By Erin LeAnn Rodriguez
I.E.P. These three little letters often bring frustration, fear, and overwhelming anxiety to parents who have just discovered that their child does, in fact, have a learning disability.
How to maximize the benefits of IEP, an Individualized Education Plan for your child
All parents just want their students to be successful learners. In the case of a student with a learning disability, this often means the schools need to provide extra help for the student during the school year. This help comes in the form of a variety of accommodations, modifications, and support personnel. All these pieces are put together into one plan, called the individualized education programs ieps or in some states, the Individualized Education Plan.
Understanding the IEP document and its goals and federal law IDEA often makes it difficult for parents to understand.
What is The Individualized Education Program?
A legally-binding, written program, the IEP is meant to provide needed adaptations, adjustments, and assistance to students with a verified learning disability or disabilities. It is a year by year, month by month, and sometimes even a week by week plan outlining the help a student will receive during the school year. While this sounds relatively straightforward, the actualities are quite complex.
Research and Understand IEP
Understanding the basics of the I.E.P. can help you, the parent/guardian, make the right decisions for your family and child.
Step 1: Learn about the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act or IDEA.
To start the I.E.P. journey, parents should first digest the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which is the federal law detailing accommodations every public school is required to provide to students with learning disabilities. This umbrella guideline ensures all the essential requirements will be met by every state.
While the federal government sets the primary expectations, IDEA does leave room for each state’s own interpretation. The states may add to the IDEA accommodation and support requirements, but they may not take away from what the federal law provides. This is an important distinction and one you don’t want to overlook.
Step 2: Research your state’s special education requirements and laws.
Before you enter an IEP meeting, you want to be sure that the state is, at the very least, providing all the federal mandates. Check out your state’s Department of Education (see map here) and look for the Special Education and Parent/Family Resources links. Every resource a parent can bring to the I.E.P. meeting table is a valuable one. There are numerous toolkits, checklists, disability information guides, and accommodation recommendations available.
Check out this free printable checklist from A Day In Our Shoes: How to know if you are ready for your IEP meeting.
So, now you’ve done all your homework and read all the federal and state laws, and you are still struggling with the specialized terminology and the daunting lists of expectations and recommendations that are seemingly best for your learning-disabled student. Don’t worry. This describes almost every parent walking through the I.E.P. meeting door.
Video: Parents’ Guide to IEPs
LOOK FOR PROFESSIONAL HELP
One frequently underused, but extremely valuable tool is the use of a liaison or advocate.
Step 3: Find the advocate to take into the room with you.
This might be a friend, an LD-experienced parent, a trusted and knowledgeable teacher, a currently-involved counselor (school or doctor provided), a special education lawyer, a physician, or any other liaison you feel will help you and your child. Or it could be an objective special education advocate that you hired just for this purpose. The bottom line is, that you do NOT have to go alone into a meeting that is so foundational to your student’s educational experience.
Next, your meeting goes off without a hitch…or maybe it doesn’t. That’s OK, too.
Step 4: Renegotiate, improve, and maintain your student’s plan for educational success.
I.E.P.s are re-evaluated yearly to adjust for the learner’s ever-changing needs. This means that you will need to stay up to date on changing state and federal laws, keep an eye on new research that pertains to your child’s IEP,, and constantly monitor that all accommodations are being provided as detailed in the I.E.P.
There are many forms, programs, and books that have tips and tricks on tracking the I.E.P. goals. Even though the classroom teacher and special education teacher are monitoring goals and objectives, you may want to do the same.
Here are several free versions that you can even share with your student’s school so that everyone stays on the same page.
Despite being as prepared as possible, there are still times when you might just feel lost, frustrated, and alone. Be sure to reach out to others as there are empathetic parents to sympathize with you, professionals to help guide you, and groups to lift you up. Start here at LD Resource Foundation, where nothing is impossible.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
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