Episode 42- End of the School Year IEP Advocacy (Should I Push for This Now or Wait?) - 5/30/22, 8.53 PM
If you are wondering if you should push for that IEP meeting to be held, or for you to request that evaluation, this podcast is for you! Context always helps advocacy efforts, so we start there with what your case manager is up to at this time of year.
Related Podcast Episodes:
Episode #31: ESY (Kinda Like Summer School but Kinda Not!)
Episode #5: The Parent Role in the IEP
Episode 41: How to Feel Heard and Communicate Who Your Child is with Ease: How to Write a Vision Statement!
Episode 42- End of the School Year IEP Advocacy (Should I Push for This Now or Wait?)
Beth [00:00:01] If you are thinking right now, well, I need this from my school IEP team, but the school year is winding down fast and I don’t know if I should really ask that of the team right now. Then I want you to listen to the full episode of this podcast, because today we are talking about the end of the school year, what all is happening and if you should make that request before the end of the school year or not. Stick with me.
Beth [00:00:28] Hi there. Welcome to the Elevate Your Advocacy podcast. If you are a parent of a child with a disability in the United States, this is exactly the podcast you’ve been looking for. I’m Beth Liesenfled, an occupational therapist who has participated in over 400 IEP meetings for all ages from two and a half to 21 years old. With all the different case managers and parents I’ve worked with, I started to notice some parents had approaches that inspired the school team to rise up and support their child, which resulted in a more effective and supportive IEP plan. After feeling lost and finding support in an online course for my own parenting journey, I got to thinking that there must be a great, easily accessible resource for parents to teach them the amazing strategies I saw working so well in the school setting when I couldn’t find anything even remotely close to what I was looking for, I decided to find a way to share what I’d seen parents do in all of those meetings, but also find out more from experts and other parents. Thus, parent friendly OT was born at parent friendly O.T. We believe that every child deserves an informed adult advocate to speak up for them. We also believe that every parent has the capacity to be that advocate. They just need some guidance to know how to do it. Don’t forget to snag your free parent IEP. Get started pack at www.parentfriendlyot.com/pack . Just one little disclaimer that while I occasionally have lawyers on as guests, I myself am an occupational therapist and not a lawyer. And I don’t give legal advice on the podcast or in any of my online trainings. Now let’s get into today’s episode.
Beth [00:02:04] So it’s the end of the school year for so, so many different states and districts right now. At the time of the release of this podcast, which is in May of 2022. And I’ve had a couple of questions on should I ask for this right now or should I just let it go until the fall? So we’re going to talk about today, A, what is happening in the school systems at this time of year, what all is going on, what is happening, what your case managers are actually doing? Because it seems like they’re frantic and busy. We’re going to talk about what they’re busy about and we’re going to talk about freezing your request as a problem and your expectations for the the resolution of that problem. And if it is a good idea to still push it and ask for that before the end of the school year, or if you want to wait until the fall to ask that, and I’ll give you a little bit of a hint. Most of the time, I’m still going to say you probably want to ask that of your team right now to at least get it on record.
Beth [00:03:09] So before we dove into this section here, I want you to think about the actual problem that you’re having so many parents are thinking about, Oh, gosh, I just don’t feel like they’re hearing me. I feel like they’re pushing me off. I feel like they’re not respecting my opinion. And while that is incredibly valid and I don’t want you to lose sight of that, being heard is super important. But when things happen at the end of the school year, I really want you to think about what is the resolution that you want before the school year ends. So if that is that you’re asking for another IEP meeting before the end of the year, think of some alternatives that might make you feel like you have some resolution or you have the input or the data that you need before the end of the school year. And maybe that’s a backup plan in case that IEP meeting can’t happen before the end of the year.
Beth [00:04:05] So you can even pause this podcast right now if you need a second to think about what your actual problem is and what would make you feel happy about a resolution, at least for now. And it might be something that you can pick up in the fall. So I want you to stop this podcast if you need a second and think about the problem and what a possible resolution that would make you feel better for right now to hold over the summer.
Beth [00:04:35] Okay. If you pause the podcast, I’m really proud of you because I feel like I have been pausing podcasts lately so that I can just have a second to think and it’s been really, really amazing. So if you didn’t need deposit, that’s amazing too.
