The Top 3 At Your Child's IEP

You are at Isaac's initial IEP meeting. You get to the room and are immediately taken aback by how many people there are in the room. You don't even have a chance to understand who everyone is before you are handed the IEP (a 25+ page document) when the people in the room start taking turns talking at you. After 2 hours in the room, you still don't really know what you should have made sure happened for your child.

The Truth: You are not alone! The IEP is a very overwhelming document for everyone. This document has so many checkboxes and phrases that may not even apply to your child. Very rarely are you given a copy of the document ahead of time so you can process the information before walking into the meeting. Some parents have even told me that they "have to" sign the document right then and there without having sufficient time to see what the document even says.


Here's What I Suggest: Come in knowing that there are 3 sections you are most concerned with getting correct. One occurs on the front page, while the other two occur on the last few pages. This will give you a good reference in case you can't remember the specific terms. On the first page it says the disability designation with a short blurb as to why that disability was checked. Make sure your student's disability is accurately marked and described. Then, focus your energy on the last few pages which have the accommodations and service minutes designations. On the accommodations page you want to make sure that you have accommodations worded correctly. These accommodations should align to the support your student needs to be successful in the general education classroom. The third essential page is the service minutes page. You want your child to have as many supports as possible. This is where you'll want to make sure the number of minutes and the type of support of those proposed minutes matches the amount and type of support your child needs. 

So, there are your top 3: disability designation, accommodations, and service minutes.

Reply to this post if you'd like to see a sample of each page I discussed above.