What to Expect from Our First IEP Meeting.

It should be pretty straight forward. They will discuss the areas he needs help, probably increase services and set goals. It should be a quick meeting.

It's a little intimidating at first, because of all the people in the room (parents, teachers, administration, specialists, etc.) but at his age it should be pretty easy and fine. Just speak up if you have questions, and make sure you understand exactly what you're signing.
It gets a lot harder in middle/high school, because the stakes are higher, and your child is more involved and sometimes pushes back or disagrees with the team's recommendations, but you have plenty of time before THAT happens :-)

I can't remember the first, now I feel like I am going to mass. They have to read the whole current IEP even if you know what is in it, ya know, like mass, just as boring. The good part is what goes on around the reading. They make observations, you provide your observations on the same areas outside of school. They discuss strategies you can add things that work at home. If done right you are all on the same page.

It's ok to be nervous, especially for the 1st one.

The prime goal of an IEP, as the the letters stand, is to create an educational plan specific to your child's needs. Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Social Work and Psych can be involved with his primary teacher depending on his needs.

The initial meeting pretty much tells you where your child stands in comparison to his peers, what the goals are for the year and the plan of action to achieve those goals.

The most important thing is to realize that your child is probably somewhere between what he does at home and what he does at school. (With my daughter, I realized soon enough that there were things that they didn't think she can do that she was more than capable of just as I didn't think she can that the team informed me she could.)

The IEP is also a great opportunity to discuss tips on what you can do at home to support what they do in school and vice-versa.

Make a checklist of your concerns. If he's not holding the pencil the right way, ask for activities that can help with fine motor. If it's certain sounds he can not pronounce, ask for tips on how to help him achieve those sounds.

Sometimes you can feel like their underscoring your child. Do not get too fixated on the testing results. Mostly because it is not whether he knows or not know but more of the consistency of how he displays what he knows.

Best,
D.

I'm in a bit of a rush, so I haven't read through all the other answers. My son (17, Junior in HS) is on the Spectrum and over the years we've been to countless IEP meetings.

In my personal experience, I've learned that it's best not to go in with "this side of the table" vs "that side of the table" mentality. There's only ONE side of the table and that's your child's side. EVERYONE at that meeting has your son's best interests at heart and working *with* his teachers, aides, speech/OT/whatever coordinators, etc will be extremely helpful over the coming years. Don't automatically expect that they're trying to avoid helping your son. Your son's success is THEIR success as well as yours. They're YOUR TEAM, treat them as teammates.

As the parent, YOU have the last say in everything. If you truly don't agree with them, discuss it and put your arguments forth. But START from a place of cooperation. Until they prove otherwise, assume that they are there to help your son. Don't be intimidated and a pushover, but also don't run in with guns blazing.

Honestly, I love going to my son's IEP meetings. I love his teachers and school administrators and I feel like they TRULY care about my son. And when we give them suggestions, they're always open to listening and often implementing what we want or explaining why it's not a good idea (as educators, they often see things differently and their approach is sometimes more valid than something I may have thought was better).

I hope your future IEP experiences are as smooth and easy as ours have been. I will give credit to our amazing school district. Maybe we just got really lucky...

Our first one is where we met with a team of educators(Homeroom Teacher, Principal, Inclusion Specialist, OT, PT, Speech, Special Ed Teacher and a few others). This team does some evaluations to determine what he qualifies for and asks you some questions on your concerns and stuff. After the evaluation, the team draws up a plan and you come back and discuss in another meeting. Don't go alone, take your husband if you are married or someone else if you are not.

Its not that bad really. If you don't understand something, ask questions and if you remember a question when you leave, you can always contact the teacher. Be prepared for a 2 hour session. You come up with a plan designed just for your son.

My son was diagnosed with Creatine Deficiency Transporter Disorder, Non-Verbal Apraxia, Fine and Gross Motor Skills delayed. For PT, we had he will pour water into a cup 2 out of 4 trys. One year we added Potty Training to it(we did have to fight on this).

It might say: Bob will use static picture symbols for single core vocabulary words such as (me, help, want, more, stop) to make a comment, choices or direct another person's actions no more than 2 prompts in 70% of opportunities on 3 out of 3 observation samples.

Oh, and and IEP meeting can be called at any time by your or the team during the school year.

I am an occupational therapy assistant in a school district.

The meeting you are talking about is referred to as a Domains meeting. The staff will go around and talk about their concerns and say what testing they would like to do. Typically they will do academic and cognitive testing (psychologist), social emotional testing (social worker), speech testing, and possibly fine/gross motor and/or sensory testing (occupational therapy). They then have 45 school days to complete the testing, and then you will all reconvene to review the results and talk about eligibility.

As another poster mentioned, make sure you go into it with the right attitude to start. I know a lot of parents do have problems with their districts and do really have to fight for their child, but not all districts are like that. You don't want to get off on the wrong foot from the beginning, especially in kindergarten, and have the rest of the time at school be difficult and tense. But it sounds like you have had good communication with the school so far. These meetings will just make it more formal. Hopefully the lines of communication will continue to be open and positive for you.

Oh, and as far as diagnosis. Based on what you said in your follow up, I'm guessing they will do Autism scales. It is possible that he might be able to get an "educational diagnosis" of autism. That is not the same as a medical diagnosis, of course, but would entitle him to more services in school.

Good luck!

Of course you're nervous. Anytime you don't know what to expect, that causes uncomfortable nerves. We've had an IEP meeting, but we went into the meeting knowing what we were talking about. It sounds like your meeting will be an opportunity for the teacher to express her concerns. But, I'm wondering why she hasn't said anything to you beforehand? Normally, a teacher will address some concerns with the parents before a meeting is called.

Our meeting included the various concerns about our child and the plans/goals. It isn't a "scary" meeting, but I can definitely understand why you are feeling nervous.

If there are issues with your child, you will be happy to know that there are support services in place to help kids when they are in need. Go in with an open mind and take notes so you remember what was discussed.

If there's one thing I can share that was helpful to me, remember that YOU know your child best and YOU are their best advocate.

We had our iep meeting for our daughters speech back in September there were a couple steps for it the first meeting was basically just giving the school permission to evaluate and test her and to fill out paperwork and that was just with the speech teacher my daughters teacher and myself. The second meeting was with the special education specialist the speech teacher her teacher and us to go over all of their findings and to set up the iep which was basically she needs speech services to help her articulation and how often and how long she will be going and such

Please google IEP and find some good information that way. This way you can see the laws and what they are "supposed" to be about. We can tell you how ours went and how yours might be.

If you go in with the legal knowledge of what your child should get from this then you can be his advocate in a much better way.

An IEP is for kids that will have a life long disability in at least 2 of their life skills. You may be able to file for disability for him to help cover some of your costs for therapies and additional services that might not come through the school.

Good luck!

I have never had an IEP meeting, but plenty of friends, friends who are teachers, and my parents have. The biggest thing they have all said is that they went in with all of the legal information necessary in hand. So all of the things the state must provide are on paper so everyone is clear.

So you want to know the rights of your child and make them adhere to that, don't let them tell you they can't do something the law says they have to do.

Know what works best for your child going in, so the plan is most beneficial to the student.

As a parent, the best advice I can give you is to be the voice for your child. Don't agree to anything you don't think is good for your child or will help future educational growth.

Good luck!