What are the best strategies for an IEP meeting to help my child in TK get into a general education classroom for kindergarten?

Start the IEP meeting with a vision statement talking about who you envision your child will be when they grow up and the life you want them to have as an adult. Tell your IEP team from the beginning of the meeting that your goal is for your child to be in a gen ed class, and then make sure that every goal they want to add to the IEP is something that can be done in a typical gen ed classroom. Ask the gen ed teacher (who must be in the meeting) if the goal skill is something the other kids do in their classroom; if the answer is no, then no, it shouldn’t be there for your child.

Think of a goal as teaching the skill that’s missing that prevents participation. It needs to be something that can be practiced in that environment. Anything that requires quiet 1:1 work is going to be a reason for separate settings. For the most part, the kids at this age are all learning the same things; the way your child will be learning the information or showing that they know may be a little different, but the goal should be something that will be able to be worked on in a gen ed classroom.