Beth [00:04:49] We’re going to move on and really talk about what is going on in this part of the school year and why your kids case managers are so frantic and what what they’re doing. Because you would think that the end of the school year means that there’s some less stress, that everything’s wrapping up, that everything’s slowing down, when in reality it’s quite the opposite from inside of the school building. So I’m going to give you a little sneak peek on that. What that looks like before the end of the school year, teachers have to do a couple of things.
Beth [00:05:23] They have to make sure that all of their IEP meetings are done, and if they’re in a district where somebody is looking over, their IEP is for quality control, which I sure hope you are. I sure hope there’s somebody in the district that is looking over all of the IEPs to make sure that they make sense, to make sure that the qualification is right, to make sure that all their eyes are dotted and T’s are crossed because. And this is kind of a reason why apps take so long to get finalized and get to you sometimes is that there’s a third party involved.
Beth [00:05:58] So in both of the districts that I worked at, there was one designated person who looked over all of the IEPs. And what would happen is the case manager turns it in to sue the the quality control person, which is like an admin person. And what happens is in both both of the districts I was there. This happened. They would turn it in electronically, but then the quality control person would print it out on paper. Still 2022 guys. And they were still printing it out on paper. They were marking it up and flagging everything that was wrong, including if a comma was misplaced or if something didn’t align, or if the goal needed more data, more information to be measurable. They would flag all of that, and then they would send it back physically to the case manager through interoffice mail, which was still a thing, back into the case manager’s hands for them to correct electronically and send the electronic version back to the quality control person.
Beth [00:07:08] Now, you would think that this would be like a super quick process with the printing out and the interoffice mail. It can take a week, two weeks. It depends on how many times it gets sent back. It depends on how picky that person is being. All kinds of factors. Right. And of course, how many IEPs are being done at once and how long it takes them to get back to them. So this can cause a delay and it can also cause some frustration on the part of the case manager, especially when commas are out of place, and they have to go back in there and put commas in the right places. And yes, that’s an actual example that actually happens.
Beth [00:07:44] So so if that is happening, your case manager might have, you know, five or seven IEPs that they’re trying to get wrapped up. And so they might not have time to set another IEP meeting like that might just be logistically not possible for them. And they want you to be aware that that might be something behind the scenes that makes them hesitant to say, Oh yeah, let’s do another IEP meeting.
Beth [00:08:06] The other thing that’s happening in this time of year that might get overlooked is that if somebody is qualifying for ESY or extended school year, and if you’re wondering what extended school year is, go back and listen to episode 31 because we break down is why if you want them qualified, if you don’t want them qualified, how people are qualified. So go check that out if you’re wondering what SB is. But most of the time students will not qualify for s y if they don’t have the data to support it at that time. So say that your student got qualified for an IEP right at the beginning of the year and they didn’t have any data on if they had any regression in their skills over Christmas break or spring break. And so now is the time at the end of the school year to look at that data. And if somebody qualifies for ESY that was marked no before, they need to amend all of those IEPs.
Beth [00:09:06] So it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re having more meetings, but it might mean that they have more paperwork. They need to send something home to the parent. For the parent to sign off on that, it’s okay that the amendment was made and then it gets sent back to the school and then that changes made in the IEP. So that also might be a paperwork piece that your case manager is working on as well.
Beth [00:09:30] So of course, there’s a multitude of other things that your case manager is doing, right? So they have transition meetings. If anybody is going from preschool to kindergarten or fifth grade, up to sixth grade to a middle school or eighth grade to ninth grade for high school, those all might have additional transition meetings that they’re working on, that they’re trying to coordinate two teams to get together, as well as parents and as well as the kid to be in one place at one time so that they can get those transition meetings done as well, too.
Beth [00:10:02] So that’s just a little peek behind the curtain on things that you might not think that they’re doing. And it might seem like they don’t want to give you an excuse or a reason why they need to put off the IEP meeting or whatever it is that you’re asking for to the fall. But this is a behind the scenes work they might be working on.
Beth [00:10:23] So let’s move into the second part of this podcast, which is really focusing on that problem or that question that you have or that meeting that you want to have and we’re going to talk about is if it’s best to talk about it right now and to really push and advocate and to really ask for it now or if it’s really going to be okay that that happens in the fall when everybody comes back at the end of the summer.
Beth [00:10:51] So for those of you who have something happening this year that you don’t want to happen in the next year, here are some thoughts. And this would be something like this school year, the 2021 to 2022 school year everybody thought was going to be back to normal after COVID. And it wasn’t. Things kept coming up. There were variants, there were relapses. There was all kinds of things that made this year still not, quote unquote, normal.
