Your child’s IEP meeting is a great place to get some of your most pressing questions answered.
During my time as a teacher, I conducted countless IEP meetings and it always amazed me how few questions were asked by parents, despite the importance of open discussion.
Then, it dawned on me…
Because an IEP is a long and somewhat complicated legal document and IEP meetings are somewhat formal and intimidating, most parents are overwhelmed (understandably) during IEP meetings and feel out of their element.
So, for fear of appearing out of the loop, uninvested, misinformed, uneducated, or some other “not-fun” adjective, questions often don’t get asked.
When putting the outline for this article together, I was curious what other websites had to say about this topic so I googled “questions parents should ask at IEP meetings”.
I was underwhelmed by the results.
Suggestions included…
How can I contact you?
Unless you are meeting the teacher for the first time, you should have their contact info.
Or…
How is my daughter doing in making progress towards her IEP goals?
This is a REALLY great question actually. But if it needs to be asked, someone’s dropping the ball on communication.
Which, believe it or not… does happen.
Anyway, here are 7 “next level” questions parents should ask at IEP meetings and why I think they’re important.
But first…
(Or, click here to read the TL;DR summary)
What Is An IEP Meeting Exactly?
IEP = Individualized Education Program: a legal document that’s designed to map out the supports and specially-designed instruction needed to ensure that each individual child served in special education is getting their unique needs met. There are multiple sections included in the IEP, including:
- Measurable Annual Goals (MAG) which are specific goals tailored to the child’s educational needs
- Present Levels of Academic Achievement & Functional Performance (PLAAFP)
- Accommodations & Modifications
- And a few others…
Assessments are also a crucial part of the IEP process, helping to evaluate a child’s progress through various means such as work samples and standardized tests.
Meeting = A group of people coming together for a common purpose.
Therefore…
An IEP meeting is an event held annually (or sometimes more often) where educators, parents, students and other school personnel come together to discuss & review the student’s IEP and get input from all team members to ensure the student’s unique needs are being met.
Finally, here are a few questions that should be asked at (or before) this meeting.
Questions To Ask Before The IEP Meeting
Question 1: Can you send me an agenda before the meeting because I’d like to make sure topics X, Y & Z are covered?
It takes less than 5 minutes to put together an IEP meeting agenda, but they’re surprisingly rare.
Now, I’ll admit during my first and second year teaching, I didn’t think to put together an agenda. That is, until my administrator suggested I do so.
Once I started creating agendas for my IEP meetings, it made the whole process run much more smoothly and parents seemed to appreciate it.
When you request an agenda, you may want to request that specific items be included to help determine the topics to be covered in the meeting.
Only you know what these are.
Question 2: Will a general education teacher will be in attendance at the IEP meeting?
According to IDEA Section 1414 (d) (1) (B) (ii), there should be no less than 1 regular education teacher in attendance if the child is, or may be, participating in the general education environment.
For the majority of my teaching career, I worked in a “self-contained” setting so my students weren’t taking any general education classes.
However…
I always made sure that a general education teacher was present.
Why?
Aside from it being the law, because, even though my students didn’t have any general education classes, they were very much exposed to the general education environment.
The law cited above says nothing about classes and very intentionally selected the word “environment” instead. This is an important distinction.
My students participated in the general education environment when they ate lunch, attended assemblies and school events, transitioned to other areas of the school, worked at the bookstore or main office, and worked with general education peers within the self-contained classroom setting.
This is all considered the general education environment and therefore, a general education teacher should be present at the IEP meeting.
At the meeting, the general education teacher can speak to social encounters they’ve had or witnessed, behaviors they’ve noticed, or they may attest to the impact they’ve had on the lives of peer mentors they may also teach.
Also, during the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) section of the IEP meeting, the general education teacher should briefly discuss the standards their students are expected to meet, which may help further substantiate placement recommendations.
All that said, if the IEP team tries to excuse the general education teacher from the meeting, I urge you to challenge this by citing the above.
Question 3: Who Will Be In Attendance At The IEP Meeting?
This may seem like a no-brainer until one day, you arrive at an IEP meeting and there are 3 faces you don’t recognize.
Or…
You sit down only to notice that your child’s adaptive PE teacher isn’t there and you had some questions about your child’s gross motor progress.
You feel bad requesting that the meeting be rescheduled so you carry on…
This can cause unnecessary anxiety that can easily be avoided by finding out who will be at the meeting ahead of time.
At every meeting, you’ve got your standard IEP team members:
- Special education teacher (case manager)
- Student
- Parents/guardians
- General education teacher
- District representative (usually a vice principal)
- Speech Language Pathologist (if applicable)
- Occupational Therapist (if applicable)
But sometimes, there will be other folks at the table as well:
- District rep 2.0 (i.e. someone from the district office)
- School psychologist
- School counselor (usually there to discuss credits)
- District attorney (this is rare but it does happen from time to time especially if things get contentious)
So, when you ask who will be in attendance, also find out what their involvement is with your child and what their purpose is for being at the meeting.
Conversely, it’s courteous to be forthcoming with the IEP team by letting them know if you plan to bring anyone else to the meeting.
