The IEP Team: The Law, the Reality and the Dream

“Free appropriate public education” — Never have four words had such power to determine a child’s chance for a meaningful education. “FAPE” is the core purpose of our federal special education law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 2004 (IDEA 2004). The intent of FAPE is to ensure that special education programs and related services are designed to meet a child’s unique needs and prepare him or her for further education, employment, and independent living.

The road to FAPE can be long, winding, and occasionally treacherous. Navigating that road requires the focus, talents, and expertise of an entire team: your child’s IEP team.

“IEP” stands for Individualized Education Program. It’s the first stop on the road after determining your child’s eligibility under the IDEA 2004. 

The IEP team is charged with developing, reviewing, and revising your child’s IEP at least once a year – and more often if you are dissatisfied with your child’s lack of progress. If you’re not satisfied, speak up (and write letters or emails) as often as you feel you need to in order to get results! Don’t wait!

How IDEA Defines the IEP Team

Legally the IEP team must include “you” the parent, plus at least one general education teacher (if your child is in even one general education class) and one special education teacher. In the case of a child only receiving a related service such as speech and language, a speech therapist can replace the special education teacher.

The Importance of the General Education Teacher’s Attendance A child with an IEP deserves thoughtful representation and participation by the general education teacher at the IEP team meeting. This teacher should have present-level knowledge about your child and should not be a stranger to your child or be the only teacher available at that time. More than I like to see, I am in an IEP team meeting  where no general education teacher is in attendance, and I have to remind the school district of its responsibility. Or, I hear the district representative ask the parent to excuse this teacher after his or her input has been provided. School districts cannot ask parents to excuse any member of the IEP team “at” the IEP team meeting. General education teachers are expected to participate the entire time. They are not allowed to enter it late, during their prep hour, or while someone other than a substitute covers their classes. It isn’t just discourteous or inconvenient if the general education teacher comes to only part of the meeting or doesn’t show up at all; it’s illegal.

 

 

The IEP team must include a representative from the school district who is knowledgeable about the availability of resources, the general education curriculum, and continuum of special education programs. 

The IEP team requires an individual who can interpret the instructional implications of evaluations, such as a school psychologist, occupational therapist, and social worker. You can request the attendance of other individuals who have knowledge specific to your child’s educational needs. The school district can also request attendance of other individuals with expertise regarding an area of the IEP. Some you may be unfamiliar with, but your school district must let you know they are attending, in advance. 

If your child has been receiving outside services under Part C of the IDEA, you can request that your child’s Part C services provider attends the IEP team meeting. 

Your Child’s Attendance at the IEP Team Meeting

Last but never least, is consideration of your child’s attendance at the IEP team meeting. A child must be invited if he or she is 16 years of age and transition or post-secondary goals will be discussed. 

You have the right to request that your child not attend through his or her 18th birthday, but as an educational advocate I often suggest to parents that they have their child attend the beginning of the IEP team meeting. This can allow a child the opportunity to develop and practice self-advocacy skills. I encourage my students even as young as seven to voice their concerns about any aspect of school. On the other hand there are children who are sensitive to any discussion centered on their learning challenges and participation in an IEP team meeting is not productive. A child’s attendance at an IEP team meeting is a decision that should be considered with thoughtful care.

Excusing Team Members

The law has provisions for excusing team members. This is often a point of confusion – or confrontation, frustration, and misinformation!  I recommend that you read the following, read it again – and memorize it!

An IEP team member may be excused only when: (1) a parent and the school district consent in writing to excuse the team member and, (2) the team member submits that input in writing to the parent and the IEP team before the meeting. A team member may also be excused when the team member’s area of expertise is not being discussed or modified during the meeting. For example, if your child receives occupational therapy (OT) as part of his IEP and you won’t be talking about or changing the OT goals or services during the meeting, the occupational therapist does not need to attend, provided that you and the school district agree in writing prior to the meeting. 

So that’s the basic legal requirement for your child’s IEP team. Should be easy driving from here on out, right? Ah…not so fast.

Real-life IEP Team Meetings

There are the legal requirements for the IEP team. Then there is the everyday school reality, including school district-created urban legends. There are parents’ hopes and dreams of what the IEP team should be – and must be, if your child and the other six million students in the United States with IEPs are ever to receive an education designed to meet their unique and individual needs.

What is a dream IEP team?  In September 2010, the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities said that the IEP team is “Made up of individuals who bring different perspectives and expertise to the table. Pooling their knowledge, team members set out to craft an individualized response to a specific child’s needs, taking into account that same child’s strengths and talents. The end product is the child’s individualized education program.”  

Sounds lovely – and it’s an excellent idea, but it’s much closer to the dream and promise of the IDEA 2004, than to the IEP team reality parents face in the here-and-now.

When I asked parents what their idea of a “Dream IEP Team” characteristic was, the number one response was “honesty.” Not this expert or that professional, but honesty.

It sounds harsh, until you’ve traveled the FAPE road a time or two. Here’s the reality of most IEP Team meetings.

Hard-to-Find Team Members

Remember “Where’s Waldo”? You, the parent, walk into the meeting and discover that “Waldo” is out searching for the related service providers who are supposed to be at the meeting but are not – so why the search? The related service providers are contract employees assigned to school buildings on scheduled days of the week, or they are district employees and assigned to intractable schedules with burgeoning caseloads. As such, their schedules may not align with your child’s IEP team meeting. 

Under the IDEA, however, related service providers can’t base their attendance respective to the day or days of the week that they are contracted for, or assigned to your child’s school. Attendance by related services providers is necessary when their area of the curriculum will be discussed and annual goals or supplementary aids will be drafted.

