{"id":1286,"date":"2009-08-31T09:26:09","date_gmt":"2009-08-31T13:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=1286"},"modified":"2019-10-04T11:29:52","modified_gmt":"2019-10-04T15:29:52","slug":"adding-parent-input-to-the-iep-heres-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/adding-parent-input-to-the-iep-heres-how\/","title":{"rendered":"Adding Parent Input to the IEP &#8211; Here&#8217;s How!"},"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=\"Adding%20Parent%20Input%20to%20the%20IEP%20-%20Here%27s%20How%21\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>Last week we posted about <span style=\"color: #0066cc;\"><a style=\"color: #0066cc;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=1110\">using an IEP Parent Attachment<\/a><\/span> to add input to your child&#8217;s IEP.<\/p>\n<p>We heard immediately from Daunna who wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The question was \u201cHow can I deal with [the school&#8217;s refusal to include a parent attachment]?\u201d<br \/>\nJudy Bonnell\u2019s parent attachment form is a great idea, <strong>but it\u2019s not really an attachment unless the school includes it in the IEP.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So what <strong>IS<\/strong> the strategy for getting the school to include your attachment as part of the IEP?<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Review the Findings and Purposes of IDEA 2004<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>20 U.S.C. 1400 (c) (5) and (d)<\/p>\n<p>Congress found that the education of children with disabilities can be made more effective by &#8220;<strong>strengthening the role and responsibility of parents<\/strong> and <strong>ensuring that families of such children have meaningful opportunities to participate in the education of their children<\/strong> at school and at home;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The purpose of passing IDEA was to &#8221; to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a <strong>free appropriate public education<\/strong> that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living; &#8221; and &#8220;to <strong>ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and parents of such children are protected<\/strong>;&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Check page 46678 in the <span style=\"color: #0066cc;\"><a style=\"color: #0066cc;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/idea\/comment\/46661-46688.reg.320-328.ieps.pdf\">Commentary to the federal regulations (2006)<\/a><\/span>. It states that certain &#8220;&#8230;provisions are important to encourage parent participation in the IEP process, which is an important safeguard for ensuring FAPE under the Act.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And, on the same page, <strong>&#8220;Parents are free to provide input into their child\u2019s IEP through a written report if they so choose.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Get a Copy of your State Special Education Regulations. <\/strong>What do your state special ed regs say about IEPs and your role as the child&#8217;s parent?<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Write a Short Businesslike Letter<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After you know what the law says, write a short businesslike letter to the director of special ed and \/or superintendent.<\/p>\n<p>Briefly describe your attempt(s) to participate in your child&#8217;s IEP, that you thought you were a member of your child&#8217;s IEP team, that you asked to have your input included as an attachment to the IEP, but that INSERT PERSONS NAME advised you that &#8220;school policy&#8221; does not allow you to provide input.<\/p>\n<p>You are confused. This school policy is not consistent with anything you&#8217;ve read about IEPs and your role as the child&#8217;s parent. Perhaps there has been a misunderstanding.<\/p>\n<p>Request (very politely) that the district provide you with their written policy that prevents you from adding a parent attachment to your child&#8217;s IEP. To save time, you&#8217;ll be happy to come to the school to pick this information up.<\/p>\n<p>Try to keep your letter to one page. The tone should be polite and businesslike. You want to give school officials a way to change their position without losing face or admitting fault.<\/p>\n<p>Hand-deliver the letter (don&#8217;t send it by mail or certified). When you deliver your letter, make a note about who you gave it to, what the person said, what the person was wearing, anything else that happened at the time you delivered the letter. (It&#8217;s quite possible that the school may lose your letter so this detailed information shows that you did deliver it.)<\/p>\n<p>As Congress wanted to strengthen the role of parents and ensure that families &#8220;have meaningful opportunities to participate in the education of their children&#8221;, <strong>any district policy about barring parent IEP attachments is not consistent with the spirit or the letter of the law.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week we posted about using an IEP Parent Attachment to add input to your child&#8217;s IEP. We heard immediately from Daunna who wrote: The question was \u201cHow can I <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/adding-parent-input-to-the-iep-heres-how\/\">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":[3,57,5,18,150,64,136],"tags":[1291,1309,61,1299,96,41,38,1311,1319],"class_list":["post-1286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-fape","category-idea-2004","category-ieps","category-letters","category-special-education-regulations","category-strategies","tag-advocacy","tag-fape","tag-iep-team-meetings","tag-ieps","tag-paper-trail","tag-parental-rights","tag-rights-responsibilities","tag-special-education-regulations","tag-strategies"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286","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=1286"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25139,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286\/revisions\/25139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}