Beth [00:11:22] And so I think that there’s a lot of parents that are like this school year was still a wash. We do not want this to happen next year. We need to learn from what happened this year and not have that happen for the next year. And. Some of that is just losing that data or that information from the teacher that worked on some things, that tried some things, found out what wasn’t working for your kid and what was working for your kid.
Beth [00:11:51] So for those of you who are saying, I want to start off in the fall with the right plan in place, I want everything to be lined up and good to go. I want everything to look great. And we don’t have this like lost time in the middle or at the beginning of the year. We don’t have this lost time in the beginning of the year where that teacher’s trying to trial and error and stuff or we’re starting all over again from scratch. I hear you. And that’s really, really important. I think that having a delay in getting something to be right is lost time. And I totally understand that.
Beth [00:12:30] So I want to present to you there is a push to get some information from that teacher or whoever it was before the end of the year. And that’s for a couple reasons, right? Staffing could change. They could shift positions. They could leave the district in the middle of the year, even if they say that they’re coming back next year. There might be a possibility that they find out about this opportunity over the summer and they end up switching positions and then you lose that person from your child’s team. There might be things that your teacher forgets over the summer that right now is a really good time. While it’s fresh in their mind to really get their input and their information so that they can translate that to the next teacher or the next team, whatever that is, that can change over the summer.
Beth [00:13:21] And so. I want to just say that you can get this information. You can request this information if you’re feeling like you’re trying to call an IEP meeting and you’re trying to get those accommodations in the IEP or you’re trying to get a 504 in place to begin with, which was actually somebody that I was talking to in the direct messages. She was trying to get a 504 plan before they switched schools or before they moved. And so, yes, it’s really important to have that information with you. And the more formal that process can be, the better. So, yes, you definitely want to still request that meeting, request that you get some sort of information from that teacher or the current team so that you have that in place.
Beth [00:14:05] The more official that plan is, you know, if you can get those accommodations into the IEP officially, that’s wonderful. If you can get a 504 in place, but you don’t have one yet. Yes, please push for that. That is something to pursue. That is something to ask. Oh, my gosh. Can we get this done? We really need this done before the end of the school year.
Beth [00:14:29] But if you’re just getting pushback and you feel like this just isn’t going to happen, I don’t want you to have an all or nothing mentality where if this IEP meeting doesn’t happen with these new accommodations, all is lost. Or if this 504 doesn’t get into place, then all is lost because it’s not. You can still get an official information, official statement, I guess. It’s not a police report, but that’s what came to mind from the current team so that you have that in writing. So if you are thinking about:
Beth [00:15:04] Hey, I really want these accommodations into the IEP, I really want everybody to be on the same page. Then if you feel like a official IEP meeting is not going to be held, then I really want you to ask for it in writing. Typically over email is just fine. I want you to ask for a list of things the teacher was doing, or I want you to list them what things weren’t happening or weren’t helpful for your student? What did they learn about your kid over the course of the year? That’s fresh in their mind right now.
Beth [00:15:39] Then when you come back in the fall and you have that new team member or maybe it’s the same, and you’re just like, Oh, look at my notes here from our email that I asked you to write back in the spring. This is what we said we would add to the IEP in the fall. Let me pull that up right now. And isn’t that so convenient and amazing to have it documented like that? It’s just it’s incredible. It’s amazing.
Beth [00:16:04] So you’re saving yourself and your team’s so much less hassle by having to really think about what was happening last year. And you’re really putting your child into a good position moving into that next year. Okay.
Beth [00:16:19] If you are really wanting a reevaluation, if you are looking for a new plan of some kind, if you want a functional behavioral analysis to be done, and a new BIP, which is a new behavior intervention plan or BIP, if you’re looking for new things to be added that are quite the lengthy process, sometimes evaluations can take a very long time, weeks and weeks and weeks, right? I still want you to put in the formal request right now. And there’s there’s a reason for this.
Beth [00:16:54] If you have a team, especially that is coming back the next year, they have systems set up in place to have a list. And usually there’s a watch list like we’re considering if we need to test this, this child or not. We’ve been watching their scores. We’ve been watching them with their teacher. We’ve been talking with them. We’ve pulled them into groups a couple of times. They’re on the watch list. Right.
Beth [00:17:16] And then there’s another list. And that’s for any reevaluations that are coming up, any parent requests that are coming up. And if you are already on that list, the first week of school in the fall, then guess what? Usually an organized team will send out those parent permissions or permission to tests right in the fall. So like the first week or two of school, you will get a permission to test home.
