Things You'll Need:
- A child in Special Education
- An IEP meeting
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Step 1
Attend your child's IEP meeting and take someone with you in order to have support and help prevent diagreement.
Attend every IEP meeting. As a school representative, I have many parents who do not attend IEP meetings. Once the IEP has been agreed on at the meeting and the school has already started implementing it, it is much harder to get it changed. If you are going to be in disagreement, it is much better for it to be in the meeting. It will be much easier to give our input and be heard at that time.
As a parent, it was very easy to feel outnumbered and outdecided. Do not feel like you don't have equal input just because you are outnumbered. Taking your spouse or someone close to you gives a support system. -
Step 2
Agree on goals for your child at the beginning of the IEP meeting to help prevent disagreement.
Too often we get hung up on the details and do not focus on the actual goals. The goals of the parent and the school are often the same. We just do not always agree on the methods of achieving those goals. If there appears to be disagreement, ask the school what their goals are. Let them know what your goals are. One good sales technique is to get the customer to agree to something easy right away. After that it is much easier to get further agreement. Use this technique at IEP meetings. If you and your child's school can agree on the overall goals, then it will be much easier to find a way to achieve those goals that you both agree to. -
Step 3
Ask them for the reasons for their recommendations and decisions.
Often if you can both relate your reasons it makes it much easier for both sides to understand where the other is coming from. -
Step 4
Be prepared to compromise.
As a school representative at IEP meetings, I often write modifications or other things in that I don't think a child really needs but, if the parent is passionate about it, it is far easier to do that than to disagree. I also see parents say they are willing to try something that the school has recommended. We can always monitor the child and go back and change things again if we need to. However, I also know that not all states or school districts are as willing to compromise though. If you are in disagreement, ask your school representative "can we agree to a compromise?" or "would you be willing to consider a compromise?" It is much easier to meet in the middle than to continue a disagreement. -
Step 5
Ask to end the meeting and then reconvene to continue it.
If there appears to be no way that agreement can be reached, then ask if the meeting can be ended and reconvened at a later date. This will give both sides time to reflect and perhaps gain new perspective. It will also give you, the parent, time to review the research on what you would like to see done. The No Child Left Behind and IDEA laws both push for decisions based on research based teaching techniques. You will have a much stronger leg to stand on if you can bring research back to the table that supports what you are asking for. -
Step 6
If there is disagreement at your child's IEP meeting, make sure to get a copy of the IEP and the deliberations page before leaving the meeting.
Ask for the deliberations to be read aloud so that you can make sure you are in agreement with what was said and recommended during the meeting. Everyone intentions are good but often two people can hear the same thing and interpret it different ways. Make sure that everyone is in agreement on what was said. I have seen times when something was interpreted differently by the different parties and, when that was resolved, the parties were actually in agreement. -
Step 7
Follow a chain of command in trying to resolve the disagreement.
If the committee is having to reconvene, the second meeting should have the same members as the first meeting. However, you can try to resolve the disagreement prior to that formal meeting and you can also have additional members at that meeting. Talk to your child's teacher, talk to the building principal and, if they were not at the meeting, talk to your child's case manager through the special education department. You could also ask to meet with the school representative and the special education case manager and possibly even the special education department director. If the situation still cannot be resolved then follow the steps in the procedural safeguards notice. That notice is required under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Comments
doban said
on 11/21/2009 Yes, you can have anyone you want come to the IEP meeting. However, you would have to sign a consent to release confidential information to them. As far as attending meetings goes, the fact is that only about half of the meetings at our district have a parent in attendance because many sign and return the invitation to have it without them. As far as the comment about simple terms goes, I don't think that kjshannon meant to imply anything negative. It is just that I hear testing personnel talk about standard deviation and teachers and principals use acronyms. If you do not work in education or have never had a stats class you might not know what those mean. Avoiding those words in not at all the same as talking down. And finally, you are also right that federal law superceeds state law. However, Federal law does not say anywhere in it that the final say so is the parents and not ...
sadistic423 said
on 11/11/2009 THE SIMPLE TERMS COMMENT IS AS IF YOU BELEIVE BECAUSE YOUR AN EDUCATOR THAT PARENTS ARE REMEDIAL MOST PEOPLE DO NOT RESPECT ANYONE THAT TREATS THEM AS IF THEY ARE IGNORANT AROGANCE IS SUCH AN UNATTRACTIVE QUALITY PLUS PEOPLE THAT BELEIVE THEY ARE SO SMART THEY HAVE TO TURN DOWN THE DIAL TO TALK TO THE COMMON PERSON ARE PROBABLY DUMBER THAN A WOOD POST TO BEGIN WITH
AND I HAVE SEEN IT MANY TIMES ...BLAH BLAH.....I HAVE NEVER MISSED AN IEP MEETING AND MOST STATES FOLLOW THE SAME BASIC GUIDELINES A PARENT CAN REQUEST A NEW MEETING AT ANYTIME ..... SOME TEACHERS AND/OR PRINCIPALS THINK THEY KNOW WHATS BETTER FOR SOMEONE ELSES CHILD THAN THEY DO
sadistic423 said
on 11/11/2009 THE FINAL SAY SO IS YOURS NOT THE SCHOOLS DUE TO THE FACT FEDERAL LAW SUPERCEEDS STATE LAW......THEY ARE PEOPLE YOU CAN HAVE COME TO THE MEETINGS THAT SIT IN AS ADVOCATES FOR YOUR CHILD......PREPARE YOURSELF BEFORE WALKING INTO THE HORNETS NEST.....IF THE SCHOOL DOESNT ACCEPT A DIAGNOSIS FILE AN ADMINISTRATIVE COMPLAINT.....YOU CAN AVE ANYONE YOU WANT TO COME TO THE MEETINGS THIS INCLUDES YOUR PREACHER TO THE DOCTOR WICH WHOM THE SCHOOL IS IN DISAGREEMENT WITH.....THERE ARE SO MANY NON-PROFIT PROGRAMS AND EVEN STATE FUNDED THAT HELP WITH IEP'S AND OTHER PROBLEMS YOU MAY COME ACROSS WITH THE SCHOOL YOU JUST HAVE TO LOOK
kjshannon said
on 8/1/2009 Oh, I could go into so many stories. The problem seems to be that educators do not speak in simple terms. We need to do a better job. I taught special ed. for over 14 years, now an administrator. I try to remind teachers that we need to speak in more simple terms and treat parents and students with respect.
doban said
on 7/8/2009 What I have seen is that many times a parent does not attend the meeting and disagrees after they receive their copy of the report (in which case the changes have already been made and they new IEP is the one that remains in place while it is resolved). In some states, it would not result in an automatic hearing even if the parent disagreed at the meeting. For example, in Texas we are required to meet again in 10 days and we are also required to go to mediation with the parent before a hearing. I have never been to mediation or a hearing with a parent because in the districts I have worked for we have gone out of our way to accommodate the parent. I know that does not happen in every state.