{"id":2723,"date":"2010-04-08T12:11:16","date_gmt":"2010-04-08T16:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=2723"},"modified":"2019-09-27T14:07:32","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T18:07:32","slug":"do-parents-have-to-excuse-members-of-the-iep-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/do-parents-have-to-excuse-members-of-the-iep-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Parents Have to Excuse Members of the IEP Team?"},"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=\"Do%20Parents%20Have%20to%20Excuse%20Members%20of%20the%20IEP%20Team%3F\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>The bottom line is no.&nbsp; If you do not agree, a <em>required<\/em> member of the IEP team may not be excused. If the school asks you to consent to excuse a member and you don&#8217;t agree, write a short polite letter to explain that you don&#8217;t consent because the individual has valuable information and insights to share with the team.<\/p>\n<p>Do you know the required members of the IEP team? Submit your answer below &#8211; then read more about the excusal rule.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"polls-7\" class=\"wp-polls\">\n\t<form id=\"polls_form_7\" class=\"wp-polls-form\" action=\"\/blog\/index.php\" method=\"post\">\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" id=\"poll_7_nonce\" name=\"wp-polls-nonce\" value=\"9b30fb2732\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"poll_id\" value=\"7\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Who is not a required member of the IEP team?<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"polls-7-ans\" class=\"wp-polls-ans\"><ul class=\"wp-polls-ul\">\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-22\" name=\"poll_7\" value=\"22\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-22\">The parents of a child with a disability<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-23\" name=\"poll_7\" value=\"23\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-23\">The principal of the school<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-24\" name=\"poll_7\" value=\"24\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-24\">A regular education teacher<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-25\" name=\"poll_7\" value=\"25\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-25\">A special education teacher<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-26\" name=\"poll_7\" value=\"26\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-26\">An individual to interpret evaluations<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<\/ul><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><input type=\"button\" name=\"vote\" value=\"   submit   \" class=\"Buttons\" onclick=\"poll_vote(7);\" onkeypress=\"poll_result(7);\" \/><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#ViewPollResults\" onclick=\"poll_result(7); return false;\" onkeypress=\"poll_result(7); return false;\" title=\"View all results\">View Results<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n\t<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"polls-7-loading\" class=\"wp-polls-loading\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-polls\/images\/loading.gif\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading ...\" title=\"Loading ...\" class=\"wp-polls-image\" \/>&nbsp;Loading ...<\/div>\n<a id=\"rule\">&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">The Excusal Rule<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The law includes two circumstances that allow a <em>required<\/em> team member to be excused from a meeting.<!--more--><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>If their area of expertise will not be discussed or modified during the meeting<\/li>\n<li>If their area will be discussed, they must submit a written report to the parent and school team members<em> before<\/em> the meeting<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>As a parent,<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>you may agree with the school that the team member does not need to attend because their area will not be discussed<\/li>\n<li>you may, together with the school, consent to excuse this member whose area will be discussed and they must submit a report prior to the meeting<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Both parental agreement and consent must be in writing.<\/p>\n<p>20 U.S.C. 1414(d)(1)(C) and 34 CFR 300.321(e)<\/p>\n<p><em>Required<\/em> team members do not include related services providers or others who attend at the discretion of the parent.<\/p>\n<p>This excusal rule allows for more flexibility of scheduling for meetings.&nbsp; For the initial or annual IEP meeting, all team members should participate.&nbsp; If a meeting is to review or revise a specific or limited issue, then fewer members may result in a more efficient meeting.<\/p>\n<p>The Commentary says the excusal rules are safeguards to prevent parents from feeling \u201cpressure\u201d to excuse members and says the school cannot unilaterally excuse an IEP Team member. Check the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/idea\/comment\/46661-46688.reg.320-328.ieps.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Commentary<\/span><\/a>,&nbsp; p. 46673 &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/idea\/comment\/46661-46688.reg.320-328.ieps.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/idea\/comment\/46661-46688.reg.320-328.ieps.pdf<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Are there penalties for schools that routinely excuse IEP team members?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes.&nbsp; Some school districts may abuse the excusal rule.&nbsp; All districts are subject to the state&#8217;s monitoring and enforcement provisions. A school district that routinely excuses IEP team members from meetings is not in compliance with the law. Some schools have a staff member that manages excusals and addresses complaints of excessive excusals.<\/p>\n<p>Bottom line&nbsp; &#8211; schools should not routinely excuse team members. Do things right the first time. Rescheduling or reconvening meetings so that all members can participate in the IEP decision-making process is inconvenient for everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The bottom line is no.&nbsp; If you do not agree, a required member of the IEP team may not be excused. If the school asks you to consent to excuse <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/do-parents-have-to-excuse-members-of-the-iep-team\/\">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":[35,57,8,18,7,529,11,64],"tags":[61,79,41,38],"class_list":["post-2723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eligibility","category-fape","category-faqs","category-ieps","category-legal-news","category-parent-rights-responsibilities","category-special-ed-law","category-special-education-regulations","tag-iep-team-meetings","tag-iep-team-members","tag-parental-rights","tag-rights-responsibilities"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2723","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=2723"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25062,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2723\/revisions\/25062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}