Beth [00:17:43] Now there are still going to be a lag time while that evaluation is being completed, but the process has been started as soon as possible in the fall. So if you wait and you requested in the fall, often the teams will be like, Well, we have this list already started. Well, we’re getting through the people that who really need to be done. Well, we’re doing this through this. You might get some excuses, but if you request to be on that list and you can even say, Hey, I hear that some districts have a list of people that they need to reevaluate first thing in the fall.
Beth [00:18:20] I would really like us to be on that list because of this, this and this and really be problem focused here. That’s why I had you stop the podcast earlier and really think about the problem, right? So that you can say we’re having this problem, we’re having this issue. This year has been really hard because of blah, blah, blah, blah, like have your reasons and be succinct about it, like be to the point about it, but definitely backup your requests so that you can get on that list for first thing in the fall. So important, so nice.
Beth [00:18:53] I remember many, many times we would have that first team meeting when we came back and yes, we’d say, Hey, how was your summer? Blah blah blah. And then we would get into what permission to test do we need to ask for what do we need to send home? Who needs to be on that permission of test? What are the concerns so they know what staff members to include on that and they would go home literally the first week of school. And not every team is that quick, but many teams are. And I just want you to know that about the system, that if that’s what you want to be, if that’s where you want to be, then you need to request that before the school year ends.
Beth [00:19:32] Now, if you didn’t, if the school year has already ended for you, then I don’t want you. I don’t want you to freak out. You can find your case manager’s information. They still will sometimes check their emails over the summer. So if you want to send an email and just say, Hey, I know you guys are on summer break, but I’ve been thinking about this. I wanted to put that in this request over summer so that we’re on the list for the fall. Just try it. And then if you don’t hear back over the whole summer, but then that first week of school they get back, you can send another email with,.
Beth [00:20:06] Hey, I sent this back in May or June and I detailed out by I forwarded the email that I sent in June below. For your reference, I would really like to be on that list for you guys to really reevaluate or do an FBA, whatever it is that you’re asking for. First thing when we get back in the fall. So just refresh and say, Hey, I’ve already asked this, but I understand you are on break. Can I still be on that list? Can we get this happening? This was a really big struggle for my student last year and we want this year to go better.
Beth [00:20:42] Okay, so you have some assignments, right? You have some insight from this podcast about what is happening with your case manager during this time of the year. It’s a really busy time of the year, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t advocate within the system at this time of year. If you know that your team is going to have that list that they come back to in the fall where they are going to have some issues to address. First off the bat, when they’re fresh, it actually is really nice to be on that list and to get through that first round in the fall.
Beth [00:21:17] So, so nice if you were trying to add an accommodation like something like your student gets to meet their teacher before the school year starts, just look on the district’s website. You can very, very often find a staff work calendar on that calendar. You might see when everybody is back in the fall and when they start their teacher workdays. I would just cc the principal because the principal works more days than the rest of the staff does. So you see the principal and say,.
Beth [00:21:51] Hey, my student really needs to learn who their teacher is beforehand. They need to see their classroom and just ask for that over the summer. But to cc the principal, because they’re more likely to get back to you because they typically work most of the summer.
Beth [00:22:06] So again, we talked about what your case manager is so busy doing right now and be problem focused when you come to the table or come to that email in what you’re asking for, know what you’re going to be satisfied with. If you can’t have an IEP meeting, let’s say, know what your backup plan is. Okay. If we can’t have that IEP meeting, can I at least have record while it’s fresh in your mind of what was working for my kid and what wasn’t?
Beth [00:22:33] So now you have an idea and a context to be able to ask for the things that are going to make you feel like you did everything you could in the spring so that you guys are set up really, really well in the fall.
Beth [00:22:45] If you have a problem that I haven’t addressed in this podcast, I really would love to hear about it. In our Facebook group, you can find the link to that Facebook group at parentfriendlyot.com/podcast . It’s a nice little picture that has a picture of the cover photo of our Facebook group. Go ahead and click that request to access to the Facebook group. And I would love to help you and everybody in the group would love to help you figure out if that’s a problem that you really need to push for right now or if it’s something that can be delayed till the fall and not really have a huge impact on your student.
Beth [00:23:21] Again, that link can be found parentfriendlyot.com/podcast . Thank you so much for spending time with me today. I will see you at the same time, same place next week. Thanks so much.