Troubleshoot These 9 Common IEP Concerns

Published: Sep. 17, 2024Updated: Sep. 20, 2024

We always recommend checking in with your IEP team about a month into the school year. Unfortunately, the start of a new school year is often accompanied by bumps and false starts as new teachers, providers, and other school staff learn what’s in our children’s IEPs — and sometimes, the only way they learn is by parents reminding them! While we may have a lot to discuss with our IEP teams during the first months of school, the good news is that addressing concerns now will set up our kids for progress during the rest of the year as we hold the school accountable for providing all those IEP supports.

We sat down with Undivided Education Advocate Lisa Carey to get her tips for checking in with our IEP teams and addressing some common concerns.

What if my child’s teacher isn’t providing all their IEP accommodations?

If your child isn’t getting their accommodations in class, should you call an IEP meeting right away? Lisa says, “I am not a fan of automatically calling an IEP, and I hate to say for every little thing, because some it may not be little. If your kid is not getting their accommodation, it could be a big deal, right? I want to start by talking to the teacher directly, emailing with them and talking to the team. Maybe you need to email the OT and say, ‘Hey, I don't think that you know, my child is getting their accommodations in the class. Can you please check on that?’ A lot of times that can solve it. A lot of times they just didn't know.”

It’s important to remember that teachers may not have read each child’s entire IEP at the beginning of the school year, even if they’ve seen your child’s IEP summary. “I always want people to approach this from a place of collaboration,” Lisa reminds us. “We always want to start there. We want them to communicate with us. So just start by asking the teacher some open-ended questions, like, ‘How is it going? What do you do when my child becomes dysregulated?’ Or, ‘What do you do when you notice my child is fidgeting?’ or whatever it is. Hopefully, they're going to answer the question the way that you're expecting, which is they're going to use an accommodation.”

If a quick discussion doesn’t resolve your concern, check out our full article What to Do If Teachers Aren’t Implementing IEP Accommodations for more ideas about how to ensure your child has access to them.

Education goal

Ensure my child's Individualized Education Program (IEP) is being followed

Get a step-by-step walkthrough to help you follow up on your child’s IEP on the Undivided platform!

What if my child isn’t getting all their IEP services?

This concern could come up at any time of the year, but if you observe that your child isn’t getting all the speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, or other services for the number of minutes written into their IEP, it’s important to follow up with your team about it. Here’s what Lisa recommends:

If your child has missed a significant number of hours of IEP services, you may need to request compensatory education.

Preparing to request comp ed? Use all the organizational tools of the Undivided platform, including a step-by-step guide. Get started →

What if my child’s teacher doesn’t want to fill out a communication log every day?

Teachers may be reluctant to fill out a worksheet of all your child’s behaviors every single day because they simply don’t have the time. Lisa’s advice is to prioritize what you’d like your child’s teacher to communicate to you. “You, as a parent, need to decide what it is you want to know, and what it is you need to know, and how frequently you actually need that. You could be open to not getting all of the details about every single thing every single day, because that is a lot.” Maybe that looks like asking about just one or two of your most important concerns each day and then asking for more detail just once a week. Here are Lisa’s suggestions:

Even when you approach your request in this way, you may still be told by the teacher or the district that they don’t want to send home a daily log. What do you do if this happens? Lisa says, “I would ask for their suggestions for an alternative to start. So if they say, ‘We can't,’ then I would say, ‘Well, what do you suggest? What's an alternative? How do you manage it for families?’ Sometimes I've heard of families using a shared Google Doc, where the teacher and the parent, and oftentimes the OT and the speech therapist, everybody's on it, and they can communicate. Another one that I really like, especially for those checklists that you need, is having the aide fill it out, and then at the end of the day, the teacher can look at it.”

Speaking of aides…

What if the school isn’t consistently providing my child with an aide?

Lisa has similar advice here: consider your priorities and focus your advocacy efforts on times when your child truly needs their aide. Hear her explanation of why and what to do next:

What if the school doesn’t want my child’s aide to talk to me?

