Can my child's 1:1 aide come to the IEP meeting?

You can request that your child's 1:1 aide attend the IEP meeting, but it's common for schools to deny such requests or not allow parents to speak to 1:1 aides at all. There are a variety of reasons for this. In many cases, aides are not trained to communicate with parents, and most aides are only contracted to work certain hours and so will not be able to attend meetings.

If the school will not allow your child's aide in the IEP meeting, you can ask your child's teacher to please get the aide's input before the meeting. Then, during the meeting, ask what input the aide has about your child.

Former SpEd administrator Daphne Zacky Bold says, “A parent can ask anybody to come to an IEP meeting that they would like. So if a parent wants the aide to come to the IEP meeting, they have the right to ask for that. A district may say no, and I recommend to parents that they push back and they ask them if there's a policy in place that says that the aide can't go, and if so, that they provide it to them. But there needs to be somebody on behalf of that aide, whether it's the supervisor from the agency or the aide themselves, if they are district employed, they should be there at that IEP meeting to speak in regards to the student’s performance.”

For more tips, see our full articles 5 Ways to Get Better Responses from Your IEP Team and 6 Ways to Make a Difference in Your School District — According to a Former SpEd Administrator.