By Frances Shefter, Esq. (and mom)
Full Parent’s Guide to Reading an IEP Series here!
Part 10: Putting it all together
Over the past nine parts, we have worked our way through your child’s IEP one section at a time. We started with the Present Levels because they are the foundation of the IEP. From there, we looked at goals, accommodations, Supplementary Aids and Services, Special Education and Related Services, progress reports, what should happen when your child is not making expected progress, placement, and Extended School Year.
Now it is time to put everything together.
When I started this series, my goal was never to turn parents into special education lawyers or IEP experts. I wanted to help you understand enough about your child’s IEP that when a long draft lands in your inbox before the annual review, you know what to do with it. I want you to be able to sit down with the draft, understand the plan the team is proposing, and recognize when something does not make sense.
That is really what I am doing when I review a draft IEP. I am not simply reading each section and deciding whether I like the wording. I am looking at the child described in the Present Levels and then asking whether the rest of the IEP addresses the needs that have been identified. Some of those needs may require specially designed instruction through a goal. Others may require support through Supplementary Aids and Services. Some may require both. From there, I want to know whether enough time has been allocated to implement the goals, whether the child needs related services, whether the data shows the plan is working, and ultimately whether the placement can implement the IEP.
You do not need to know every special education law to do that. You just need to know what to look for.
Start With Your Child
When you open the draft, start with the Present Levels. Before worrying about goals, service hours or placement, make sure the IEP accurately describes the child you know. The Present Levels should tell you about your child’s strengths and needs, where your child is currently functioning, what the data shows, what is working, and where your child continues to struggle. If you finish reading them and do not feel like you have a good picture of your child as a learner, that is something I would want to discuss at the meeting.
As you read, pay particular attention to the needs that are identified because those needs should not disappear when you turn the page. As you continue through the IEP, you should be able to figure out how the team plans to address them. If the Present Levels identify a decoding deficit, for example, your child may need a goal providing specially designed instruction in decoding. If your child understands math but becomes overwhelmed when presented with a page containing 30 problems, that need may be addressed through a Supplementary Aid and Service that shortens assignments while still allowing your child to demonstrate mastery.
Sometimes the answer is both. A child with executive functioning needs may need a goal teaching a particular executive functioning skill while also needing visual supports, chunking of assignments, or adult check-ins to function successfully while that skill is developing. The goal provides the specially designed instruction, while the Supplementary Aids and Services provide the support the child needs throughout the school day.
This is why I do not want you to go through the Present Levels counting needs and then expect to find the same number of goals. Instead, ask whether the significant needs identified in the Present Levels are addressed somewhere in the IEP in a way that makes sense. If you find an important need and cannot figure out where or how it is being addressed, you do not have to know the solution before the meeting. Write it down and ask the team, “We identified this as an area of need. Where in the IEP are we addressing it?”
That is a perfectly appropriate question, and sometimes it is all you need to identify a gap that everyone else missed.
Keep Reading and See Whether the Plan Works
Once you understand how the needs are being addressed, keep moving through the IEP. Look at the Supplementary Aids and Services and make sure they are individualized and specific enough to actually be useful. If the IEP says “teacher notes,” does the Clarify Location and Manner section explain when those notes will be provided and what that means? If it says “preferential seating,” does it explain what preferential seating means for your child rather than leaving the person implementing the IEP to guess?
Then look at Special Education and Related Services. At this point, you already know the goals the team has developed, so you can ask whether the amount of time allocated makes sense for implementing those goals. If your child has several significant reading goals, for example, how much time is actually being allocated to work on them? If your child needs speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy, or another related service to benefit from special education, is that reflected in the IEP?
As we discussed earlier in this series, more minutes are not automatically better. The question is whether the services make sense for this particular child. There is always a balancing act because time spent receiving one service is often time away from something else. What I want you to understand is what your child is receiving, why they are receiving it, and whether the amount and location make sense based on the plan the team developed.
By this point, the IEP should begin to feel less like a collection of separate sections. You should be able to understand what your child needs, how those needs are being addressed, and how the team plans to implement those decisions.
Now Compare the Draft to What Actually Happened
Once you understand the new plan, compare it to what actually happened during the current IEP year. This is where those progress reports we talked about in Part 6 become especially important. The new IEP should not be developed in a vacuum. It should reflect what the team has learned from implementing the current one.
If your child made strong progress on a goal, does the new Present Level reflect that progress? Does the new goal start from where your child is now and continue moving forward? If your child made very little progress, does the proposed IEP respond to that information, or does it simply repeat essentially the same plan for another year?
The same thing applies to supports. Maybe the team learned during the year that guided notes made an enormous difference for your child. Maybe a particular visual schedule worked well. Maybe an accommodation that sounded great on paper was rarely used or did not actually help. The annual review is an opportunity to use that information to develop the next IEP.
I would not expect everything in an IEP to change every year. Some children appropriately use the same Supplementary Aids and Services or accommodations for years. What I do expect is for the new IEP to reflect what we have learned about the child. Your child has had another year of learning, growth, struggles and successes. The new IEP should reflect that rather than simply looking like last year’s document with new dates.
Placement and ESY Should Make Sense by Now
When you finally get to placement, you should not suddenly be starting a completely new conversation. You have already identified your child’s needs and figured out how those needs will be addressed. You know the goals, supports, service time and related services the team has determined your child needs. Now the question is where that IEP can be implemented.
As we discussed in Part 8, I become concerned when the conversation works in the opposite direction and the team starts with a particular program and then changes the IEP to fit what that program typically provides. The placement should fit the IEP. We should not be changing the IEP to make it fit the placement.
