Preparing for an IEP Meeting
Attending an Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting for the first time might feel stressful, since you want to ensure your child gets the supports they need to feel more successful in school. We’ve put together our top five tips to help parents feel empowered as active participants when they meet with the Committee on Special Education (CSE) team.
(Please note that we reference some specifics from the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) school district’s operating procedures in this post. If your child attends a private school, or a public school in another district, most of the core elements will be the same, but some parameters may be slightly different. In those cases, we recommend you also check your district’s operating procedures.)
1. Review School Assessments in Advance
Reviewing your child’s assessments prior to the meeting provides you with the opportunity to process your thoughts about the results and prepare any questions you might have. It’s certainly better to read through this information at a neutral time, so as not to be caught off guard in the moment by unexpected results or to respond emotionally if surprised by new information.
Many public schools are—understandably!—disorganized, and it might slip their mind to send over the reports ahead of time. However, this is unacceptable, as parents are entitled to any assessment documents at least one week prior to the IEP meeting date. If your child’s meeting date is on the horizon and you haven’t received their reports from the school, nudge the school for the assessment data, or exercise your right to request the meeting be rescheduled to allow appropriate time to receive and review the assessments.
We strongly recommend annotating the document (printed hard copy, or digitally - whatever floats your boat!) and writing down any of your questions or concerns to reference during the meeting. This way, you are less likely to forget about a particular detail you wanted to discuss.
2. Submit Outside Assessments
If there is any other relevant documentation that you would like to be considered by the IEP team, it is usually helpful to submit this information to the school prior to the meeting date. This might include reports from any private service providers outside of the school, such as speech therapists, occupational therapists, pediatricians, private tutors, or psychologists.
3. Consider Additional Participants
Parents are able to invite additional participants to the meeting if they have “knowledge” or “special expertise” about the student. Depending on the situation, a parent may wish to invite the child’s doctor, therapist, private tutor, etc. Maybe you just feel overwhelmed navigating the IEP process for the first time and would like to invite an advocate or family member for support – that’s fine, too! While it is courteous and encouraged to inform the IEP team in advance about any additional participants, you are only required to do so if the additional participant will be an attorney.
Perhaps one of the most important guests to consider is the child themself! It’s common for older students to join their IEP meetings, especially for high school students discussing transition goals, but even younger students can join their IEP meetings. Having the child participate in their own IEP meeting can foster self-advocacy skills, as they can describe their perceived strengths and weaknesses as well as goals they would like to achieve. On the other hand, some children may struggle to express themselves, which may prevent them from offering meaningful input. Determining whether or not it would be beneficial to have a child attend the IEP is a highly individual decision.
4. Optional: Request to Record the Meeting
If you are the type of person who finds note-taking distracting but still want a concrete reference of the conversation details, you may request to record the meeting. This request must be made in writing to the principal or chairperson at least one business day before the meeting. Unfortunately, while well within a parents’ rights, the school might consider the request contentious – this is something to consider if you are working with a defensive school team or are wary of making unnecessary waves.
5. Mark Your Calendar for Next Year!
After the initial IEP is created for a student, the CSE team must convene annually to review the plan and make any appropriate adjustments. Furthermore, students must be assessed by the school, at minimum, once every three years. This is often referred to as the “triennial review” or “three-year reevaluation.” However, parents may request for the student to be evaluated sooner, limited to one evaluation per school year.
Because most NYC public schools are operating at capacity, we recommend making a note of your child’s projected annual review so that you can nudge their special education teacher or related service provider (if they are not in a classroom with a special education teacher, and are only receiving related services outside of the classroom) to get the meeting scheduled in the event that they fall out of compliance, rather than waiting too long and ending the school year without an annual review.
