How To Be Ready For An IEP Meeting

I am excited to introduce this week’s guest blogger, Ashley, from Spedtacular Days to share all about how to be IEP meeting ready!

Have you ever had an IEP meeting where you felt overwhelmed? Unprepared? Scared? Nervous? These are all natural feelings when entering an IEP meeting. Read below for some tips and tricks to be ready for your next IEP meeting!

Running your first or last IEP meeting can feel so exhausting and overwhelming. You do not need to feel this way. Everyone is just as anxious. Remember everyone in that room ultimately wants what is best for the student.

Review the Prior Information

Upon receiving your student on your caseload read through their file and previous IEP’s, testing history, amendments and more. This will give you base knowledge of the student and their abilities. It can also give you insight to what the parents have seen before and agreed upon to their child’s annual document. This is one way to be IEP meeting ready!

Peer Reviewer

Another tip to be IEP meeting ready is to have another staff member read through your document prior to sending it home. Words like is, if, at can be easily confused or spelled inaccurately. Having another set of eyes read through you document can catch unintentional errors. 

A peer reviewer also can give goof insight to rewording a goal or inquiring about a section of the document. They can suggest adding more information to certain areas of the IEP. It can seem “odd” as adults we are asking someone to read through a document, but this is a legal binding document! It is important to be accurate.

You could also have a IEP Team meeting before the IEP meeting to get on the same page.

Speak to the Family

Prior to the meeting call the family and discuss the goals you are considering adding. Ask the family their opinion on what they want to see added into the IEP. This has prevented discussions at the meeting because parents had time to process and think about any additional questions or concerns. Parents may ask questions you do not know the answers for. This is the perfect time to say “I am not certain at this time, but I will have additional information for you at our meeting.” You can then inquire about information or get the ball rolling per say to get that answers needed.

Grab this free Procedural Safeguards in simple terms! This is great for parents and teachers to truly understand parent rights. Do not use as the legal document to give at meetings. This is just for the basic understanding.

Practice

This was a tip my professor in college told me about. I first thought it was silly, but in reality it helped me feel more confident heading into my meeting. I would practice reviewing the IEP in front of the mirror. Much like preparing for a speech. I did not want to feel like I was reading right off the paper. I wanted to have the confidence that I could openly speak with the families and share the knowledge I know about their child.

Agenda

Have an agenda ready! This will give you easy talking points to remember and give you the confidence that to know what is coming next in the order of the meeting. Make sure you add to the agenda to introduce everyone! Parents may not know the Speech Pathologist, Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist, Social Worker etc. I always do introductions just to reiterate everyone’s names and roles. This helps with identifying all the IEP meeting participants.

Here is a free IEP meeting agenda to download and use for your next meeting!

Make an agenda for the IEP team for each meeting. If you want to have shared goals with your team members, make sure to let them know! The purpose of IEP meeting will be listed so that everyone knows what to expect at an IEP meeting.

Remember, IEP’s are not always going to go without a hitch. THAT IS OK! This is normal. Have an open conversation with your administration if you think a parent might have a question you do not know the answer for.