!HELP!
A Series for School Leaders
Coming to consensus on an IEP: How to close the gap between the family's expectations and the school's?
It is not unusual as you are attempting to come to consensus on what an IEP should include, that the school and the parent appear far apart on their expectations. At that moment the meeting leader’s role is challenging yet manageable.
Our suggestions are:
IEP meetings should be a meeting of the minds on what’s best for the child. We should let parents participate fully at the same time we allow for dialogue with and among the school personnel.
Contributed by our Founder Jerry Brodsky
It is not unusual as you are attempting to come to consensus on what an IEP should include, that the school and the parent appear far apart on their expectations. At that moment the meeting leader’s role is challenging yet manageable.
Our suggestions are:
- Before the IEP meeting, make sure the school personnel to be in attendance understand their roles. They have expertise and input but are not the final arbiter of what’s in the IEP. Final decisions at an IEP meeting are the consensus all participants come to, hopefully, before they leave the meeting. Parents are equal partners in the process and school personnel typically must be reminded of that fact. Similarly, parents should be told that school personnel have expertise that should be respected.
- Meeting leaders should act as mediators when they see IEP expectation gaps growing. They should listen to all sides and pause occasionally to allow everyone to process what they’ve heard and consider alternatives to entrenchment. Restating the issues and asking for suggestions to resolve the differences is a sound conflict resolution practice. Keep in mind your training in problem solving and use those techniques where and when appropriate.
- Typically, parents have stated and unstated reasons for their positions but we’d be naïve to believe that school personnel don’t have similar conflicts of interest sometimes, especially where this individualized plan differs with the teacher’s group lesson/unit plans. Avoid blame, burden of proof, and the onus of resolving the issues on any one person or side. You may have to remind all the IEP team members that you are obligated to work as a team, not be inflexible and uncooperative.
- When parents present a position on some aspect of the IEP that conflicts with the recommendations from school personnel, it is important to validate the parents’ position first, ask for clarification to understand underlying concerns the parents may have, and then ask the group how they see proceeding with the parents’ concern in mind.
- Your position as meeting leader is to remind parents and school staff that before we leave the meeting it is our intent to come to consensus on the IEP and memorialize that consensus on the document then and there. It is inappropriate to leave the meeting with what you believe is consensus and write it down for signatures at a later date. Handwritten notes on the document before people sign is better than a neatly typed document parents worry may have been put together surreptitiously after they left the meeting.
- You want to avoid unresolved conflict at the IEP meeting unless you want it to go to due process because (a) you believe the parent is asserting a position impossible for the school to comply with or truly not in the best interest of the child, (b) you believe the school is in good position to win the due process case, and (c) you want to take the conflict on because you want the message to go to other parents with equally inappropriate IEP expectations that you understand the parameters inside which IEP expectations should be managed.
- Consensus is not a vote tally. It means we come to an agreement, and maybe that agreement is for a shorter term than you might have contemplated. Although you may have walked into what you thought was an annual IEP meeting, you may have to agree that you’re going to try this new IEP for one quarter of the school year and come together at that time to review the IEP’s level of success.
IEP meetings should be a meeting of the minds on what’s best for the child. We should let parents participate fully at the same time we allow for dialogue with and among the school personnel.
Contributed by our Founder Jerry Brodsky
!HELP! is a series of common scenarios that confront schools today and our attempt to help schools and administrators deal with them. We will add new scenarios periodically. If you have a suggestion of one you would like to see, please let us know.
Contact us for further and individualized assistance.
This provides only general information.
Contact us for further and individualized assistance.
This provides only general information.