As a parent, you are an integral part of your child’s IEP planning and decision-making team. One way to make sure your input and suggestions are part of your child’s file is by drafting a parental concerns letter that helps clarify what you would like to see addressed at your child’s first IEP meeting. This is a chance to share information that only you know about your child.
The benefits of writing a parental concerns letter include:
If you feel it would be helpful for your upcoming IEP meeting to draft a parental concerns letter, special education attorney Grace Clark has some tips and advice about what to include.
Highlight your child’s areas of strength, their interests, and what strategies have been successful at home. This can help the school team see your child as a whole person and craft accommodations that more accurately fit their needs. You may also want to include the vision statement you wrote (or updated) for your child.
List what you see as your child’s areas of need, such as social skills, communication skills and/or speech delay, gross or fine motor skills, or pre-academic skills, such as identifying letters and patterns.
Suggest goals that you would like your child to work on rather than asking for services. For example, “Sydney needs an articulation goal in speech therapy to say ‘th’ sounds more clearly,” rather than “Sydney needs 30 more minutes of 1:1 speech.”
Point out strategies that have not worked in other settings, and how they might be altered for the preschool environment.
If you are working with an advocate or a lawyer, inform the IEP team of this in the letter. If this person will be present at the meeting, include that information as well. If you plan to record the meeting, you are required to inform the team beforehand.
Use language that is positive, polite, and professional to help keep negotiations respectful.
Let the team know that you will be emailing the letter before the meeting, and ask for it to be included in the parent concerns area of the IEP near the top where everyone can see it.
Keep it brief, no more than one page.