People like:
- Group home staff
- DDA case worker
- Outside support staff member (like me)
- Professional advocate
- Additional family members
Question 4: Can you send me the raw data you’ve tracking for my child’s IEP goal progress along with any notes?
The Present Levels of Academic Achievement & Functional Performance (PLAAFP) section of the IEP is a summation of this data written out in a nice, neat narrative that’s easy to consume. Or at least it should be.
The teacher should also be sending you progress notes regularly, but that may be different than the raw data itself, such as test scores.
I’m talking about data sheets here. The actual piece of paper that the teacher is marking to track real time progress Student A is making on Goal B.
And if you’re anything like me, you like full transparency.
That means, you want to see the underlying data.
Now, hopefully the teacher has transposed all of their tally marks into a spreadsheet. A bonus but not likely.
Regardless, at the very least, once you have the data in hand, look it over and make any notes in the margins about questions or curiosities you come across, and if something doesn’t add up (literally or figuratively), send a follow-up question before the meeting.
Questions To Ask During The IEP Meeting
Question 5: Huh? Can you repeat that?
This might be the most important question you can ask.
Why?
Because some of the terminology and teacher-speak that comes out on its own at IEP meetings can be confusing.
So, don’t be afraid to talk and say things like:
- I don’t understand
- I’m confused about X, Y or Z
- What does *BIP stand for?
*Behavioral Intervention Plan
Question 6: Have you tried _______ before with my child? It seems to work at home.
I’m going to say this once.
You are the expert of your child.
There, I said it.
Now that it’s been said, if a particular teaching strategy comes up that sounds a bit off to you, politely say so.
For example, your child can wash his hands without the need for additional prompting when he is presented with a visual checklist that displays the steps. However, he struggles when the visuals take the form of cartoons. This is because he has a hard time associating cartoons with real world objects. When steps is presented as real world photographs, he has no trouble at all. Therefore, you might suggest that photos be taken of each hand washing step based on what’s available in the classroom. Additionally, consider using additional resources such as apps, worksheets, and hands-on activities to support the child’s learning.
Conversely, teachers know stuff too.
Not to contradict what I just said about you being the expert of your child. That’s still very much true.
But, sometimes your child will perform differently at school than they do at home or maybe the teacher has an idea you hadn’t thought of. Have a conversation about it and bounce some ideas off each other.
These rich idea-generating conversations where teachers and parents collaborate harmoniously is where a lot of progress can be made.
I urge you to be assertive and embrace these conversations.
Question 7: What’s the plan if my child masters their math goal before their IEP is up for review?
Generally speaking, IEP goals should be written such that, given the student’s learning trend, they should be mastered around or slightly before the time of the next annual IEP due date.
That said, sometimes students will surprise us or have a light bulb moment with a particular skill or concept and voila, they’ve demonstrated mastery by completing Math Goal 1 10/10 times for 5 consecutive data collection periods. Bam!
So, it’s important to know how will the teacher handle it if/when it happens?
In my opinion, the support plan should be updated to reflect the child’s progress and new goals.
And that answer is…
Teacher: “I will call an IEP amendment meeting to address the present levels, goals section, and possibly the service matrix and least restrictive environment (LRE) sections.”
Why an amendment and not just informally agree to having your child work on supplemental activities?
Because specificity and documentation are key.
Let’s say you change schools or districts.
You want the next teacher to know everything they can about your child without having to jog your memory.
If it’s documented in the IEP, there should be very little to debate.
Bonus Question: Are you mixing up who’s working with my child every day?
Before I was a special education teacher, I was a paraeducator. This is a common path to becoming a teacher.
On paper, I was assigned to work with one particular student.
In reality, I worked with the whole class and spent about 60% of my day with my student. The other 40% of the time, the student was supported by a revolving door of other staff members.
Had I been with that one student for 90-100% of the school day:
- It would have burned me out, rendering me less effective.
- It would have burned the student out (not this guy again…)
- The student wouldn’t have had the opportunity to generalize his skills across multiple staff members and nuanced teaching styles, a critical component to mastering any skill.
- I wouldn’t have gotten to know the other students
- The other students wouldn’t have gotten to know me (who’s this guy?)
- The rest of the classroom staff would have been ill prepared in the event that I was out for the day.
- Others I’m sure
Now, some children need the consistency of a familiar face throughout the majority of their day.
However, this should only be a short-term solution.
One-on-one support does not mean the same staff member all day everyday.
For the reasons listed above, the teacher should introduce new people into the mix as soon as possible.
If the student is averse to it, it can be structured such that the new staff member only does fun activities to start with as a way of building rapport, but then fades gradually into all activities.
TL;DR Summary
IEP meetings can feel overwhelming for parents. Asking clear questions helps you feel prepared and confident. Here are 7 essential questions to ask:
Before the Meeting:
- Can you send me an agenda before the meeting to cover specific topics?
- Will a general education teacher attend the meeting?
- Who exactly will be attending the meeting, and why?
- Can you send me the raw data and notes on my child’s IEP goal progress?
During the Meeting:
- Can you repeat or explain that? (When terminology is confusing.)
- Have you tried [specific strategy] with my child? It seems effective at home.
- What’s the plan if my child masters their goal before the next IEP review?
Bonus: Check if staff support for your child is balanced and consistent.
Being proactive ensures your child receives clear, targeted support.