For even highly-trained professionals, assumptions in special education are a difficult pitfall to avoid. Even parents of children who have well-written IEPs may eventually come across an IEP team meeting where assumptions about supports and services are made. Sometimes this can be because teachers leave the school, a family relocates to a new district, or a great speech therapist moves on and a new therapist understands our child less.
You have worked hard to set up your child’s education, so make sure to enjoy life when things are going well. There are fewer things more satisfying than knowing your child has what they need to be successful. Enjoy the good working relationships and nourish them as much as you can. It gives us time and energy to focus on other areas of our life, and to be as ready and rested as we can for when we have to go back in for IEPs.
How do you avoid making assumptions in special education?
Life changes inevitably happen, which makes it incredibly important that you keep your child’s paperwork up to date. This helps reduce the number of assumptions that can be made about your child’s educational needs in the next IEP team meeting. Assumptions in special education happen at many times, including when there are gaps in the information used to determine if your child has met their goals from their previous IEP.
Make sure to get last year’s goal updates before going into your child’s next annual IEP. Also ensure that you write down when your next IEP team meeting is scheduled. Set a reminder for one to two weeks out so you have time to prepare, and ask that district send all documents to you before the meeting so you have time to prepare. If you do not know when your child’s next IEP is set to happen, ask your school district immediately!
Other assumptions in special education can be that your child will have the same teacher for the entire school year. We have had multiple instances occur when our clients have had a series of substitute special education teachers for the entire year. Sometimes, the primary teacher is out on leave and the district must hold their job open for them. Temporary staff can only work for 20 school days. Sometimes the school is unable to find any certified teacher. The assumption that things “will be fine” is dangerous in this situation. It is much more likely that your child will not make appropriate progress during these times as (like many of us) our children work best when they have a relationship with their teachers.
Services delayed are services denied.
When possible, ask your child about who is working with them on their IEP goals. In the instances when your child is not able to share this information, some detective work is in order. Email your child’s case manager and ask how your child is doing. Follow up if you do not hear from them. You may need to call an IEP team meeting to check in and determine if your child is making progress and has received the services listed in their IEP. Hoping that things go well when there is a lot of chaos in your child’s class is one of the more dangerous assumptions in special education because it can allow your child to not make progress on their IEP goals. Sometimes district is not able to find speech therapist or occupational therapists, and will quietly not provide services. IF your child has not received the services they are legally entitled to, ask—in writing—for a date that the services will start.
It is best to try and work things out with your school district before becoming less pleasant to interact with…or before taking the legal route. Remember that services delayed are services denied, but give your school district roughly one week’s time to start your child’s services.
If services in the IEP have not started within a week of your request (or a max of about 10 days after the school year begins), file a statement of non-compliance with the State of California and request compensatory services. This requires the school district to make up the missing service time. I will usually tell a district that I am going to have to file non-compliance if I don’t hear from them by ____ date. That lets them know that 1) I am serious and 2) they can fix it, or I will ask the State of California to help.
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 fill out our contact form.
As parents, we understand. As advocates, we can help.