IEPs are governed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a federal law that establishes what schools are required to provide so that all students can receive a free, appropriate public education. IDEA isn’t just about how students are treated — it also establishes parental rights and procedures for helping make sure the school’s special education services are appropriate to each child. This means schools can be held accountable, and parents who disagree with their IEP team have options for making sure their concerns are addressed.
Parents bring incredibly valuable insights and big-picture thinking to IEP meetings. Out of everyone on the IEP team, parents often have the best understanding of their child’s strengths and can keep the entire IEP team oriented toward building a strength-based IEP. Don’t be afraid to speak up and provide feedback on all the parts of your child’s IEP, including present levels and goals.
Did you know that students can attend their IEP meetings? It’s recommended that students preparing to transition out of high school attend their IEP meetings, but they can attend at any age as developmentally appropriate for them, so talk with your child about to what extent they’d like to participate — even for just a few minutes at the beginning of the meeting. Getting your child comfortable talking about their disability and support needs while they’re young can help set them up for a lifetime of empowerment and self-advocacy.
Your child may receive an IEP for one of many diagnoses — there are 13 eligibility categories — but their eligibility category doesn’t determine what will be written in the IEP. Remember: IEPs are individualized for every student. If the school tells you that all students with autism are automatically placed in one class, for example, or that all students with dyslexia receive 30 minutes of occupational therapy per week, that could be a red flag. The supports, services, and placement in a student’s IEP must be based on what they need, not what their diagnosis is.
Not sure what category your child would qualify for an IEP under, or even whether your child is eligible for special education? The first step is to request a full evaluation from the school.
Many parents think of kindergarten as the start of formal education, but if your child needs special education services, the school district can step in as early as 3 years old. Whether your child has participated in a state-run early intervention program or not, you can request a full special education assessment for your child at age 3. Just like with older kids, IEPs for preschoolers can include individualized services, therapies, goals, and supports to help build skills with peers.
It’s a common misconception that students who need specialized instruction will automatically be placed in a separate class from their typically developing peers. IDEA requires that IEP teams should consider general education placement first along with what supports would be required to help the student progress in a mainstream classroom, such as accommodations, modifications, an aide, push-in services, etc. The law states that students should only be removed from the general education classroom if supplementary aids and services in the gen ed classroom cannot meet the student’s unique needs. To troubleshoot this issue with your IEP team, see our article What to Do If Your Child’s Placement Isn’t Working.
The majority of states use the Common Core State Standards to determine what students should be learning at each grade level. This includes students with IEPs! Even if your child requires modifications to the curriculum, or simplified versions of the standards, writing IEP goals based on the state standards can help your child be included in learning along with their typically developing peers, instead of segregated at the back of the classroom.
Are your child’s IEP goals written to promote inclusion with their peers and access grade-level content? Use Undivided’s step-by-step walkthrough to help you assess their current goals and write new ones if necessary.
A good IEP goal includes the time frame the goal will be worked on, the condition and skill the goal is targeting, the supports that will be provided, the evaluation criteria, and how the student’s progress will be measured. This last part of an IEP goal is key! An IEP goal should specify who is collecting data and how. That way, parents and the rest of the IEP team can gauge the student’s progress toward the goal and see if their IEP supports are helpful or if something needs to be updated. For a deep dive into writing (and rewriting!) effective IEP goals, check out our article here.
If you ever need to update your child’s IEP because something isn’t working, or you have concerns that the IEP team needs to address, you don’t have to wait until your annual IEP meeting. You can request an IEP meeting at any time during the school year. The school then holds a meeting within a reasonable timeframe, typically 30 days, depending on your state regulations. If it’s a small update or the whole team cannot meet within 30 days, changes can be made to the IEP without a meeting over the phone or email as long as you agree.
Use Undivided’s step-by-step guidance with sample letters and expert tips to help you request an IEP meeting.
Don’t forget: you as the parent are a key member of the IEP team! The school can’t make IEP decisions without you. An IEP meeting can be rescheduled if you need to bring a guest, such as an education advocate, a friend, an Undivided Navigator, or another person you trust to support you during the meeting. Also remember that a “part two” (or three or four) can be scheduled if the IEP team doesn’t address all your concerns during a single meeting.
IEPs can be daunting, but they don’t have to be! It’s our mission to make sure kids with disabilities get the supports they need, at school and in life, so we’ve built our whole resource library with the goal of helping parents feel empowered to advocate for their children.
Whether you’re brand-new to IEPs or you’re looking to improve communication with your IEP team, follow Undivided’s step-by-step IEP prep goal to get all of our templates, digital tools like IEP Assistant, and expert tips in one place!
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