Time to think about annual IEP reviews. I know many teachers are still working on their GAA’s, but you need to be finishing those up and turning your sights on your next big thing which is IEP annual review season.
I don’t always agree with everything she posts, but Carol Sadler is definitely someone that is worth following on Facebook. And she recently posted this:
Advocates Advice – We are quickly moving into “IEP Season”. Time to get your year end IEP meetings scheduled and on the books. Better to get scheduled in advance to make sure you have time to invite your help. Be sure to notify the school you will tape record the meeting and ask for a Draft copy of the IEP “that has been updated” with their proposed PLOP’s, accommodations and goals/objectives. Take the time to compare the Draft line by line to last year’s IEP to see what they changed and what they are proposing and make sure it is appropriate.
If you are a teacher and reading this, your hair might be turning a bit white or falling out. Or you might be tempted to start pulling it out. Let me tell you that what she is suggesting should be a matter of best practice for competent teachers. Getting the meetings on the calendar early serves everyone well, and knowing who all is going to be attending will help secure a place that is big enough for everyone.
Tape recording the meeting (or using an mp3 recorder) is not a big deal. If you are a teacher, bring your own to the meeting as well. Both the parent and the district should be recording at the same time. There is no presumption of privacy at these meetings, even though they are confidential. You can’t podcast the meeting. But by now teachers need to be getting used to being in the spotlight, being recorded at any time, any where. Transparency is our friend. Stop being hostile to it, and open up your records, your mind, your intentions and your heart to the parents of the children you teach. You might discover a wealth of rewards await you as the relationship transforms from confrontation to cooperation.
The idea of having a draft prepared a week ahead seems to always trip up teacher case managers. They can not seem to wrap their minds around the idea of moving their entire time table up one week. You have to write this thing one way or another. Stop the procrastinating and the excuse-making and just do it, and get it done. You send it out a week or so ahead of time, with “DRAFT” written by hand in big letters, and attach a note “Please look over the enclosed proposed IEP DRAFT. Please write down any concerns and/or suggested changes that you might have on the draft and send it back to me so I can include them and make sure they are acceptable to you before the meeting.”
Imagine an IEP that is less than an hour long, and everyone leaves the room smiling, and pleased and relaxed, feeling good about what just occurred. If you have several annual reviews that are NOT like this then you should probably consider sending out your drafts well in advance so parents can look at them. But aside from pleasing a parent, there are also other good reasons to move your time table up a week. Remember you HAVE to write the thing regardless. Why not do it well in advance when you can actually THINK about what you are writing instead of having that deadline looming over you? You will discover that you make better choices and decisions when you are not rushed and pressured. And if there are problems looming ahead, you have some time to begin addressing them before the meeting with the parents and the rest of the team.
I always did this as a matter of regular practice. I always tried to get the draft done and out at least 4 days ahead of the meeting regardless of who the parent was. If I get a parent making a request like Carol, guess what? I move my time table up TWO weeks! I want to swap IEP drafts, ideas and suggestions several times in advance of this meeting if at all possible. If the parent is bringing an advocate, then I would rather the advocate look over my IEP, mark and bleed all over it with red ink and send it back however many times before the meeting, rather than rip me to shreds for hours in front of the rest of the team. The advocate will have plenty of fodder for bloodletting at the meeting from other members of the IEP team but not me if I can do anything about it.
This is because the other members of my team balked at writing their portions in advance. The occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech language pathologists have HUGE caseloads and I understand that. BUT the workload is exactly the same whether you do it now or later. I put all members of my team on notice as to the day the draft is going out. It is up to them if they are ready or not, and 95% of the time, they failed to meet that deadline.
IEPs are exactly the same as alternate assessments that way. If you procrastinate, you will end up under a huge backlog, and it will seem like a dark pit that you forever are trying to dig yourself out of as each deadline comes and overwhelms you. You have got to get ahead and try to stay ahead. Give yourself some wiggle room. Waiting until the night before is a terrible choice that invites mistakes and trouble.
I actually attended one middle school meeting where everyone was there except the caseload manager. When I asked the SLP where she was, I saw an eye roll and she whispered “She’s upstairs trying to write the IEP!” This was a meeting that was already an hour late. It was a good thing that parent was not paying Carol’s hourly rate!
The Life That Chose Me 
In our high school we review IEP’s every month according to the annual date. It’s interesting to compare notes with other regions which may handle things differently, but the results must be the same: A good plan to help the kids with a good baseline and clearly defined goals.
http://jcsprenger.com/2012/02/05/inclusion-education-good-or-bad/