With the 1997 Reauthorization of IDEA (P.L. 105-17), parents now must be included as “members of any group that makes decisions on the educational placement of the child.” IEP meetings must be held at least annually, but may be held more often if needed. Parents may request a review or revision of the IEP at any time. While teachers and school personnel may come prepared for the meeting with an outline of goals and objectives, the IEP is not complete until it has been thoroughly discussed and all parties agree to the written document.

Parents are entitled to participate in the IEP meeting as equal participants with suggestions and opinions regarding their child’s education. They may bring a list of suggested goals and objectives, as well as additional information that may be pertinent, to the IEP meeting.

To develop an IEP, the local education agency officials and others involved in the child’s educational program meet to discuss education related goals. By law, the following people must be invited to attend the IEP meeting:

~One or both of the child’s parents

~The child’s teacher or prospective teacher

~A representative of the public agency (local education agency), other than the child’s teacher, who is qualified to provide or supervise the provision of special education

~The child, if appropriate

~Other individuals at the discretion of the parent or agency (such as a physician, advocate, or neighbor)

The IEP meeting is meant to develop an educational plan for your child, it is also an opportunity for you to share information about your child, your expectations and what techniques have worked at home. If for some reason you do not agree with the proposed IEP, you do have recourse.

The IEP should address all areas in which a child needs educational assistance. This can include academic and non-academic goals, if the services to be provided will result in educational benefit for the child. All areas of projected need, such as social skills (playing with other children, responding to Q&A), functional skills (dressing, crossing the street to walk to the school bus safely), related services (occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy), can also be included in the IEP.

The IEP should list the setting in which the services will be provided and the professionals who will provide the service.

Content of an IEP must include the following:

~A statement of the child’s present level of educational performance. This should include both academic and non- academic aspects of his/her performance.

~A statement of annual goals that the student may reasonably accomplish in the next 12 months. This statement should also include a series of measurable, intermediate objectives for each goal. This will help both the parents and educators know whether the child is progressing and benefiting from his/her education. The development of specific, well-defined goals and objectives is crucial to your child receiving an appropriate education.

~Appropriate objective criteria, evaluation procedures and schedules for determining, at least annually, whether the child is achieving the short-term objectives set out in the IEP. (For example, “How are we judging whether intervention is successful?” “How long will my child be in this program?”)

~A description of all specific special education and related services, including individualized instruction and related supports and services, to be provided (e.g. occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, transportation, recreation). This includes the extent to which the child will participate in regular educational programs.

~The initiation date and duration of each of the services, as determined above, to be provided (this can include extended school year services). You may include the person who will be responsible for implementing each service.

~If your child is 16 years old or older, the IEP must include a description of transitional services (coordinated set of activities designed to assist the student in movement from school to post-school activities).

You can always suggest things to be in the IEP. I am a special education teacher in Michigan and have almost always included parent’s input.

The only things that don’t get added are things that are unreasonable, or ones that the IEP Team don’t agree on. In this case the meeting can be tabled, which means other people may be invited to the next meeting such as the director of special education for the district.

Sometimes the IEP Team agree not to add something, but all agree verbally, with the parent, that we’ll keep an eye on things and if the student show need for something, the IEP gets re-conviened. I did this last year for a student who got social work services, but we wanted to see how he would do without them. We kept an eye on it, and they were not added back to the student’s IEP.

Lastly, the very FIRST thing I do in an IEP after the “autograph section” is to ask parental concerns. In Michigan its often on page 2 of the document. A lot of times, these concerns find themselves addressed in other places in the IEP such as in the goals and objectives.

Always speak up in the IEP Mom and Dad!

The IEP is based on input from a TEAM. Your yourself are not a team. Neither is a teacher, nor the principal. Together you all are a team (as well as other team members) and need to decide on the contents of the IEP collectively.

If you feel you want to add something, bring it up at the meeting. You ALWAYS have the right to suggest to add or take something from the IEP.

To answer your questions: No, it isn’t possible to add ANYTHING to the IEP. It needs to be deemed appropriate for your child, as well as legal!

