IEP team members

No testing for a triennial review? That doesn’t sound right. What is it that makes you nervous about him/her being invited? Are you thinking they are going to surprise you with something? Remember, you do not have to sign anything right away, except a statement that you attended the meeting. You do not need to agree to anything until you fully understand the implications, and your child will “stay put” until things are worked out.

School Psych always attended our meetings (at least almost always). Doubt it’s any big surprise, but Rover is correct, you don’t have to sign anything other than attendance. It would be good to go in relaxed and with notes and pad ready. Ask questions after everyone is introduced; such as… can you explain why you are attending this meeting and have never attended any others? Are you going to be assessing my child? If so, in what areas? Why? What testing protocols are you intending to used…?

Has this person assessed your child before?

Try not to worry things bad. It may not be a big deal, but do stay on your toes and trust your instincts.

Andy

~~~~Remember, you do not have to sign anything right away, except a statement that you attended the meeting. You do not need to agree to anything until you fully understand the implications, and your child will “stay put” until things are worked out.~~~~

really??

i did not sign my child’s iep after the triennial because i did not agree to it; there is no place to sign anyway other than the sheet that states who was in attendance. i also wrote a letter stating that i did not agree with the iep. i assumed because i did this the old iep would stay in place until the issues were resolved and a new iep could be developed. my school has put the iep i don’t agree with in place anyway - without my consnet or approval and says they have considered my opinions and that is all they need to do……

You need to take a long look thru the laws regarding IEPs and become more familiar with your rights as a parent. I know they vary somewhat state to state, but it is highly likely they are assuming you are not going to question their bullying tactics.

There are many sites out there from www.wrightslaw.com, to www.edlaw.com to socks’s site (who posts here quite often :)… all of which will direct you to the area of law you need to familiarize yourself with.

Do not over react, but become more knowledgable about your rights and what the law states. It is entirely possible that your district is ignorant to the law as well and they simply are doing what they have always done.

If you have given the district written notice that you are in dispute with the IEP, then it is their obligation by law to instruct you as to your rights of dispute. This would entail filing for mediation and due process if the dispute cannot be resolved. Your thought that the old IEP should stay in place is correct, but something is going on that you need to correct or see corrected.

There are other avenues you can take like filing complaints with the state or the office of civil rights, but you need to get much more information, documentation and above all else, well versed in the law and your rights. All this will take is some research, some reading, some cut and paste and get it all together first and then respond.

And if by some stroke of luck you have the district’s response to your letter in writing that all they need to do is consider what you have to say, and then do as they wish anyways, you have something of value I think.

Anyway, follow your gut instincts, get well informed and above all else, document everything. (Also, don’t let on to the district you are going to do the research, just DO IT).

Good luck.

Andy

Personally I wouldn’t consider it a big deal. Perhaps they are having the school psych come when the re-evals are coming up to give advice on wheterh testing is needed. And no, it is not required to repeat formal testing every three years. If from the child’s performance in classwork it and/or informal teacher testing it can be determined that services are still needed, then formal testing does not have to be done. That is very wise in cases where the child has made some improvements and might not meet the discrepancy requirement the next time.

Janis

You have gotten some good advice here. If you go to LD in depth there are numerous articles on I.E.P.’s. There is also Wrights law.com that has useful information. You need to know you and your childs rights.

I had one IEP meeting where I requested that her regular teacher not attend. The teacher gave me no input when I asked her questions during the whole year and I saw her more as a hinderance to my child for what I wanted her to have for the next year. I requested the school psychologist to attend instead because she had more insight as to my child’s needs.Make sure your IEP is clear so the next group of people to work with your child know exactly what needs to be done.This is my second year of having learning support being new to teaching so a clear IEP is a must.

Pysch’s were always there for ours. Could be they’re trying to do things better (or at least make ‘em look better).
Not doing testing is a little unusual — do you have good standardized measures of progress? You sure don’t want “teacher observation — making good progress” to serve as the monitoring of his learning.

Okay, any person with special knowledge or expertise can be invited and BE a member of the IEP. For example an Advocate for the parent. This would be someone you as the parent might invite,the advocate would then be considered a member of the team. If your son is up for his three year,then yes,the psych could be invited as a member of the IEP team.

A few flags that go off. And you decide if this is your situation or not:

1. You are suppose to recieve IN WRITING a notice of this meeting,what will be discussed,and who will be there to discuss them,you in turn are supposed to send this notice back,with a mutually aggreeable time and place for the meeting. This would mean you would be informed of what the psych is invited for and what is planned for discussion,you can in turn decide if a private meeting before the IEP is appropriate for you.( if Apr/2 is not a good time for you,then you would send this notice back saying ,the date is not aggreeable but this date would be etc.)
2. In the past it has been very helpful to have the school psych there to explain test results to the team,determine what test should be done etc. What wasn’t helpful,and is a violation of procedural safeguards was: having test results and the school psych wanting to “kill two birds” and give the results to everyone at the same time.(In the case of an eval, the report is supposed to be presented to the PARENT before the IEP meeting )This did not give me the time,nor the opportunity to prepare myself for what I understood the results to mean,let alone be able to determine what I felt as a parent would be a good IEP goal based on the results etc. After a few of these situations,I always wrote a letter requesting a meeting privately with the psych AND a copy of the eval report at least a week prior to the IEP meeting. I had the right to ask this, due to being a equal participent of the IEP process,which means I have the right to be an informed one.Make sense?

Socks, I emailed you re: the Tampa Advocacy Training. Haven’t heard from you.