If you are the parent of a child with special needs who is either in school or will soon be going into school, you have a responsibility to do something that can be tedious and sometimes frustrating. But if you follow through with this responsibility, you will put yourself into a position where you can truly represent your child and help them be as successful as they can possibly be. That responsibility is that you must educate yourself. What I’m talking about is not learning about your child’s disability (which you should have been doing since the minute you found out about it). What I’m talking about is learning about IDEA and the IEP process.
Most parents understand the basics about the IEP – that there is a meeting, and that meeting determines services for your child at school and what class they will be in. Most parents also understand they have some rights and some things are their responsibility, but often, that is about it. In working with parents, maybe 2 or 3 times every year I will have someone approach me and say that they have never had an IEP meeting. They know they go to a meeting about their child every year, but they don’t have an IEP meeting, even though their child has a disability. In questioning them, it turns out that they have been going to IEP meetings, but they honestly did not know that they were in one. Hearing that can be frustrating from my perspective, because at that point you know the parent is detached from the educational process. IEP education for parents has, simply become a large part of my job – answering questions, helping parents understand what the process actually is and what can be and cannot be done in IDEA.
One point I want to make clear – you are not educating yourself to play ‘gotcha!’ with the district. You are educating yourself because it is important to understand as a parent, going into the educational process, what IDEA is, what it requires, what it allows, and what it does not. IDEA is not a carte blanche to force districts to pay for everything a child needs in his or her life related to the disability. It is, however, a process that ensures that a child with a disability is getting appropriate services to provide supports that are needed in the educational setting to give the child the opportunity to be successful in school. How an individual service fits in that process is for the IEP team to decide. Many may make perfect sense, but sometimes there are those that really do not. Learn what the criteria are.
Take the time to learn. Knowing what you need to know before going into an IEP meeting will help you work more effectively with the district through the IEP process. Knowledge will help you better evaluate the success or failure of the child’s services and to be a more effective participant in the process, and will allow you to better represent your child’s interests. There are lots of resources available to assist you in educating yourself, including your school district.
I know that time spent with understanding the law can be tedious and boring. Don’t let that stop you. Tap into parent organizations or the school district’s resources, or search the internet to help with your understanding of IDEA and the IEP process. Keep looking for those resources and organizations that can help you. Study them, learn from them, and ask questions - it is important because the more you know about IDEA and the IEP process and how they work, the more effective you will be for your child in the IEP process. This, in turn, will help you help your child and can help to build an effective collaboration with the school district. It is important.
So go out there and study and learn!
