Student-led IEP meetings are the latest craze in special education. Unfortunately, it’s leaving a lot of special educators overwhelmed. We’re already overworked. How are we going to coach struggling students on how to run an IEP meeting on top of all our other responsibilities?
Don’t get me wrong, in theory and in practice this sounds amazing. It’s important to get students involved in this process that’s in place to support them. And of course the more the student is involved the better aligned the IEP will be to what the student actually needs.
Still, it’s a daunting task.
Start with a Pre-assessment
Click here for a basic IEP assessment. I’m giving it to my class today just to see what they already know about IEPs. I’m pretty sure it’s very little, but I’m curious to know exactly how little.
Keeping Confidentiality
I only do this with classes where every student has an IEP and it is clear the students are in the class because they have an IEP. My class is labeled learning support (a PA thing, I guess) and in Baltimore it was called self-contained. I’m not breaching confidentiality here because it is common knowledge every student in the class has an IEP. I would not do this with a portion of a co-taught class where not every student has an IEP.
Tell the students they do not have to share openly with the class. I know some of my students are very embarrassed to discuss, and some openly bring it up in class. It depends on the student. Just be sure everyone knows they have a right to privacy with this and they are not required to DISCUSS their information.
Getting the Student’s Input
Click here for a basic “Understanding Your IEP” form. There are four pages to the form and I’ll go over each.
Page 1
The very basics of what an IEP is and why the student has one. Students should have a copy of their IEP if possible so they can see what is written on it. Talk openly about what a disability is and is not. No one has to share what theirs is, but we want to end the stigma of special education and IEPs. There is nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about.
An important aspect of this page is getting the student input on their strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes this helps them to hear what the teachers and others say about their strengths and weaknesses. This will also lead to them becoming more active with their IEP when they see something they want to add or change to this section.
I only included three sections for goals because some students have much more, some only have one, and I feel three is not too overwhelming. The point of this section is to start discussions on the purpose of the IEP: to help students reach these goals.
Page 2
This page is intended to help students understand the different class settings and what they mean. It is also meant to help them understand that regardless of their setting, they should be getting their accommodations and modifications as listed in their IEP. A few of my students thought they only received accommodations in their self-contained/learning support classrooms.
There is also a special section devoted to understanding accommodations and modifications. I do not expect my students to know (or care) about the difference, but I know it will come up in discussion about state testing. I have my students list out their accommodations/modifications in an effort to get them thinking about each one.
Page 3
This leads to the third page where they list out which ones they no longer need or use. Some have been rolled over for years without being readdressed in the annual IEP meetings. It’s also important to give students a chance to consider what they may like to add. While there are a few students who will attempt to unnecessarily ease their workload, I’m sure most will take it seriously.
The bottom part is devoted to students thinking about the next step after high school and how they will get there. The act of writing it down will hopefully make the students put good thought into their answers. Make sure they are as specific as possible. Many of students like to say “nurse,” even though there are so many different types of nurses.
Page 4
I included this page for the transition coordinator at my school. The form I give my students is filled out with different services specific to my location. I couldn’t do this for every location, so I left a blank form for general use. Possible items for the list can be job shadowing, unpaid (or paid) internships, volunteer work, vocational school shadow/visit, or college visit. Whatever career/transition services your school/district offers. A copy of the filled out form goes to the transition coordinator who can then tailor her efforts to the needs of the students.
Student-led IEP Meetings
Once they’ve finished filling out this packet, students are ready to confidently discuss their IEPs. You will still have to do a little work to get them to “run” the meeting, but the overwhelming 30+ page packet is no longer an obstacle. At the start of the meeting, give them a copy of the packet and encourage them to discuss what is written on each page.
