How
do I get ready for my child's Team meeting?
Bring with
you:
Initial
and Re-evaluation meeting:
Your
child's evaulations (school evaluations and outside evaluations, if you
have them). Put them in file or notebook.
Take
a copy of your Wrightslaw book (Federal law-IDEA) and a copy of our Mass. state
regulations.
It's good to be able to quote the section of an item
in case they tell you they cannot provide it. It's a good idea
to
remind the Team that this meeting is about meeting your child's needs
and it's not about money instead about your child's education.
It's
good
to let them know if they are not familiar with the law, you can look
the law up for them if they like.
Bring
a photo of your child (especially if there is a large IEP population
in your school.)
Re-evaluation
or yearly (annual) Team meeting:
A
copy of your child's current IEP (and the previous IEP) for reference.
Bring your child's Communication Notebook (or printed out emails).
Gather up your child's work samples from the regular ed classes and
special ed sessions.
Documents
to Create for your meeting:
Initial
and Re-evaluation meeting:
After
reading your evaluations, make
up a list of any questions you have about the evaluations.
Find
your child's lowest scores, list these areas of weakness.
In
preparation for creating your child's IEP:
Write
down all your parental concerns.
Depending
on the age of child, write down your child's concerns.
List
your hopes and dreams for your child. Use these to create
your vision statement
for your child
(your long term goals, where you would like to see your child in
1-5 years).
You
will present these concerns to the Team to be discussed and to be
include in your child's IEP (page IEP1). These concerns can be used as
an outline for the contents of your child's IEP.
Review
the child's past years achievement, work
samples from the regular ed classes room and his
special ed sessions, homework,
grades, reports, previous history, etc.).
Consider
the student's present level of educational
performance.
Estimating
what can be expected in a year's time or
the
duration of the IEP.
Make
up a list of what you think your child's goals should be. You need to
provide input as to what goals your child should have. Want to
ask do these goals address your child's needs based on his
disability.
These
may include the following:
- Academics: Reading, Writing,
Spelling, Math
- Social Skills
- Communication
- Leisure/Recreations Skills
- Vocational Skills
- Personal Management
- Perceptual Skills
- Behavioral Skills
- Physical Skills
List
the goals in order of their priority.
Identify
the category of instruction for each deficit area.
Make
up a list of questions for your Team meeting. See two
examples of a possible format to use:
Crabtree's
and Wrightslaw.
Here
are some
examples of questions to discuss:
Prioritize your requests/questions.
Look
at the pass years goals, If you have draft copy of your child proposed
goals:
Assess
the practicality of the chosen goals in terms of final
outcomes, age appropriateness, relevancy,
Are
the goals
measurable?
What
specialized instruction, curricular and method they are going to
use to try to meet those goals.
Ask
if the special ed teacher has taken any course in the subject they
are going to teach.
(For
reading, i.e. Orton Gillingham, Wilson,
Lindamood Bell, etc.).
Request
to see the workbooks/materials they will be using with your
child.
Have
more than
one approach to offer. If your initial suggestions cannot be
implemented,
you
should have given some thought to your fallback
position.
What
training does his special educator have in your child's
disability.
Contact
Your
School:
Contact
your case manager/Team chair a few
days in advance
of the meeting to
discuss the agenda for the meeting. Inquire about how much time
has
been scheduled for the meeting. If you feel that there is not
sufficient time scheduled to address the full agenda, discuss with the
TEAM Chair the possibility of extending the TEAM meeting time or
request that, if necessary, that an additional date be set at the
conclusion of the first meeting. Be sure to bring your calendar to the
meeting.
Tips
for
Team Meeting:
Did
the people at your Team meeting
discuss issues, create goals and
work, as group towards consensus?
From
the Federal regs: IDEA Question and
Answers
(40 parent friendly questions): Appendix A
9.
What is a public agency's responsibility if it is not
possible to reach consensus on what services
should be included in a child's IEP?
(To
define, "public agency" is the local
school district, a
representative of the local public agency
(i.e. School Principle, School Administrator).)
The IEP meeting serves as a communication
vehicle between parents
and school personnel, and enables them, as equal participants, to make
joint, informed decisions regarding the
(1)
child's needs and
appropriate goals;
(2)
extent to which the child will be involved in
the general curriculum and participate in the regular education
environment and State and district-wide assessments; and
(3)
services
needed to support that involvement and participation and to achieve
agreed-upon goals. Parents are considered equal partners with school
personnel in making these decisions, and the IEP team must consider the
parents' concerns and the information that they provide regarding their
child in developing, reviewing, and revising IEPs
(§300.343(c)(iii)
and 300.346(a)(1)
and (b) ).
The IEP team should work toward consensus,
but
the public agency has ultimate responsibility to ensure that the IEP
includes the services that the child needs in order to receive FAPE. It
is not appropriate to make IEP decisions based upon a majority
"vote."
If the team cannot reach consensus, the public agency must provide the
parents with prior written notice of the agency's proposals or
refusals, or both, regarding the child's educational program, and the
parents have the right to seek resolution of any disagreements by
initiating an impartial due process hearing.
Every effort should be made to resolve
differences between parents
and school staff through voluntary mediation or some other informal
step, without resort to a due process hearing. However, mediation or
other informal procedures may not be used to deny or delay a parent's
right to a due process hearing, or to deny any other rights afforded
under Part B.
Article
about Team meeting:
The
following information is from Jennifer
L. Bollero , Esq., Her
article titled: "Play
Hearts, Not Poker"
can
be found on the Wrightslaw
website:
We
cannot lead a team we do not join.
It
is
not enough to come into a meeting, periodically and make demands; even
legitimate, legal demands.
We
must model the behavior we want to draw out in our children's
IEP team.
If
we
want the other team members to be patient, prepared, and educated about
our child's needs, we must set the standard.
We
must be understanding of them and the demands on
their time.
We must be patient with them as they learn our child's method
of learning.
We must be prepared and secure helpful test results on our
child's development, articles or other related materials, and then
share them; and
We must be as or more educated about the objective realities
of our child's disability so we can talk to other team members as
peers.
Before
we make any demands
on a team member, we must ask
ourselves,
"Am
I asking of this person something
I have not done, or am not
willing to do?"
