{"id":8071,"date":"2012-09-20T10:00:12","date_gmt":"2012-09-20T14:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=8071"},"modified":"2017-10-12T12:33:46","modified_gmt":"2017-10-12T16:33:46","slug":"iep-tips-for-parents-teachers-before-during-after-the-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/iep-tips-for-parents-teachers-before-during-after-the-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"IEP Tips for Parents &#038; Teachers: Before, During, After the Meeting"},"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=\"IEP%20Tips%20for%20Parents%20%26%20Teachers%3A%20Before%2C%20During%2C%20After%20the%20Meeting\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>School has started. Your first IEP meeting is approaching.\u00a0 Both parents and teachers are anxious about what this year will bring.\u00a0 What will happen at the first IEP meeting? What can you do to ensure a productive meeting?<\/p>\n<p>Here are some <strong>Tested Tips for IEP Meetings<\/strong> from CADRE that parents and teachers can use.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"border: 1px solid black; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; float: right;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/images\/back.to.school2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"133\" \/><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">CADRE suggests school staff (&#8220;Conveners&#8221; of IEP meetings) do this to prepare for the meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>For Educators &#8211; Prepare for the IEP Meeting<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Explain crucial nature of parent\u2019s involvement and what will happen at the meeting.<\/li>\n<li>Invite parents to bring anyone they wish.<!--more--><\/li>\n<li>Explain who will be there from the school and why. Ask the parent(s) if anyone has been left out.<\/li>\n<li>Schedule convenient time and location, and ample time for meeting \u2013 very disruptive to have people coming and going.<\/li>\n<li>Establish if parent(s) need help with transportation or childcare.<\/li>\n<li>Invite parents to review relevant documents prior to meeting, encourage classroom visits.<\/li>\n<li>Keep parents advised of progress on an ongoing basis \u2013 an IEP meeting is a bad place to spring a surprise.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>During the IEP Meeting<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Make parents feel welcome.\n<ul>\n<li>Greet at door<\/li>\n<li>Cup of coffee?<\/li>\n<li>Same size chairs for everyone<\/li>\n<li><em>Brief<\/em> pre-meeting chit-chat and acclimatization<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Everyone introduce themselves and explain why they are there.\n<ul>\n<li>Everyone be addressed with the same degree of formality<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Speak in clear, plain language \u2013 avoid jargon and discipline-specific terminology<\/li>\n<li>Have specific materials available that are referred to.<\/li>\n<li>Focus on the child\u2019s individualized needs \u2013 not your program, classroom, or resource limitations.<\/li>\n<li>Listen carefully.<\/li>\n<li>Maintain confidentiality \u2013 don\u2019t discuss other students.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t hurry.<\/li>\n<li>Be honest and trust that the parent is also.<\/li>\n<li>Be willing to say \u201cI don\u2019t know&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li>Involve student for at least a portion of the meeting if they can contribute and always if 18 or over.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>After the Meeting<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Review and evaluate.\n<ul>\n<li>What worked?<\/li>\n<li>What didn\u2019t?<\/li>\n<li>Incorporate into future meetings<\/li>\n<li>Consider building meeting tip file for each child \u2013 sources of anger, joy etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Send home thank you note.<\/li>\n<li>Write down specific <em>suggestions<\/em> about things parents can do at home to help.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>For Parents &#8211; Prepare for the IEP Meeting<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>CADRE provides these suggestions to help parents plan and prepare for the meeting.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Prepare notes about what you want to learn\/find out at the meeting.<\/li>\n<li>Prepare notes about what you want your child to learn in school.<\/li>\n<li>Bring a picture of your child if they won\u2019t be attending.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIf this were your child&#8230;?\u201d use this questioning strategy.<\/li>\n<li>Ask for additional time to consider important decisions if you\u2019re uncomfortable making them on the spot at the meeting or want to get additional input.<\/li>\n<li>Look for opportunities to express gratitude to teachers and related staff.<\/li>\n<li>Bring someone along as a source of support.<\/li>\n<li>If compromising, define how and when to evaluate if compromise is working.<\/li>\n<li>Try to remain calm.<\/li>\n<li>Saying \u201cI don\u2019t know what you mean\u201d is a demonstration of confidence and competence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cadreworks.org\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">CADRE &#8211; The Center for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education<\/span><\/a> &#8211; is funded by the Office of Special Education Programs at the US Department of Education to serve as the National Center on Dispute Resolution in Special Education.<\/p>\n<p>CADRE works to increase the nation\u2019s capacity to effectively resolve special education disputes, reducing the use of expensive adversarial processes. The Center encourages the use of mediation and other collaborative strategies to resolve disagreements about special education and early intervention programs.<\/p>\n<p>You may download these <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cadreworks.org\/resources\/cadre-materials\/iep-tested-tips\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Tested Tips for IEP Meetings<\/span><\/a> from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cadreworks.org\/resources\/cadre-materials\/iep-tested-tips\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">CADRE<\/span><\/a> website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>School has started. Your first IEP meeting is approaching.\u00a0 Both parents and teachers are anxious about what this year will bring.\u00a0 What will happen at the first IEP meeting? What <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/iep-tips-for-parents-teachers-before-during-after-the-meeting\/\">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":[3,18],"tags":[990,132,1299,991,993,992],"class_list":["post-8071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-ieps","tag-cadre","tag-iep-meetings","tag-ieps","tag-national-center-on-dispute-resolution-for-special-education","tag-preparing-for-iep-meetings","tag-tested-tips-for-iep-meetings"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8071","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=8071"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22325,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8071\/revisions\/22325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}