complex, and autism one year IEP renewals are complex. Those are the ones I try to have as my only IEP and eligibility on that day, simply because we have so many players at the table, even when there’s not a lot of controversy (autism specialist–who’s only available to me on certain days, speech-language pathologist–only available to me on certain days, general education teacher, possibly occupational therapist, possibly school counselor, possibly school psychologist, possibly building administrator, possibly sped administrator if we have to allocate special resources for the first time such as transportation, aides, or placement in a self-contained classroom–I have no authority at all to commit to those services). It is a real challenge for me to coordinate all of those schedules, especially when I have little to no control over when I get access to the autism specialist, the occupational therapist, sped administration, or school psychologist. It’s tempting to set the time and have the parent work with that–finding several dates and times (especially when you only get one specialist for two-four hours a month) to meet can make life a real thrill. Nonetheless, we try to make it work for everyone.
Many parents get annoyed with me for scheduling IEP meetings during the school day. Problem is, I can’t force a general education teacher to come later in the day; not only that, but once the clock hits 3:15, I’m working for free. Most parents would not work for free; I appreciate it when they realize I don’t, either (now if the meeting goes past 3:15, I have no challenges with that particular situation. I’ve been known to take a productive meeting that started at 2:30 to 4:00 or 4:30, and dismiss the general ed teacher while working with the parent. If it devolves into wrangling, lecturing, and arguing, it’s gonna get wrapped up sooner than 4 with another date set while all the players are at the table, because once argument sets in, it’s unlikely that anything productive will happen. Sometimes we simply need that much time to discuss what’s going on with a kid and create some good strategies and solutions though; if it becomes argument, then we obviously need to meet more frequently and monitor what’s going on. Productive meetings are one things, arguments are another.).
During the meeting itself I will try to do the best I can to discuss appropriate goals and accommodations for a student. I am a detail freak of an IEP writer; most teachers don’t write as detailed a Present Level statement as I do. I also try to write goals that can be adjusted for grade performance level that fit the best practice criteria of “condition, behavior, criteria” statements. I tear my hair out when I get an IEP from someone else that reads “So and So will improve his/her math performance.” Improve math performance how? What aspects of math? What’s the criteria for meeting the goal? I prefer to write goals that read “When given a math assignment involving multi-digit computation with and without regrouping, Janie will correctly solve 85% of the problems in four of five opportunities.” That tells you what the conditions are for Janie to perform, what Janie’s expected behavior is, and what the criteria is for that behavior.
I also accommodate, accommodate, accommodate. I do not work with a self-contained classroom at my building–we’re too small a school (although some of my general ed teachers think we could do it, trying to convince administration and the school board of the need is the next thing). All of my students, autistic and non-autistic alike, are served in the general education classroom. My general ed teachers prefer a push-in model and it’s hard to elicit cooperation for any sort of pull-outs, except for very low academic students or poorly behaved students. So it’s an inclusion model, with aide support in the classroom and very limited pullouts. The speech-language pathologist, school counselor, and occupational therapist gets the first shots at the pullouts–then I’ll schedule mine. Therefore, I write a lot of accommodations in the IEP and do my best to inform both my aides and the general education teachers of student needs.
The biggest issue I have with the big national groups and their recommendations is that they are nationals, and as a result, do not always reflect what is the financial reality in a particular state or district. There are very good districts out there with a lot of resources available. Right next door they can have a not-so-good or a poorer district with fewer resources. I can only commit to what my district allows me to do, financially and staff-wise. I can try my best within those parameters, but someone who comes in from outside as an advocate who has more experience with a larger district with more resources may not be aware that we’re doing the best we can with what we’ve got.
Myself, I prefer the mellow and cooperative meetings. I would much rather work with a parent than argue with a parent. If I need to, I’ll schedule telephone conferences to make a meeting time work for a parent, but I know some teachers and districts won’t do that. It’s all about the child, and doing the best we can for the child, given what our resources are. As parents, you usually only deal with one IEP meeting per year, perhaps more if your team is monitoring a particular behavior or problem fairly closely. As a teacher, I have anywhere from 30-50 IEP meetings per year, depending upon my caseload and its complexity (I always have some students who require two or more meetings a year). Trust me, I’d much rather have mellow meetings. I spend a lot of my time either in them, or preparing for them (anywhere from 2-10+ hours of preparation time).
I really don’t like approaching IEP meetings as adversarial encounters, and it does bother me when the nationals seem to promote that attitude. I don’t think it benefits the child and it certainly adds a higher level of stress on the parent.
@joycemocha,
can’t thank you enough for this—-I look forward to IEP meetings as the time for a conversation about my favorite subject, Charlie’s education. i’ve often stopped myself when I get in “warrior mom” mode. we’re fortunate to be in a district that (for now) has the resources for the things Charlie needs.
a former ABA therapist is now a teacher and wrote to me recently about how she is at a lot of IEP meetings and her awareness of both sides from working with Charlie. too often a gen ed teacher has been at a meeting for the briefest amount of time; one time our district (not the one we are in now) had a librarian sit in, because no one else could come.
conversation and dialogue, more than preferred.
Happily, we seem to have found a time! Early May; the district had indicated that they had to have all IEPs by the end of April and I’m very glad that it was possible to find a time when everyone can meet and be present.