Good luck!

sped-teacher.blogspot.com

According to the IDEA, it does NOT have to be only academic, you can also add things that will increase QUALITY of life…it’s in the intro to the law. You can try to add a lot to the IEP, as another poster mentioned if they refuse, ask for prior written notice.

It helps if you figure out how it is related to academics or quality of life, and present it as a solution to a problem the child IS having or COULD have as a direct result of their disability. Section 1400 of the federal law states that schools must supply “special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment and independent living”

Which has thus far been interpreted to mean alot, because independent living pretty much needs every skill you can imagine, and even with young children it is all a step to that.

Good luck, you might contact your state’s support group for the disability, they could suggest advocates and such to attend the meetings with you.

Actually, learning to pedal a bike is educationally relevant as it is a motor planning skill that falls under occupational therapy.

If your requests for your child deal with physical, occupational, speech and even social skills it can be put in the IEP. The No Child Left Behind Act recognizes social skills as helping with future independent living. When you attend your child’s IEP (and you have the right by law, to call for a new IEP at anytime and it must be scheduled in a timely manner), ask for what you want. Understand that it is only the school’s responsibility to provide educational standards not medical.

If you feel you are not being heard or your child’s needs are not going to be met, ask for a mediator. The school system legally must provide a nonbiased (cannot be employed by their school system) mediator to help you reach an agreement. This also legally has to be paid for by the school system.

Best wishes!

I am a special ed consultant and advocate with 21+ years experience. YES! And you should. It is called a parent letter attachment. The school district will not have a form and may not be aware that you can do this. Simply write a letter stating whatever it is you want to say. You can not add accommodations this way, but you can add things about what works best with him, etc.

If you are not satisfied with the IEP when it is written, don’t sign it. They can NOT implement that IEP without your signature (This comes from case law, not the law itself.). The district is under a time line by law to get the IEP implemented. Therefore, they have to get it together or you could file a complaint with the state and win.

It really depends on what you’re talking about and what the child’s disability is. Most schools will look at whether your request is educationally relevant and aligns to the local, state and national standards. For example, my school would not have allowed us to put teaching a child to learn to ride a bike into the IEP like the other answerer – it’s not educationally relevant and has nothing to do with school.

There should be a section for you to add your concerns/desires for your child. If it’s just a comment you want to make, this may be the place to do so.

If it’s a goal or service you want added to the IEP you can request it, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to get in. If the team doesn’t want to add it, depending on how important it is to you and how realistic/legal whatever information you want to include, there are steps you can take.

You can contact the principal and district person in charge of ESE services and continue up the ladder. You may also want to look for a child advocate – many school districts hire them to avoid lawsuits and look after children’s best interests; most of their services are free.

It might help to post the specifics of what you’re wanting to add, your child’s disability, and class placement.

Good luck!

It’s possible, especially when she is so young. It is said that IQ typically does not stabilize until around age 8. Also, it’s possible that if different tests were used, then differences between the tests could account for at least some of the difference. There are many factors to consider. The psychologist or examiner should be able to help answer your questions by looking at all of the information from past and current assessments.

I’m not quite sure if they would allow you to write in the IEP otself BUT….you do have the right to how things are worded in your child’s IEP….Try working with the teachers on the wording…if you find they are unapproachable with this idea…you can always get a special education advocate in place.

Your best bet is to go to the iep meeting and find out. When my son was in special ed (before I realized homeschooling was still okay despite his special needs) I went to his IEP meetings and made sure that a few things made it in. One of those was that I wanted it in writing that he would be homeschooled after certain criteria was met, the other thing was really my husbands idea, that he learn to pedal a bike (I am not sure why that was important to my hubby, but it was) both things made it into the iep and the school helped my son learn to pedal! So just go to the meeting with your desires written down, the worst they will say is no.

Teacher Lady, among other things, my son has dyspraxia and part of the reason he was in special ed services was for occupational therapy, so for him, it was relevant.

i have writen many odd things into the ieps now part of therapy.. trips to malls, stores, libraries, movies new therapies…

for more info on the laws and ieps go to my two fav sites.

www.ed.gov see special ed and ieps. tons of federal info on this fed ed site.

www.nichcy.org

my dd just grad out of 20 yrs of spec ed/therpy.