During the month of April, we are sharing about families’ rights related to Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) as described in the Procedural Safeguards. We encourage families to think of the Procedural Safeguards by its subtitle, “Your Family’s Special Education Rights.” This past Friday we conducted a webinar on the Procedural Safeguards and IEPs that is available on our resource page. We wanted to share some of the highlights we discussed in the webinar.
We encouraged everyone to begin in their mind in the same place the Procedural Safeguards begins on paper: “As a parent, you are an important member of your child’s multidisciplinary team. A multidisciplinary team makes decisions about evaluations and eligibility. Another multidisciplinary team, called the Individualized Education Program (IEP) Committee, develops recommendations for special education services for your child. You have the opportunity to participate in the multidisciplinary team meeting discussions and decision-making processes about your child’s needs for special education.“
As a parent, you bring expertise and insight that no one else has: you are an expert on your child and you (and often your child) know where you want them to end up in the long run.
You have the right to written prior notice before meetings and what those notices should include. For IEP meetings, this information should be included (from: MDE State Board Policy 74.19 Volume III page 3)
- “A list of who will be in attendance by name and position;
- A statement that the parent or public agency may invite other individuals who have knowledge or special expertise regarding the child; and
- The time, location, and a description of the purpose of the meeting”
Other rights include “to participate in the development of the IEP and to initiate their intent to audio record the proceedings of the individualized education program (IEP) meetings, to request to inspect and review education records, request the participating agency that maintains the information to change the information if it is incorrect, and to have your child’s confidentiality protected.”
Our next webinar in this series is Procedural Safeguards and Discipline on May 7 at 10 AM.