This is a concern we hear about all the time. Of course we want to hear about our kids’ day from someone who knows them well, but some districts have rules against aides reporting to parents. Lisa says she doesn’t agree with this, but the reason is that “the aide is not responsible for your child's education. They help facilitate, but they're not a teacher, and so [the school] wants a teacher or an admin or somebody aware of what communication is going back and forth between the parents.”

How do you learn more about your child’s day while making sure the school keeps on top of parent communication? Lisa says, “ I would push for a handoff with the aide present and a supervising person like the teacher. You can often start off by requesting that the handoff in the morning or the afternoon be with the aide present and an administrator or the teacher, whoever they want it to be. And then you can ask those very casual questions: ‘Did they use the bathroom today? Did they have a good day? What did they eat for lunch?’ And hopefully, as time goes on, it gets a little bit more relaxed. That's what I would ask for, that touching base with someone else present.”

What if my child needs an aide outside of classroom time?

If your child is going on a field trip, participating in after-school activities, or enjoying other extracurricular activities, your child should have access to the same IEP supports as in their classroom, including a 1:1 aide. Hear Lisa’s explanation for why and how to hold the school accountable:

Find more details in our article about aides here.

Education goal

Prepare a request for a 1:1 aide

If you believe your child requires a 1:1 aide in order to access a free, appropriate public education (FAPE), you have the right to request one during your IEP meeting. Learn how to prepare your request here.

What if my child’s teacher and/or aide needs more training?

Some common reasons why school staff may need more training is if your child uses AAC, needs certain behavior interventions, or has health concerns that could lead to a medical emergency during the school day. Lisa emphasizes that you can request extra training in the IEP, and you can also request that you as a parent be part of it. Listen to her tips for how to request training and where to write it in the IEP:

What if you get pushback about asking for more training? “I think that some schools are going to be easy about this, and some schools are not,” Lisa says. Remember that training should include not just teachers but anyone who is responsible for your child during the school day. Lisa explains, “I ask, who's going to talk to the lunch staff? Is that going to be the teacher, the BCBA, the OT, who's going to do it? And then I'll follow up with that person a week later, like, ‘Hey, did you have a chance to talk to the lunch staff?’ If they say no, it's definitely more challenging how to proceed. I would definitely document that in the IEP notes or in your email that they have said no, and then you can follow up with questions, maybe talk to an advocate and figure out the next way to proceed.”

What if the school locks up my child’s medication?

If your child’s school health plan includes an EpiPen, seizure medication, or a similar intervention for a medical emergency, you may have been told that this medication must remain locked in the nurse’s office for the other students’ safety. This is understandable, but if your child must receive their medication within minutes, you don’t want time being wasted running to the lock box. Even if medication is kept locked in your child’s classroom, your child could have a medical emergency out on the playground or in the library.

Here’s Lisa’s recommendation for addressing the concern in the IEP: “What I always recommend is that you get a fanny pack, and the aide wears the seizure medication or the EpiPen or whatever it is in the fanny pack around their waist. And when the aide shifts change because they go to lunch or they go to the bathroom, whoever's with that child, the fanny pack just transfers from that aide to the next aide. And then at the end of the day, you lock it up in the office. I think for any sort of rescue med, this is something that people need to insist upon.”

What if my child is being bullied at school?

This is, unfortunately, another common issue we hear from fellow parents, and schools have a duty to protect students from being discriminated against because of their disability. Here’s what Lisa recommends:

Above all, make sure the school knows about your concerns in writing. For more information and resources, see our article Bullying and Kids with Disabilities.

“Prioritize and let the little things go”

We asked Lisa for her top advice for parents at the beginning of the new school year, and she repeated her theme of prioritizing what to focus our advocacy efforts on:

Thank you to Lisa for sharing her wisdom about confidently advocating for what our children need in school!

You can watch the full replay of our event (with transcript available) here, where we go into more detail and also answer some questions that parents asked in the chat during our livestream.

Ready to resolve some of these concerns with your own IEP team? The Undivided platform has goals with step-by-step walkthroughs to help you request an assessment, call an IEP meeting, request a 1:1 aide, and more! Explore your Undivided account today if you already have one, or join Undivided to get started.

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