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IEP Tip of the Week
Mar 17
Education Bureau of Special Education, documents, IEP, parents, State Department of Education 3 Comments
I’m teaching a Parent Advocacy class this month and this week’s session was a review of the IEP document. We took a blank IEP and went through it, page by page, discussing what belongs where and how the document gets put together. As we were working our way through, I kept hearing the same thing “Hey, I’ve never seen this page!”.
Hello?! What?! Are you kidding me?! These are not “newbie” parents, many have children in later elementary or middle school and there are pages to the IEP that THEY HAVE NEVER SEEN? What’s up with that?
So, today’s challenge for my Connecticut families. Go find your last IEP. Check two things. Look at the bottom of the first page. Note the revision date. It should be “Revised Feb 2009a”. Now look over to the far left bottom corner where there is a little, tiny page number. It should start with 1 and go up to 12 inclusive. There may be more than one of some of the pages, but there should AT LEAST be one each of the 12 pages.
If there isn’t? Gather up your IEP and march on down to your school. Talk to the Director of Special Education or the Coordinator. Ask why you don’t have a COMPLETE IEP document. Remind them that this is a legal document and they are required to fill it out completely and to give you a COMPLETE COPY. Then call the Bureau of Special Education at the CT State Department of Education and file a complaint.
For more information about IEP forms and what they should look like, click here.
Mar 17, 2011 @ 20:11:14
I wonder how often parents get an incomplete version because the administration doesn’t want to “confuse” them with too much information.
Even as a parent of a non-autistic child, I frequently get answers that presume the person speaking knows what I need to find out, rather than answering the question I actually asked. Which I probably asked for a reason, thank you very much. Although both answers might not be a bad place to start!
Let’s hope someone gets better information because of this heads-up.
Mar 18, 2011 @ 12:45:54
Unfortunately, Erika, that would be like your roofer only giving you the front and last page of the contract because all the information in the middle (like what color roof tiles, how long the installation will take place, what exactly you are paying for) would be ‘too confusing’. You would only know that you are paying for someone to install a roof, but none of the details of how, when and what is being done.
Mar 18, 2011 @ 13:19:06
Yes. I didn’t mean to imply I agreed with the practice. Just wondering if the motive was more self-serving (avoiding conflict) than malignant. Which could be the same thing, but might well not be. Of course, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if it was entirely from ignorance of their legal responsibility.