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Once the evaluations have been conducted, parents are sometimes invited to a meeting to review the evaluation data with the school psychologist and/or others prior to convening the IEP Team. But sometimes the review of the evaluation data occurs directly in the IEP meeting (some level of review of the evaluations should occur in the IEP meeting).
Regardless of who reviews the evaluation data with you, ask questions. Make sure you understand the findings. Evaluations and their results are complex. Don’t just look at the school psychologist’s report findings and recommendations, ask to look at (and get a copy of ) the actual testing results, including subtest scores. One of the best explanations of evaluation data is found in Wrightslaw’s Emotions to Advocacy book. I recommend that you order your very own copy and study the two chapters on evaluations to better understand what the data is showing you. Frankly some educators simply do not understand what the data shows, and others will gloss over or discount serious discrepancies between scores, which often are the red flags showing areas of disabilities.
So the next step is generally that the parents receive a notice of an upcoming IEP meeting. The LEA (local educational agency) is required to give the parents written notice of the meeting. This notice lists who the school has invited to the meeting…who the IEP Team is…and asks for the parents to confirm or decline attendance.
NEVER DECLINE TO ATTEND YOUR CHILD’S IEP MEETING. Do not let the Team meet without your attendance. If the time does not work for you, request (in writing) that the time be changed. Schools sometimes will be inflexible on this issue of when to hold the meeting. But you are the most important participant (your child’s teacher is nearly equally as important). Insist that the meeting be held at a time you can attend!
Note: I was contacted recently by a mother of a preschool child whose IEP Team was planning to meet on a day when the preschool was not in session, and the mother could not find the specialized childcare needed for this child so the mother could attend the meeting. She had asked if she could bring the child along to be watched by a beloved aide there, but was told that the aide would not be working that day. The mom, feeling intimidated, had almost given up her right to be at the meeting. Instead, she went back to the school, in writing, saying that it was necessary that she bring the child with her, so she suggested the meeting be held on a day when the aide was working and could tend to the child rather than having the child present in the meeting. The school moved the meeting to a day the preschool was in session so the aide could stay with the child during the meeting.
IDEA 2004 has two significant changes to meeting attendance:
1. The first is that a member of the IEP Team is not required to attend the IEP meeting if the parent and LEA agree that the team member’s attendance is not necessary, because that member’s area of expertise will not be modified or discussed during the meeting. The parent must consent to this excusal. Further, a member whose area is going to be involved in the meeting may also be excused from attending if the member submits in writing to the parent and the IEP Team, prior to the meeting, their input, and if the parent concurs with the excusal. What does this mean? It means that schools will likely be looking to excuse key members of the IEP Team for various reasons. If you, the parent, think a team member should be there to give input, do not give permission for the excusal. If an area of curriculum or services arises that needs that excused member’s input and they have been excused, request that the discussion and decisions be tabled until that person can meet with the IEP Team.
2. The second is that IEP Meetings do not have to be face-to-face meetings, but can be convened by conference calls or video conferences. This applies to IEP meetings, placement meetings, mediation sessions and due process resolution sessions.
