Every three years, students who receive services through the special education program are reassessed to determine whether or not they remain eligible for services. The IEP team will collaborate to determine the specific assessments that will be administered during this triennial review. These reviews can be scheduled more frequently depending on student need but cannot occur more than once per year without parent and district agreement. For more, see our article IEP Timelines.
To prepare for your triennial IEP, here are tips from Undivided non-attorney education advocate Lisa Carey:
Assume that you are going to need four hours of IEP meetings. You'll have a lot of reports to go over. Most triennials will have psycho-ed, speech, and academics, but you may also have physical therapy, adaptive PE, and more. Try to schedule a second meeting, and if you don’t need it, cancel it. If the district wants to schedule a four-hour chunk, try to break it up. If the meeting goes too long and you get tired, you might start agreeing to things that you otherwise wouldn't. Also, try not to do siblings back-to-back on the same day.
Request all assessments prior to the meeting. In your request, state that this is “so I can prepare to participate.”
In some cases, if a child’s supports are complex, some districts will allow the examiner to explain their results. (No recommendations are made there; it just means they are taking time to explain.) This could help with the meeting length because the goal is that you as a parent can understand information presented to you and help make meaningful decisions.
Another tip is to compare triennials to previous assessments to see if there’s growth. Are they different? Are there areas that are surprising?
For more information, see our full article Prepping for Triennial IEPs.
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