Answer: Your child’s IEP team must have all important, relevant information about your child to prepare a good IEP. If you want a good IEP for your child, you need to share your concerns and information you have about your child. This will help the IEP team do its job.

Sharing Information and Concerns

If the IEP team is aware of the parents’ concerns and what the parents want for their child, the team can do a better job.

Parents should give information to the team at least several days before the team is scheduled to meet. Some parents are afraid that if they give information to the team too soon, the team will find more reasons to say "no".

Parents should not use this as an excuse to hold back important information from the team or to keep information from the team until the day of the IEP meeting. If the IEP team does not want to use information provided by the parents, they won’t use that information, regardless of when you provide it.

Be considerate. Give the team your information well in advance of the IEP meeting.

Many parents find that when they provide information about their child and their ideas about their child’s educational program in writing several days before the meeting, the child receives a better IEP.

No One Likes Surprises

Assume you turn up at your child's IEP meeting with several pages of new information or a new evaluation on your child. The IEP team was not aware of this information until you present it during the meeting.

How will the team respond? Some members will be upset to learn that you had important information but did not share it with them. They are likely to feel that you are trying to ambush them.

Change the facts. Do you remember how you felt during your first special education meeting? You walked into the room and sat in a little chair with lots of school folks who appeared to be sitting in big chairs.

Everyone was well-dressed. One person asked to be called “Doctor.”

Someone handed you a long report that included words and terms that you were unfamiliar with. The “Doctor” read the report aloud quickly. Someone asked you if you had any questions. Confused and embarrassed, you mumbled, “No”.

You may not remember much about that IEP meeting because you were upset, confused, overwhelmed, and perhaps a little angry. You knew the meeting was important. Because you did not have the written report before the meeting, you did not have an opportunity to read it, study it, or formulate any questions. When you received the report during the meting, you did not know what to say or do.

This is what happens to IEP team members when you wait until the day of the IEP meeting to give them information about your child. When you take them by surprise, some members will feel angry and upset because they were not prepared for your surprise. Some will assume you did not give them the information before the meeting because you do not trust them.

Do you want the people who are building your child’s IEP to be angry and frustrated? Do you think the team will do a great job on the IEP if they are upset and frustrated with you? Of course not.

Do not spring surprises on the IEP team. This is not the time to "pay them back" for surprising you earlier. Do not let the past actions of others affect your behavior in the present.

You need to give the team all the information they need, in writing, several days before the meeting.

The response of your child's IEP team may be a pleasant surprise!

Resources

Parent Threats: Refusing to Sign the IEP - Pat has advice for a parent who is refusing to sign the IEP until the school provides the services she wants.

What to Do When the School Ignores Your Requests - Pat offers commonsense advice to a parent who is frustrated because the school has ignored her requests for help.

Meet Pat Howey

Patricia Howey has supported families of children with disabilities since 1985. She has a specific learning disability and became involved in special education when her youngest child entered kindergarten. Pat has children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren who have a variety of disabilities and she has used her experience to advocate for better special education services for several of them.

Pat is a charter member of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA), serving on its Board of Directors from 2000 through 2003. She has been a Commissioner on the Tippecanoe (County) Human Relations Committee, a graduate of Leadership Lafayette and Partners in Policymaking, and a member of the Wrightslaw Speakers Bureau. She has been on the faculty of the College of William and Mary Law School’s Institute of Special Education Advocacy since its inception in 2011.

Pat has an A.S. and a B.A. in Paralegal Studies from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, where she graduated magna cum laude. She is an Indiana Registered Paralegal and an affiliate member of the Indiana Bar and the American Bar Associations.

Pat began her advocacy career as a volunteer for the Task Force on Education for the Handicapped (now InSource), Indiana’s Parent Training and Information Center. In 1990, she opened her advocacy practice and served families throughout Indiana by representing them at IEP meetings, mediation, and due process hearings.

In 2017, Pat closed her advocacy practice and began working on a contract basis as a special education paralegal. Attorneys in Indiana, Texas, and California contracted with her to review documents, spot issues, draft due process complaints, prepare for hearings, and assist at hearings. In January 2019, she became an employee of the Connell Michael Kerr law firm, owned by Erin Connell, Catherine Michael, and Sonja Kerr. Her duties have now expanded to assisting with federal court cases.

"Changing the World -- One Child at at Time."

>Contact Information

Patricia L. Howey, B.A., IRP
POB 117
West Point, Indiana 47992-0117
E-mail: specialedconsulting@gmail.com
Webpage: https://cmklawfirm.com/

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