E138: How Many IEP Meetings Should I Have?
Do you know it's possible to have more than one IEP meeting (otherwise an "IEP continuation meeting?" Now you do! But do you want 1? Or 2? Or 5? Maybe there isn't a magic number, but there are certainly advantages and disadvantages of multiple meetings, and we are going to discuss them all!
Do you know it’s possible to have more than one IEP meeting (otherwise an “IEP continuation meeting?”
Now you do!
But do you want 1? Or 2? Or 5?
Maybe there isn’t a magic number, but there are certainly advantages and disadvantages of multiple meetings, and we are going to discuss them all!
We cover:
1) The parent right to have more than one IEP meeting
2) When to ask for a continuation meeting
3) Case Manager personality and meeting numbers
4) Finding your “sweet spot” of IEP meetings
Don’t forget to sign up for the FREE Advocacy Focus Workshop this Thursday evening OR Friday morning! More information at https://TheIEPLab.com/August
E138: How Many IEP Meetings Should I Have?
Samson Q2U Microphone: [00:00:00] Have you ever heard the advice to have as many IEP meetings as possible or did you think you were just stuck with one? Today we are talking about multiple IEP meetings and some things to consider before we do either, before we just have one or before we have a lot more than is probably effective. Stick with me because we’re talking about how many IEP meetings you should have today on the podcast.
You are listening to the Parent IEP Lab, the podcast that helps you become an informed parent advocate and get your child supported and learning in school. I’m Beth Liesenfeld, occupational therapist, passionate about leveling the information playing field for parent advocates.
My mission of the parent IEP lab podcast, and also the online courses, workshops, and summit of the IEP lab is to break down barriers to effective parent advocacy by promoting collaboration and is it is the most effective approach to advocacy I saw in over 400 IEP meetings.
So let’s dive into the topic today about how many IEP meetings you should have and think about what we can change and tweak to get [00:01:00] you the right formula for success for your child to learn and grow in school. Welcome to the lab.
I don’t know about you, but I am on some incredible email lists of some amazing resources. And goodness gracious, I have an email inbox that is stressing me out. All of the amazing things that I feel like I’m going to miss out on. And I just thought that maybe your inbox was just as full as mine. So I thought it was appropriate to take a breath and
use a visual model to help you decide what to focus on in your advocacy this school year. We aren’t just talking about IEP advocacy, although we can totally dive into that with the live Q& A at the end, but we are taking a step back to everything you have going on in your life and realizing what your capacity is and what you need to focus on first.
podcast, even if that’s not IEP advocacy. So go to theieplab. com slash August to sign up for the free training. There’s two times available this Thursday evening, like two days after this podcast is released, in the [00:02:00] evening, so 930 Eastern, 630 Pacific, or Friday morning, while the kids are hopefully at school, at 11am Eastern or 8am Pacific time.
That’s theiuplab. com slash august, or the link is in the podcast description. I’m so excited to see you there!
Before we get started, if you have found anything in the podcast helpful. Can I ask you a favor? Would you rate and review this podcast in your app and share this episode With just one other parent advocate, doing this helps me get closer to my goal of having all parent advocates on the same knowledge playing field as the school IEP teams and to know how to get their child an effective IEP, which I feel like every child deserves.
So please take a second and rate and review the podcast and share out this episode. Thank you so much for taking the time to do that for me.
Okay, so the big question of today is how many IEP meetings should you have? Well, first, we have to talk about the fact that you can have more than one IEP meeting.
They are called continuation [00:03:00] meetings, and if you didn’t get all the way through the IEP in the first meeting, then you can ask for a second meeting, or it may naturally happen that the team just knows it’s probably going to take more than one meeting.
So, do I need to back up here? Because in the scheduling episode, we talked about why meetings are so limited to about 45 minutes or an hour, but you may not have heard that episode. So the school day is chunked up into blocks. Yes, even elementary schools, even though they don’t always change classrooms for subjects, 45 to an hour chunks of the day.
So the person with often the most. Limited time schedule is actually your general education teacher. They’re typically the first to need to leave to go get their kids from lunch or specials. And so you’ll see them kind of watch the clock or you’ll hear them at the beginning of the meeting say, Hey, I have to pick up my kids at such and such time.
So it stinks. that sometimes you’re asked to continue the meeting without them or another person who has to go, but know that you can also propose at that exact moment a continuation meeting at that [00:04:00] time instead of continuing without that person. So just know that yes, if the meeting runs over and you guys all need to go, or maybe you need to go, you need to get back to work, or you need to pick up your kids, but you can always ask for a continuation meeting.
And the other thing is just part of human nature. I’m going to be honest. That sometimes attention spans for IEP related discussions may only last an hour or so as well.
So now you know, you can have multiple meetings and you can request a continuation meeting if you feel like the meeting is falling apart, either because people are losing attention or somebody has to go and you really want them to be at the rest of the meeting.
My advice though, is that if you have a continuation meeting, you schedule it before that person or Everybody just scatters around the school, right? That way you don’t have to wait to set it up and it’s not drug along for weeks without a second meeting being held and the IEP being in limbo.
Of course, I have seen very, very successful teams, especially [00:05:00] ones that have a parent who’s very focused and has a great vision statement and a parent input statement already ready. It is really easy actually to get through an IEP in an hour and feel like you covered every single thing that you needed to and spent time on the things that mattered.
