IEP stands for “Individualized Education Plan”. It is designed to clearly describe the goals that a child who has special needs will be helped to achieve in a given school year. That team is supposed to include the child’s parents and teachers. However, there are certain things that keep parents out of the decision making process.
Most schools do not intentionally make an effort to keep parents out of an IEP meeting. The majority of parents do their best to make sure that they are involved in the decisions that are made regarding the education of their children. Despite this, there are plenty of things that keep parents out of the IEP process.
One thing that keeps parents out of the process has to do with scheduling. There is a limited amount of time that a school can schedule an IEP meeting. Schools are not open on weekends, or on holidays. This includes holidays like Presidents’ Day, or Veterans Day. Schools open early in the morning, and tend to close up for the night just a few hours after the students have been dismissed. All IEP meetings have to be scheduled within this narrow span of time.
The majority of parents work for a living. Parents who work in an office typically are scheduled to work every weekday. Parents who are working the type of job that requires them to do “shift-work” will never know, for certain, what days or hours they will be scheduled to work. Not every workplace is going to allow a parent to take time off in order to attend an IEP meeting. Scheduling issues are part of what keep parents out of the IEP process.
Educators who work in Special Education tend to use a lot of abbreviations. I think most parents will have a basic understanding about what ADHD is. Not all of them will have heard of PDD-NOS, SPD, LRE, or NOREP.
Education is not the only career that uses specialized jargon. Many educators tend to forget that some parents may be unfamiliar with the jargon, abbreviations, and phrases that the teachers use every day. It is important for parents to speak up, and ask questions, when they do not understand the terminology being used in at IEP meeting. These types of meetings can only be successful when everyone fully comprehends what is being discussed.
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