Jennie Sjursen 0:00
My daughter was just identified with dyslexia. And we have an IEP meeting coming up. What can I expect? I'm Jenny Sjursen X special educator turned dyslexia interventionist. It wasn't so long ago that I too, was overwhelmed by balanced literacy versus structured literacy, education speak, and everything in between. Fast forward after many, many hours of self driven education. And you'll see I've built a thriving dyslexia practice helping students from ages six to 18. My specialties, working with a quote unquote difficult almost always to the student, and breaking down the complexities of dyslexic to everyday language strategies and action steps. IEP season is here and many of you are getting ready to attend an IEP meeting, maybe even your first.
Jennie Sjursen 0:55
Did you know Most yearly IEP meetings follow an agenda of soar. Before we dive in, let's review. IEP is short for individualized education program. It's a personalized learning plan for a child with a qualifying disability. The IEP outlines present levels, goals, services and accommodations a child will receive in a given calendar year. Before the meeting, you'll want to take some time to collect relevant information, any data you've collected, and possibly draft out your parents statement. Some schools ask for the parent statement before the meeting. Others wait for the meeting before asking for your input. On the day of the meeting, you'll arrive at the school and be escorted into the meeting room.
Jennie Sjursen 1:44
Usually a small conference room but it's not unheard of for a meeting to take place in an office or empty classroom. Once everyone arrives, introductions will be done. One by one everyone in the room will introduce themselves and state how they know your child. Your child's case manager general education teacher who actually teaches your child special education teacher and so on. And even you will do an introduction. This is to establish for the record who is at the meeting and their role on the team. During the introduction stage at an in person meeting, and attendance sheet is also passed around for everyone attending the meeting just sign signing this piece of paper is just confirming you were at the meeting nothing more. Next, the school team members are going to review current information grade age classes your child is in and their present levels are present levels of performance. These present levels are obtained through classwork assessments and observations.
Jennie Sjursen 2:49
If it's a triannual Year present levels will also be attained through formal evaluations. A child is reevaluated every three years. The team members responsible for the evaluations school psychologist SLP behavior interventionist occupational therapist, whoever is responsible will then go over the results. They will interpret your child's scores and share what that means in relation to your child and their learning profile. Then parent input will be asked for this is a key area for getting your input documented. The parent input section is where you share all your observations, concerns and goals for your child's education. This is also where you can have any of your objections documented and put into the record. This section can be added to or amended as the meeting continues. Discussing and setting up the annual goals comes next. The goal should be directly related to the data gathered during the assessments and stated present levels.
Jennie Sjursen 3:57
I will never get tired of saying this. The data collected during assessments and observation drives everything else everything. Goals should also be achievable within one calendar year. I don't often see goals that are too easy, but I've frequently seen goals that are too ambitious or aren't given enough supports to make them achievable within that calendar year timeframe. Once the goals are agreed upon, the next step is to determine which services and accommodations will be needed to support your child in reaching their goals, how frequently or when the services will be given, and who is responsible for making sure these services and accommodations are being delivered. During this entire process, the IEP is being drafted or updated in front of you. Many schools project or share the IEP documents so you can see the changes being made in real time. But not all. Don't just assume all Changes were made or done accurately, were human. There's a lot going on many side discussions and whatnot.
Jennie Sjursen 5:07
Read through the draft carefully before signing off, you do not need to sign off on the new IEP during the meeting, you can adjourn and call for a follow up meeting. Throughout the meeting, you should be reviewing the proposed changes and ask clarifying questions. Towards the end of the meeting, you will be asked to review the draft IEP. And if you have any final questions. Again, if you're not sure, you need more time to think about or research what's being offered, you can ask to adjourn the meeting and meet again at a later date. Assuming you and the other members of the team are in agreement, everyone at the table will be asked to finalize the IEP. All members of the team including parents will then sign the IEP to signify their agreement. Finally, once the new IEP is signed, it is put into place and implemented. But here's the thing. The IEP is a living document, which means it is not set in stone.
Jennie Sjursen 6:11
Throughout the year you're going to have ongoing communication with the school, you'll be monitoring your child's progress. And if you feel that the IEP is currently written is not effectively serving your child, or there is no progress being made. You have every right to call an IEP meeting and ask for amendments or changes. You do not have to wait until the next yearly meeting for this. So while the IEP process can be challenging, and no two IEP journeys are the same, the agenda for how an IEP meeting is run is generally uniform. And now you know what to expect and in what order. If you have any further questions about dyslexia or IEP meetings, please feel free to sneak into my inbox. I'd also love your input. What would you like to hear from me in the future? Is there a topic I haven't covered yet? You really wanting to learn more about or do you have a pressing need and you're not really sure how to handle it or move forward?
Jennie Sjursen 7:13
Send me a DM on Instagram or drop me an email at Jennie. That's je n n i e at literacy untangle.com I can't wait to hear from you. Until next time. Buh bye. I hope you enjoyed this episode of literacy untangled if you love this episode as much as I did, head on over and rate and subscribe so you never miss an episode. If you want to continue the conversation or share your takeaways, head on over to our Instagram at literacy untangled and comment on your favorite part. I can't wait to hang out with you again soon. Bye.