The School District’s Representative

The district representative attending the IEP team meeting must have the authority to expend district resources and offer FAPE. Typically when educational advocates attend an IEP team meeting there is a special education director or supervisor who knows that district dollars may come into play. 

Still, every once in a while I attend a meeting with a principal or special education teacher who is acting as the district’s authority. When I raise points about special education programs and supplementary aids such as assistive technology, additional tutoring or extended school year services I hear, “Whoa, wait a minute! We need to adjourn and reconvene with the Director or Supervisor of Special Education.” 

You want to avoid having to adjourn and reconvene an IEP team meeting simply because a service or accommodation will cost the district money that only a special education administrator can expend.

Don’t Feel Rushed Don’t pay attention to the “While I am in here I am not servicing my other students, blah, blah, blah….” Nonsense sometimes conveyed by school personnel, and intended to make you feel bad about the amount of time your child’s IEP team meeting is using. An IEP that delivers FAPE cannot be written in 1 hour. At its most efficient an IEP team meeting will run 2 ½ to 3 hours, and only if team members have prepared their input on suggested annual goals and supplementary aids prior to it.

Defining Measurable Goals

Back on the road to FAPE, parents may face the educational-deer-in-the-headlights look when the topic of drafting measurable annual goals is raised with the IEP team. The IDEA ensures that children with disabilities will have access to the general education curriculum, thus enabling them to “meet the educational standards…that apply to all children.”  

Still, you may run into an IEP team that has forgotten best practice is to use the student’s grade-level curriculum and content expectation standards to write a “standards-based” IEP, because the child is taking standardized state assessments. More than once I have had a director of special education ask, “Marcie, why don’t you write the annual goals like you did for a previous student?” A growing number of states are requiring standards-based IEPs, so you will want to research your state’s policy prior to the IEP team meeting. 

Extended School Year Services

Perhaps the IEP team at its ugliest? When the time comes to discuss the student’s need for “extended school year” (ESY) services. In my many years as an educational advocate, never have I heard more ridiculous responses to parents’ queries regarding ESY. 

• It’s the exception, and not the rule.
• There has been no regression in your child’s annual goals.
• Be thankful that your child does not qualify for ESY.  
• Two to three years behind in reading is not considered “severe” or a “critical area of learning.” 

Frankly, all children with IEPs need ESY. Every school year, children with IEPs spend hours that add up to days, weeks and several months, without their teachers or direct instruction. Their teachers are attending IEP team meetings!

No Snacks Necessary Parents should not have to think that providing food is necessary in order to keep IEP team members actively engaged. So why is such a lovely expression possibly a bad idea? The IEP team meeting isn’t about cookies and socializing. It’s about getting down to business – the business of your child’s right to FAPE. Can you bring a desert or munchies? Absolutely, but because you want to, and not because you feel obligated.

The Dream IEP Team

If only?  Parents are there, confident, ready and relaxed. I walk in as the educational advocate and am not viewed as an adversary or pit bull. All of your child’s service providers are in attendance, and if there are evaluation results, they are clear and easy for parents to understand. The special education administrator attends, and remembers that special education is at no cost to you, the parent. 

Special education teachers are trained in best educational practices, research-based methodologies, and computer software designed to address deficits in reading, writing, and mathematics. Parents are not considered the “expert,” anymore than you would be if your child had leukemia, and the oncologist was reviewing treatment options.

If your child has a 1:1 paraprofessional or a paraprofessional is assigned to one or more of your child’s classes, this person would be in attendance and a valued member of the IEP team. 

And holy cow, actress Whoopi Goldberg, business leader Charles Schwab and Yale professor and renowned author Sally Shaywitz (Overcoming Dyslexia) are sitting in the meeting larger than life – ready to cheer us on and remind us of all that our children can achieve.

The IEP team would remember that learning disabilities are neurologically based life-long disabilities that can be successfully remediated with research-based instruction delivered with fidelity. IEP team members would feel free to express concerns about your child’s progress and come prepared to draft annual goals, supplementary aids, programs and services.  Members would not talk to you outside of the IEP meeting and say, “Don’t tell anyone that I told you….”

If your child has AD/HD (and many who have LD also have AD/HD), the treating psychiatrist, neurologist or pediatrician would attend the IEP team meeting, instead of by signature or letterhead. Also attending would be any clinician (PhD psychologist, neuropsychologist, speech clinician, behavioral consultant, etc…) who has evaluated your child through an “Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE)” at public expense. Even the audiologist would be there to explain the manifestation of academic deficits in reading comprehension and written expression that are due to a “central auditory processing disorder” (CAPD). 

If your child is reading 2-3, or even 1 year below grade level the IEP team will be frantic and hold all-nighters until they reach agreement on a prescriptive reading program. Members will never have been suspected of child abuse due to educational neglect. The IEP team does not need portable defibrillators to resuscitate your child’s education. Your child’s educational airbag will never be released while sitting on the school bus that drives down the “yellow brick road” to FAPE. 

If I Had a Magic Wand

I want the road to FAPE to be paved with a collaborative spirit and driven by an IEP team with well-rounded knowledge and expertise. Every IEP meeting would adjourn with parents knowing that while you will travel this road at least once every school year, you will welcome the ride.

Every day that I am an educational advocate I wonder, will I live to see the promise of the IDEA delivered? Will I know what it is to be a member of a “dream” IEP team? Will I see your child reach his or her maximum potential and go off to college and to live his or her dreams? Until then, I encourage parents and education professionals to aim for an informed, inclusive, respectful and collaborative IEP team – one that will best support “your” child’s educational needs and road to success.

Additional ResourcesQuestions and Answers on Individualized Education Programs (IEPs)

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