Promoting Your Child's Participation in the IEP Process
This month's blog article was featured in the October 2024 issue of our digital newsletter, Aspire Wire.
By Elise Wulff, MEd
Senior Manager, Consultation Services
For many parents, preparing to participate in their child’s IEP process can require significant time and effort - you need to organize your own thoughts about the last year, project ahead for the coming year, share important observations about your child, listen to team members share their updates; all while prioritizing your child’s unique strengths and aspirations.
This preparation, along with participating in the meeting, requires skills that you may have researched, practiced, and developed over time. In Massachusetts, students are invited to join their IEP meetings starting at age 14. Regardless of your child’s age or developmental stage, it’s crucial to think about how you can help them build the skills necessary to contribute meaningfully to their own IEP process, whether by attending the meeting or engaging in other ways.
Key Considerations:
By Elise Wulff, MEd
Senior Manager, Consultation Services
For many parents, preparing to participate in their child’s IEP process can require significant time and effort - you need to organize your own thoughts about the last year, project ahead for the coming year, share important observations about your child, listen to team members share their updates; all while prioritizing your child’s unique strengths and aspirations.
This preparation, along with participating in the meeting, requires skills that you may have researched, practiced, and developed over time. In Massachusetts, students are invited to join their IEP meetings starting at age 14. Regardless of your child’s age or developmental stage, it’s crucial to think about how you can help them build the skills necessary to contribute meaningfully to their own IEP process, whether by attending the meeting or engaging in other ways.
Key Considerations:
- Participation Matters: Involvement in the IEP process is linked to improved self-determination, self-advocacy, post-secondary education, and employment outcomes.
- Participation Is Personalized: Each child’s participation will look different. Collaboratively map out a plan with the school team to ensure it is an individualized, productive, and inclusive process.
- Participation May/Will Require Disclosure: Full participation in the IEP Process will require disclosure- but this is not something to be afraid of. Consider your child’s participation in the IEP process as a way to keep the disclosure process moving forward.
A Framework for Involvement:
- Inform: Reflect on how you learned about the IEP process. Help your child understand its principles by creating visual aids, like a graphic organizer of team members and their roles or a sample agenda. Utilize a blank IEP template from DESE’s website to explain the document without your child’s information included.
- Collaborate: Engage in discussion(s) with the school-based liaison or team members to set the stage for effective participation. Here’s a potential sequence of helpful topics to discuss:
- Share your home perspective on your child's experiences.
- Ask for the school’s perspective.
- Discuss plans for your child’s attendance and engagement.
- Share past conversations at home about the IEP process.
- Ask what discussions should happen at school.
- Create a roadmap for future conversations.
- Prepare: Build on your child's knowledge of the IEP process by gathering relevant information to discuss during the meeting. Actively seek your child’s input on specific IEP components by asking questions like:
- What do you want to be when you grow up?
- Is there something teachers do that really helps you at school?
- Tell me about a time a teacher did something super helpful at school.
- How is it going transitioning to and from services with [insert name here]?
- Activate: Participation looks different for every student. Think creatively about how your child can best perform during both the listening (waiting!) and sharing portions of the meeting. Options include:
- Creating a PowerPoint presentation,
- Recording an interview in writing, video, or audio,
- Engaging in role-play to prepare to attend the meeting live.
- Assess: Find times during the year to discuss the IEP process and ‘check-in’ about how things are going.
- This is a great time to express your own positive thoughts, feelings, and confidence in the school team!
Ultimately, the IEP process offers valuable opportunities for your child to develop essential life skills, including self-awareness, self-advocacy, and self-determination. For additional resources, visit www.imdetermined.org.