The same concept carries into ESY. If the team determines that your child needs services beyond the regular school day or school year to prevent regression and maintain progress, that decision should connect back to the needs and data you have already reviewed. If your child qualifies for ESY, the discussion is not over simply because the school tells you the dates, days and hours of its standard summer program. As we discussed in Part 9, ESY is individualized too. The standard program may be a great fit for your child, but the team still needs to discuss what your child actually needs and whether the proposed program provides it.
This is one of the reasons reading the entire IEP before the meeting can be so helpful. By the time you reach these later decisions, you already have the information you need to ask thoughtful questions about them.
Data Detective 🔎
Let’s look at an example. Suppose the Present Levels explain that your child has difficulty initiating assignments independently and completing multi-step tasks. The data shows that your child often waits for an adult prompt before beginning work and needs repeated prompting to continue through an assignment.
As you continue reading, you see that the team has developed a goal to teach task initiation and independence. You also see Supplementary Aids and Services that include a visual checklist, breaking larger assignments into smaller parts, and adult check-ins at specific points during independent work. That makes sense. Your child needs specially designed instruction to learn the skill, but also needs support while developing and using that skill during the school day.
Now look at the progress reports. Suppose they show that your child has made steady progress. Your child is beginning assignments with fewer prompts and completing more steps independently than at the beginning of the year. When you look at the new draft, the Present Levels reflect that growth, the new goal starts from the child’s current level, and the Supplementary Aids and Services continue to provide the support the child still needs.
I can follow how the team got from the data to the new plan. That makes sense.
Now imagine the progress reports show almost no improvement. Your child still needs essentially the same level of prompting they needed at the beginning of the year, but the new draft contains essentially the same goal, the same supports and the same amount of service time without any discussion about why the child did not make expected progress.
That would make me stop and ask questions. I would want to understand what the team thinks prevented progress and why it believes continuing the same plan is appropriate. You do not have to know exactly what should change before you raise the concern. You can simply say, “I am having trouble understanding how the progress data led us to this plan. Can you help me understand?”
That is what I want parents to feel comfortable doing.
Prepare for the Meeting, Not for a Battle
As you review the draft, make notes about the things you want to discuss. If something about your child is inaccurate, mark it. If an important need does not appear to be addressed through a goal or Supplementary Aid and Service, write it down. If you cannot understand how the service time relates to the goals, make a note to ask. If the progress data and the new Present Levels seem to contradict each other, flag that too.
At the same time, I encourage parents to prioritize. A lengthy IEP may contain wording you would change if you were the person writing it, but not every sentence needs to become a discussion at the meeting. Focus first on the things that actually affect your child’s education. Does the IEP accurately describe your child? Are the significant needs addressed? Are the supports individualized and clear enough to implement? Does the amount of service make sense? Does the proposed plan reflect the progress data?
If you receive the draft ahead of time and notice a significant problem, you also do not necessarily have to wait until the meeting to raise it. A short email letting the team know about a major concern can give school staff an opportunity to gather information, speak with providers, or take another look at the draft before everyone sits down together. That is not about trying to negotiate the entire IEP through email. It is about helping make the meeting productive.
Remember, the draft is a draft. You are not being asked to approve it before you walk into the meeting. The purpose of reviewing it ahead of time is to help you participate in the discussion about the IEP the team ultimately develops.
How Shefter Law Can Help
My hope after ten parts of this series is that many parents will feel more comfortable reviewing a draft IEP and preparing for an IEP meeting on their own. That is exactly what I want. You know your child better than anyone else sitting at that table, and you do not need an attorney at every IEP meeting to be an effective advocate for your child.
Sometimes reading the draft ahead of time and bringing a few thoughtful questions to the meeting is all you need. You may find that once you ask the team to explain how a need is being addressed or how the data supports a decision, the pieces come together and the concern can be resolved.
There are also times when you may want additional support. Maybe you have gone through the draft and still cannot figure out how the pieces fit together. Maybe your child is not making expected progress and you and the school disagree about what needs to change. Maybe there is a significant disagreement about services or placement, or you simply want another set of experienced eyes to review the draft before the meeting.
Shefter Law can review a draft IEP with you and help you prepare for the meeting, or attend the meeting with you when additional support is really needed. But I encourage you to start by using what you have learned throughout this series. Read the IEP, look at the data, and ask questions when something does not make sense. You may be surprised by how much you can advocate for your child on your own.
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Final Thoughts
When we started this series, the idea was to help you open a long draft IEP and know what you are actually looking at. Ten parts later, I hope that document feels a little less overwhelming.
When the draft arrives, start with your child. Read the Present Levels and make sure they accurately describe your child today. As you continue through the IEP, make sure the significant needs you just read about are actually addressed. Some may require specially designed instruction through a goal, others may require Supplementary Aids and Services, and some may require both. Then look at whether the services allow the team to implement that plan and compare what is being proposed to the progress your child has actually made.
By the time you reach placement and ESY, those decisions should connect back to the individualized plan the team developed. You should be able to understand how the team got from the child described at the beginning of the IEP to the education being proposed at the end.
You do not need to memorize the IEP or know every special education law to do this. You also do not have to walk into the meeting with the solution every time you identify a problem. What I want you to be able to do is recognize when you cannot follow the connection and feel comfortable asking the team to explain it.
Throughout this series, we have kept coming back to one question because I think it is one of the most useful questions you can ask when reading an IEP:
Does this make sense for my child?
If it does, you should be able to understand how the different pieces work together as one coordinated plan designed to support and educate your child. If it does not, keep asking questions until you understand why the team is proposing what it is proposing.
You know your child. You are part of the IEP team. You have a voice in developing the plan. My hope is that after reading this series, you feel a little more confident using it.