Depending on your child’s success with their IEP, an annual IEP meeting may be the only time you interact with their IEP team during the school year. An annual IEP meeting is typically when you come together and discuss your child’s scholastic progress. It also serves to update the IEP to ensure it provides all necessary supports and services for the following year.
Before your annual IEP meeting starts, submit a written request for a copy of the proposed IEP in advance. It is always in your best interest to ask for a copy of the IEP in advance so you can review things.
Even though this meeting happens once per school year, it is very important for you to: attend, participate, and fully understand all aspects of these IEP meetings. The common procedure for an annual IEP meeting is: discuss your child’s strengths, your parental concerns, and goals for the next school year. IEP team members may have data that quantifies your child’s performance or progress they have made on current IEP goals. Occasionally, new IEP goals are proposed or a modification of accommodations and/or services is required.
Throughout the annual IEP meeting, the school staff presents their general observations, relevant data, and their opinion(s) of how your child is doing. They can make suggestions as far as what can be done to further support your child’s education. School staff are considered to be experts in their specific domain, which is why they are able to provide this information.
However, you are the expert on your child. If something is shared that does not sound accurate regarding your child, you should feel comfortable sharing your expertise as well. It is important to ask questions if or when something sounds off or that you may not understand completely. Most school staff go through years and years of training and will fall into a habit of using jargon that can be difficult to parse.
Annual IEP meetings are vitally important to your child’s scholastic well-being. Contact Aspire Advocacy today so we can work with you and your child’s school district to maximize your child’s scholastic success.
For help at your child’s next IEP meeting, more information about our special education advocacy services, or for a FREE 20-minute consultation to see if we are a good fit for you, call or email today!
As parents, we understand. As advocates, we can help.