December 11, 2009
Tips for a Successful IEP Meeting
By Toni Lapp
If you’re the parent of a student with an autism-spectrum disorder, you have most likely participated in an individual education program (IEP) meeting for your child.
For many families, the annual meeting is a stressful event in which educators converse using unfamiliar acronyms and bewildering jargon, and parents rubber-stamp their signatures to a document that they don’t understand and didn’t have a hand in developing.
It needn’t be that way.
As the legal education decision maker for the student, parents often do not realize the power that they wield.
As a result, parents may fail to fully exercise their influence at these meetings, says Jeanne Holverstott, an Overland Park autism specialist. Sometimes parents just don’t know what they can ask for.
“I have a 17-year-old client whose mom is an amazing advocate,” says Holverstott. “He has Asperger’s Syndrome, dysgraphia, ADHD — the list goes on.”
“When he became my client, I looked over his IEP and asked ‘Why isn’t he receiving assistive technology services?’”
The mother did not know that an AlphaSmart – a device that enables students to key in notes – was an option for her son, whose struggles with handwriting led to modifications such as shortened assignments and being offered a scribe (which he often refused). Frustrated that schoolwork still wasn’t being completed, the mother had taken to scribing assignments for her son in the evening.
A portable word processor was there for the asking.
Schools often do not bring up issues, said Sean Swindler, program director for the Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training, or K-CART. Parents should be aware of available interventions.
The problems is, they don’t know what they don’t know.
“You need to have the right people at the table to develop interventions,” said Swindler at a K-CART meeting for case managers.
For this reason, many parents choose to bring an adviser – whether a case manager, physician, therapist, or lawyer who specializes in special education law – to advocate for a student.
Parents going it alone often find they have to act like a lawyer, a role they might not be comfortable with, says Swindler.
However, most agree that taking an adversarial approach does not serve the interest of the student.
Whether or not you bring an objective third party to the table, there are things you can do to improve outcomes, says Holverstott:
· Get a copy of the draft IEP to review well in advance; schools are required to send at least one week ahead of the meeting.
· Create an agenda with items to discuss at the meeting. Share at the opening of the meeting at your discretion. (Sometimes having an element of surprise is an advantage.)
· If possible, both mother and father should attend meeting. “Both parents bring something unique to the table and have an equal stake in the outcome,” says Holverstott.
· Take detailed notes at the meeting. If someone says they’re going to do something, take down their name and title.
· Don’t be afraid to ask questions or ask someone to explain when they’re using unfamiliar terms.
· Do not sign the IEP at the meeting! Realistically, the meeting is being held to develop the IEP, says Holverstott. If parents are presented with the IEP on the spot, this does not give them time to read over and understand the modifications and accommodations. “The schools will ask you to sign, but you should feel free to take it home and review,” says Holverstott.
It’s important to recognize the purpose of the IEP meeting: to establish an educational program. Do not wait for the IEP meeting to discuss pressing issues, such as bullying, day-to-day issues, or homework concerns.
And the IEP meeting is not a substitute for regular communication with the school to learn about your student’s progress.
“Sometimes at the IEP meeting, the student’s strengths and weaknesses are glossed over,” said Phyllis Young, parent educator at the Center for Child Health and Development at KU Medical Center. She suggests parents meet with the student’s case manager in advance of the meeting so that there are no surprises.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
In 1975, Congress enacted a law that would eventually become IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, requiring states to provide disabled students with “free appropriate public education” in the “least restrictive environment.”
The law has been a boon. Each year, 6 million disabled students are given IEPs that qualify them for special services, education classes, programs, technologies, social workers, and personal paraprofessional helpers.
For more information about IEPs, the Autism Society of America has a wealth of information here.
