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| Helping Our Children |
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Individualized Education Plan ("IEP")
By Charles P. Fox, Esq.
(A veteran special education attorney in Illinois and the article below is reproduced with his permission.)
The IEP (Individualized Education Plan) refers to a meeting by a team of people to plan you
child's intervention - the members may include the student's parent(s) or guardian, a special education teacher, a regular education teacher if appropriate, a district representative or school administrator, and the student if appropriate. It also refers to the IEP document which spells out the details of special education services and the delivery for the student. Here are basic principles of effective advocacy for parents to consider prior to attending the first IEP meeting.
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- You must have a vision for your child's future around which your advocacy is organized. For instance, the district may view your child as strictly a non-verbal communicator, when in fact it is your view based on empirical evidence that given the right placement and services your child may show abilities that the district may not readily acknowledge. It is remarkable how early and how easily children get categorized as one type of child or another. You as a parent must put forth your vision of your child and fight to realize your child's potential.
- You are not "Just a parent", you are an expert on your child. You have a legal right to sit at the table and to discuss and define your child's IEP. The district is not doing you a favor by giving you a role. The process at an IEP is collaborative and governed by consensus-it is not a majority vote of all those at the table. Nor is the process where either side has a vote over the other side. Do not worry that the district will not like you or will "take it out on your child". Effective advocacy means getting results for your child, not about making friends.
- Vigilance is absolutely crucial. Regular communication with the teacher and related services personnel and keeping tabs on implementation of the IEP is essential.
- Records are central to the whole process. You need to view the special education process as one that is highly legalistic. Keeping your IEPs, evaluations, and all other documents can be the differences between advocacy and failure. Sometimes the small note, card, or newsletter does not seem relevant at the time can become highly relevant later. Keep it!
- Policies and procedures must be known. Schools are government agencies. They have a policy and procedure for everything. Ask for it and insist that you receive it. You will go into meeting s more confident and will be able to keep the district "honest" in meetings and during other contacts. Be certain to receive the behavior policy of the school. Understand the procedures which should be followed, but do not get hyper technical on matters that have no substantive effect. In addition, ask to see sample report cards and curriculum so you can address areas of need and write goals.
- Know how to use FOIA(Freedom of Information Act) and California Education code section 56504 (The parents' right to access all school records of their child. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov) Use FOIA to seek general information regarding policies, procedures, and other data that the district is otherwise refusing to give you. (Please note a FOIA request will be viewed as a highly contentious and belligerent communication and should only be used when litigation seems imminent.) CA education code requests are more common and should be initiated at regular intervals (i.e., annually or bi-annually) to check to see what is in your child's file.
- Supporting the teacher will reap dividends for your child. The teacher cannot always ask for resources that you can request to enable him or her teach your child. The more support the teacher gets, the better the educational experience.
- Know exactly what evaluations are planned for your child. Review the protocol, the test format, the location, the time of day and all other factors which may be relevant to your child's performance. Meetings must be scheduled to allow you to assimilate the reports and share it with your professionals. Insist on reviewing all test results days before a meeting is scheduled. You cannot be expected to read test results, digest highly technical material and be a meaningful participant.
- Gather and collect data on your child both objective and subjective. You will be a more effective advocate if you walk into an IEP meeting with notes or details on your child's learning style, progress, regression, abilities and needs. The data can come in part from you, but you will need to bring professional reports to support, amplify and define your child's needs. Remember the IEP is a needs-driven process. You must help define those needs or the district will define those needs for you.
- Time is the friend of school districts and the enemy of your child. Schools have existed for centuries as an institution, but your child's time to receive an education is short and fleeting. Do not be put off to another day matters that seem relevant and urgent. Always set deadlines in the IEP when things will occur or when you will hear back on a topic of concern, and then follow through. You do not get time back, and compensatory education is a pale substitute for getting it right the first time.
- Men must attend IEP meetings! IT does not matter if the man is a husband, father, brother, friend, or neighbor. The simple reality is that districts speak differently and act differently when a man is present than when a woman is there alone. A related principle is never go to any meeting alone. Schools will bring many people who are on their payroll and sympathetic to their view. Being at a meeting alone is a certain path to being overwhelmed. Bringing another person means you will have a witness if matters end up in due process.
- Get it in writing. IEPs are binding legal documents, but if it is not in the document you do not get the services discussed. In addition, if you do not agree insist that your dissent is written down, and the district's rationale is written down. If they refuse to write your dissent down, or their rationale send a letter by certified mail immediately and ask that the letter be attached to the IEP.
- Individualized educational planning is at odds with the school's missions. Schools are factory operation in a certain sense trying to deliver a relatively uniform education to all students. An IEP requires the school to tailor its programming to the needs of one student. Even in the best schools there will be an underlying tension between the individualization called for in the special education laws and the mass service model that are schools. Recognizing this tension will give you an insight into the school's perspective, and will make you a more effective advocate as you better understand how the district sees the world.
- Do not threaten Due Process. Districts have heard this threat so often that it lacks credibility, and it seems like you are crying wolf. Moreover, after the meeting is over you may decide that you do not want to file, but you have already threatened it. Such threats will not serve you well and squander one of your most important resources- your credibility. Related to this point, you must always at all costs remain calm and now show that the process is getting to you. The common perspective of school district is that parents are unreasonable, unstable, and arbitrary. Outbursts will only erode your ability to advocate.
- Cost or availability of services is not generally relevant consideration in an IEP. The reality is that less costly a service, the less likely there will be a major fight, or the more likely an early settlement will be reached. Cost underlies many decisions, although often times it is not an explicit consideration.
- Never stop fighting for your child, the stakes are too high!
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