It is absolutely possible. And I would say a majority of the meetings that I went to were totally fine being an hour and everybody felt good at the end of it, So it all depends on the organization of the team. It all depends on the communication throughout the year. Wink, wink, that’s a big part of it too, and how smoothly IEPs go.
And it also depends on the case manager personality. Let me tell you a little story. So I once worked under a case manager that had the most Beautiful IEPs on paper. She took her time. She made parents feel like they had a large say in their child’s IEP. And it was just a wonderful experience. And you could see that the parents were comfortable.
You could see that everybody kind of knew their part. It was great. But. The one drawback is that it [00:06:00] took five continuation meetings to get to the end of the IEP. So if you’re saying, but is that so bad? Let’s break down the consequences of having five continuation meetings. Number one is what happens in the meantime.
Many times if we’re talking about three, four, five continuation meetings, that can easily last for like six weeks, even longer than that, sometimes up to a semester to reschedule those meetings and actually have them. So what happens in the meantime? Well, what happens in the meantime is that not everything from the IEP gets implemented because you’re still waiting on a finalized IEP.
So in the meantime, your child isn’t getting the new supports that you’ve just been talking about and they can be delayed again, up to a semester. So remember there is a time stamp on the IEP and it’s a calendar year. But that IEP only has to be started by that calendar year. So, for example, if you have an IEP meeting on August 30th last year, [00:07:00] and that means that this year the IEP has to at least be started by August 30th.
So, a lot of times they will schedule it for a couple days before then. Well, that doesn’t take into account what day the IEP is actually finalized, so you can draw this out for a really long time and have that IEP meeting pending and in process, but not really have a finalized IEP, especially if you’re taking a lot of continuation meetings.
Number two is that if you’re taking this long to do the meeting, what does that implementation look like? So if it’s a case manager that is really being thorough and making sure everything’s perfect before it’s finalized, what does their actual teaching look like?
Like are they actually getting anything done with your kid because they want everything to be perfect every time? And I’m not saying that’s a dig on teachers. I love teachers like this. These IEPs are amazing and they’re very parent focused and they’re very child focused. But we need to have that balance between being thorough and then just jumping in and doing that trial and error [00:08:00] process to have real time feedback of what’s actually working and what’s not. Number three is that progress reports come along and new goals still aren’t being worked on. So kind of related to our number one, right?
But if you’ve ever seen a progress report that’s right after an IEP, well, they’re still at the baseline from the IEP. So we’re not really going to talk about all of their great progress because we haven’t been working on it for very long. And if that IEP isn’t finalized, then guess what? Like, it’s not going to be any progress reflected on that progress report.
So everything is just that much more delayed. And number four is everyone in that meeting is missing minutes with kids for every single meeting. So if you think about it, if every single parent of a kid in that school had five continuation meetings, who was seeing the kids during that time?
Who was actually working on goals? And that’s true for you and for the time that you were in those meetings. And it’s also true for when a different parent has a meeting with that team so who’s with your kid when that [00:09:00] IEP meeting is happening for a different kid, so we have to think about the bigger picture and we have to kind of relax a little bit.
Yes, we absolutely want that IEP to be as best as possible. But we don’t want to be so meticulous in that IEP that it has to be absolutely perfect before we move on. That’s why in the Ultimate Parent IEP Prep Course, hint hint, doors are opening this week. I’m so excited. But if you need help in determining your priorities so that you can be organized and clear and have this amazing input already ready to go before this meeting, then absolutely look at the prep course.
Okay. So, this IEP process is meant to be a smooth flow. It’s meant and designed really amazingly that you start with the present levels and the parent knows what’s going on and the information is in there, but also two meetings also gives you some space to think in between those meetings, right?
And to say, oh, okay, I want to add this question, or I reflected on what people said about this goal, and so I think I understand it now. [00:10:00] Or I have this follow up question, or can we do it this way instead? So I really like the space that two meetings gives you, and I love the flow of that.
Okay, there’s one to kind of get through the present levels and kind of see where we’re at, maybe get through some goals and accommodations, and then let’s come back and just kind of reframe and look at what we reviewed last time, Any thoughts or additional changes on what we just did, and then let’s move forward and let’s talk about services and placements, which are two really big conversations.
So, I absolutely love two meetings, but I can see justifications, of course, if you have more conflict, or there’s, there’s bigger issues, or bigger fish to fry, or how many people are in your meeting as far as service providers go, because big meetings take longer. longer, right? So on average, a regular IEP with, you know, two or three providers, two meetings is just perfect, especially if you are prepared and you have your vision statement and your parent input statement and your advocacy plan, and you know how to present that just like the ultimate parent IEP prep course teaches [00:11:00] you.
So hopefully this helps you be both aware that you can have multiple meetings, but also be aware of the cost of too many meetings as well. So hop into the Facebook group the link is below this episode in the description if you have any questions at all, especially on how many meetings to have.
And don’t forget to register for the free workshop this Thursday evening and Friday morning, that link again is theieplab. com slash August, and the link is in the podcast description I can’t wait to bring you some clarity on what to focus on this year, and of course have a very special invitation for you at the end of that webinar as well.
So see you Thursday evening or Friday morning, and of course, I will see you on the podcast same time, same place next week. Thanks so much. Bye.