{"id":91,"date":"2018-08-28T08:57:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-28T12:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=91"},"modified":"2020-06-18T18:52:35","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T22:52:35","slug":"parents-are-not-members-of-the-iep-team-say-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/parents-are-not-members-of-the-iep-team-say-what\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents Are Not Members of the IEP Team &#8230; Say What!?"},"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=\"Parents%20Are%20Not%20Members%20of%20the%20IEP%20Team%20...%20Say%20What%21%3F\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><blockquote><p><em>&#8220;I&#8217;m a special education teacher. At a recent meeting, our sped director told us that &#8216;parents are <\/em><strong><em>not<\/em><\/strong><em> a part of the IEP Team.&#8217; The director said we must have parental consent before we can implement an IEP, although parents are not members of the IEP team.<br \/>\nI&#8217;m confused. Can you clarify?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Parents <strong>are and always have been members<\/strong> of the IEP team. I can&#8217;t imagine why your sped director would tell teachers that parents are not members of the IEP team, but parents have to provide consent to the IEP. If parents aren&#8217;t involved in developing the IEP as members of the team, why would they have to consent?<\/p>\n<p>The sped director must know this. But you and your fellow teachers . . . <!--more--> . . . need to know how to find answers to your questions in the federal law and regulations. As you just learned, if you don&#8217;t know how to find answers to statements that don&#8217;t ring true, you&#8217;re at the mercy of others for information.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-25793 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/word.law_.highlight.sm_.jpg\" alt=\"word law with yellow highlighter\" width=\"250\" height=\"167\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Do you have a copy of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)? Every special education teacher needs to have a copy of the law and regulations.<\/p>\n<p>The law about IEPs is in Section 1414(d). If you have a copy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/bks\/selaw2\/selaw2.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Wrightslaw: Special Education Law<\/span><\/a>, turn to page 101. You&#8217;ll see (B) <strong>Individualized Education Team<\/strong> midway down the page in bold type. <strong>Parents are listed first<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The federal regulations about IEPs are on pages 245-251. Required members of the IEP team are listed on pages 246-247. Again, <strong>parents are listed first<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>When you have to deal with a situation like this, we recommend you use the &#8220;Columbo Approach.&#8221; It goes like this &#8211; &#8220;I&#8217;m confused &#8230; I don&#8217;t understand &#8230; doesn&#8217;t it say right here that &#8230; &#8221; (as you point to the relevant text in the statute or regulations). Of course (like Miss Manners), you are polite.<\/p>\n<p>You will be in a stronger position if you have the law book in hand, relevant portions of the law highlighted, and sticky notes marking the pages. If you do this, you won&#8217;t need to say much (except &#8220;I&#8217;m confused &#8230;&#8221;). The law will speak for itself.<\/p>\n<p>Your experience shows why it&#8217;s so important for teachers (and parents) to learn how to find answers to questions in the law on their own. If you can&#8217;t do this, you&#8217;ll rely on what others tell you. As you&#8217;ve learned, they may be dead wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m a special education teacher. At a recent meeting, our sped director told us that &#8216;parents are not a part of the IEP Team.&#8217; The director said we must have <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/parents-are-not-members-of-the-iep-team-say-what\/\">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":[18,11,136],"tags":[160,1299,151,176,177,1311,1319],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ieps","category-special-ed-law","category-strategies","tag-iep-team","tag-ieps","tag-ms-manners","tag-parent-rights","tag-special-ed","tag-special-education-regulations","tag-strategies"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","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=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25801,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions\/25801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}