Connecting for Kids - How To: Preparing for an IEP Meeting

How to Prepare for an IEP Meeting

There are four important ways that you can prepare for your child's individualized education program (IEP) meeting. They are:

Understand The IEP Process

Special education can feel complicated, but it doesn't have to be. Learn the basics so you know what to expect.

Know Your Child's Strengths and Needs

Think about your child's strengths and needs before the IEP meeting so you can stay focused.

Understand Goals and Objectives

When you understand the parts of goals and objectives, you can participate in writing them.

Know Your Rights

The document, "A Guide to Parent Rights in Special Education" can help you to understand your rights.

Understand the IEP Process

The IEP section of the Family Guide to Special Education explains what happens during the following major steps:

Invitation
Draft
Meeting
Sign-off

The Special Education Process

Writing your child's IEP is just one part of the special education process. You can learn more about other parts of the special education process here.

Know Your Child's Strengths and Needs

Families participate in the IEP process is by:

Describing their child's strengths and needs

Sharing longer-term, future goals

When you come to the IEP meeting with this information prepared, you can feel more confident in how you participate with the team. You can think through this information with the Strengths, Needs and Goals worksheet.

FIRST: Begin by sharing your child's strengths and the things they enjoy.

Sharing your child's strengths helps the IEP team see your child as a whole person. The team can also use this information to come up with solutions that use your child's strengths and interests.

NEXT: Use the Needs and Supports section to share times when your child struggled and how you helped them.

This information can help the IEP team to choose accommodations and modifications that support your child.

FINALLY: Describe some of the goals your family has for your child.

When IEP teams and families work together, schools can help families to support their child's independence.

Need Help Getting Started?

This Child Strengths Checklist from Understood gives examples of strengths you may recognize in your child.

Accommodations and Modifications

Accommodations are changes the school makes to the student's environment or the way learning is presented. They do not change what the student learns.

This article from Understood lists common accommodations and modifications for school-aged children. This document from Wrightslaw is also a good resource for families.

Families of children with anxiety, may benefit from this list of sample accommodations from WorryWiseKids.org.

Understand Goals and Objectives

Your child's and objectives include:

A statement of your child's current skills or knowledge
Specific knowledge or skills your child will learn
How progress will be measured
How often progress will be reported to your family

When children have academic goals (for example, reading, math), the knowledge and skills they need to learn often come from the Ohio Learning Standards.

Children may also have goals for related services they receive. For example, a child who receives occupational therapy in school will have occupational therapy goals.

Finally, some children may have behavior goals. A behavior goal does not mean your child is a "bad kid!" These types of goals help students learn new behaviors that will support them in becoming independent community members.

As you review your child's draft IEP, consider how the goals and objectives match with what you know about your child's strengths and needs.

Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy

Families can download a free copy of chapter 12, "SMART IEPs" from this website. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic & relevant, and Time-bound.

The IEP from A to Z

This book teaches families about the different parts of an IEP and how to write effective IEP goals and objectives.

IEP Goal Bank

While this goal bank does not match the Ohio Learning Standards, it can give families examples of IEP goals. Families have also used this IEP Goal Bank for ideas.

Know Your Rights

The Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) gives students and their parents/guardians certain rights in the special education process. These include the rights to:

A free and appropriate public education
Be involved in planning assessments
Be involved in planning the individualized education program
Notification of changes in that program
Due process to address disagreements

In Ohio, families can learn about their rights under IDEA with the document, A Guide to Parent Rights in Special Education. This document covers the following topics:

General information, including giving permission for evaluation, ways to know if your child qualifies for special education, and the ways parents are notified about changes.
Educational records, including how to request copies of your child's files.
Dispute resolution, including the different ways parents and schools can settle disagreements.
Discipline, including how discipline is different for students with disabilities and what happens when behavior results in students learning in different settings
Private Schools, including how schools decide to place and pay for students who attend them.
Scholarships, including the types of scholarships available to students with disabilities.

More Assistance

For online resources and information about expert help, check out the Special Education Resource Room.

Website supported by a grant from Parker.

Call, text or email:

Phone: 1-440-570-5908
Email: info@connectingforkids.org

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30628 Detroit Rd. #252
Westlake, Ohio 44145