Five Top Tips for a Productive IEP Meeting
If your child receives special education services through an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), then you will attend at least one meeting a year to review your student’s IEP – in some states this is known as the annual planning and placement team (PPT) meeting. Regardless of whether you are attending your first or final IEP meeting, following are our top tips. To read about each further about each tip, click the respective link.
Be Prepared – Preparation is the key to a more productive IEP meeting. Take the time to get familiar with your child’s evaluations, goals, and services. How will you prepare?
Build Your Village – You will want to have at least one person attend the IEP meeting with you – this may be a spouse, grandparent, advocate, evaluator, etc. It’s important that there is another person present who knows your child. Who will be there with you?
Take a Child-Centered Approach – Although you are the expert on your child, consider how your child’s perspective will also be represented at the meeting. What are some ways to gather your child’s input?
Document – If you have not started documenting about your child’s special education needs and the process, it’s not to late. Start now! What should you be documenting?
Use Data to Drive Decisions – Data from your child’s present levels of performance, progress reports, and monthly monitoring should drive the discussion about your child’s new goals and objectives.
If you are preparing for an upcoming IEP meeting and need additional support, we invite you to contact us today to learn more about our IEP coaching and advocacy services.
