Some of our IEP documentation

Hi! It's been several months since I've updated - ouch!

Both Caitlyn and Rowan now attend a charter school here in Texas. We've had issues with the special education department in implementing their carryover IEP's from the previous school, and this past Monday we had our first ARD meeting with the new school.

I was asked by a few people on a private board I am on, to share the documents that we prepared ourselves with for the meeting. I'm going to post those one at a time with seperate posts and titles to make them easier to locate for you if you wish to use them.

Please note, these work best with the binder system. This is what my binder for Caitlyn contains, as an example (paperless? Never. LOL)

1. Agenda for the IEP meeting with our parent concerns bullet pointed
2. A list of Procedural errors that have occurred (I hope to never need this, but it is groundwork for a due process hearing. For example, we were not given 5 days written notice of the ARD; we were not provided with any reports previous to the ARD; we were not given a copy of their draft IEP until I *asked for one at the ARD* when they started referring to it. They didn't even hand us a copy when we got there!)
3. Our list of requests to amend the Conduct Code for Caitlyn that she has difficulty following due directly to her disability. We disagreed with the school that she needed a BIP (Behavior Intervention Plan) and her teachers and aide agreed she does not need one - the things we're asking for her to be excused from should be addressed within her accomodations. Ex: Humming can get you detention points. She may hum if people are being too loud to create white noise in defense, or if she doesn't have an oral motor stim to occupy her mouth with. This is not an intentional misbehavior to be corrected, but a manifestation of her disability that can be corrected by teacher prompting and the OT provisions for her oral motor stims etc within each classroom.
4. Printed copies of each individual request for a change to her IEP (so if we're asking for Assistive Technology training, that has its own sheet)
5. A "Written Notice of Refusal" for the school to fill out for any actions that they table or deny. This is required by law under IDEA and a powerful tool for parents. If they "blow off" a suggestion that you make or a request, whip one out because they have "effectively" tabled or denied it. They MUST tell you why they are denying it, what alternatives have been considered, and if there is a date for re-consideration. I keep about 20 copies on hand just in case.
6. Printouts of all emails relating to issues that should be covered under her IEP
7. Printouts of all other emails that involve Caitlyn and the school in any way (such as communicating with a teacher about an assignment, or a report of any misbehavior)
8. Blank pages to take notes on at the meeting
9. After we're home and refer to the notes and which items were granted and which were not, I type up a summary of my OWN notes regarding the meeting covering all of the above, and have them attached to the IEP as a "Parent Supplement - Notes". This is a way to make sure that something that was discussed during the meeting but not typed into the school's notes makes its way into the official IEP records, since a common argument for not complying with something you understood would be done is "We don't show that in her IEP. No, not even in the notes".

Be proactive and take control of the meeting; do not let it take control of you!