{"id":12570,"date":"2015-04-09T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T13:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=12570"},"modified":"2015-05-04T13:17:20","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T17:17:20","slug":"can-our-advocate-observe-my-son-in-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/can-our-advocate-observe-my-son-in-class\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Our Advocate Observe My Son in Class?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Can%20Our%20Advocate%20Observe%20My%20Son%20in%20Class%3F\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><blockquote><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000; float: right; margin-left: 10px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/images\/istock\/boy.teen.plaidshirt.writes.jpg\" alt=\"teen boy in class\" width=\"180\" height=\"120\" \/>Can our advocate observe my son in the classroom? The school denied my request and said, &#8220;only the parent can observe.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Members of the IEP Team<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The parents and school decide who they want to be on the IEP team, aside from the required members.<\/p>\n<p>IDEA allows you to invite individuals who have knowledge or special expertise about your child to be part of the IEP team meeting.<\/p>\n<p>You decide who meets these criteria.<\/p>\n<p>You may invite related services providers, independent educational professionals, including consultants, advocates, and tutors to be part of the team.<\/p>\n<p>You may invite a friend or family member.<\/p>\n<p>There is no requirement that you may only invite professionals.<\/p>\n<p><strong>34 C.F.R. Section 300.321(c).<\/strong>\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/store\/selaw2.store.html\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Wrightslaw: Special Education Law,<\/span><\/a> page 247 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/store\/aaieps.html\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Wrightslaw: All About IEPs<\/span><\/a>, page 12.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NO law prohibits people (other than school staff and the parent) from observing the child in the classroom.<\/strong><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Effective Team Members Need Information<\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To be an effective team member, your advocate or consultant or evaluator may need to do a classroom observation of your son.<\/p>\n<p>Observations in the classroom and in other settings provide valuable information about your child&#8217;s ability to learn.<\/p>\n<p>You will learn more about classroom observations for evaluation purposes in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/store\/aat.html\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Wrightslaw: All About Tests and Assessments<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Addressing the Problem<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Was your request for observation a written request? Always make sure your requests, issues, and concerns are in writing.<\/p>\n<p>If the school persists in this position, you need to write a polite letter to the school.<\/p>\n<p>Use your letter to document:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>what you want to do<\/li>\n<li>what you were told by staff<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Parent Observation in the Classroom<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But does \u2018parental involvement\u2019 extend to parents coming into the school to observe their child in his or her school setting?<\/p>\n<p>The answer is yes!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=12652\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">A parent\u2019s right to observe his or her child during the school day is supported by federal law<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 This applies to all students, in regular and special education alike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can our advocate observe my son in the classroom? The school denied my request and said, &#8220;only the parent can observe.&#8221; Members of the IEP Team The parents and school <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/can-our-advocate-observe-my-son-in-class\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,529],"tags":[81,197,79],"class_list":["post-12570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ieps","category-parent-rights-responsibilities","tag-advocates","tag-classroom-observations","tag-iep-team-members"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12570"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12717,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12570\/revisions\/12717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}