Request and Insist on Receiving Advance Copies of Draft IEPs and Amendments to IEPs

Parental review of a child’s IEP drafts and amendments in advance of IEP meetings is vital to their participation in the development of their children's IEPs.

However, IEP teams in Iowa typically wait until IEP meetings to provide parents with copies of draft IEPs and IEP amendments. This puts parents at a great disadvantage in with respect to participating meaningfully in the development of their children’s IEPs. By withholding draft IEPs and amendments from parents until meetings, IEP teams deny parents the time needed to read and process the content and formulate their own questions and input.

I strongly recommend to parents that as soon as they learn that an IEP meeting is being scheduled, they prepare an email requesting that at least three to five days before the meeting is scheduled, the IEP team send them an advance copy of any IEP draft or IEP amendment, and send the email to their child’s special education teacher, school principal, the school district’s special education director, and the Area Education Agency representative who serves on the child’s IEP team.

If an IEP team doesn’t honor a parent’s timely request for advance copies, and at the meeting begins passing out or displaying IEP drafts or amendments, rather than lying down before the steamroller, parents can politely arise and state that the meeting should be terminated and rescheduled for a mutually acceptable date and time after they have had several days to read and consider the contents of the IEP draft or amendment, compare it to the current IEP, and prepare for the meeting.

Parents Deserve Drafts of All Documents Before IEP Meetings

Too many IEP meetings begin with an AEA staff member announcing that the team is going to review a new draft IEP (or BIP, safety plan, etc.) that the parent has never seen. Then they proceed to discuss the document. 

This procedure places all or most parents at a keen disadvantage by giving them only enough time to “see” and “react” to the material during the meeting - but not enough time to think about content sufficiently to give meaningful input.

By withholding drafts from parents until IEP meetings commence, school district and AEA members of IEP teams effectively demonstrate an intent to prevent parents from fully participating as members of their children's IEP teams. 

The IDEA requires districts to ensure that the parents of each child with a disability are members of any group that makes decisions about their child's educational placement. 34 CFR 300.327 ; 34 CFR 300.501 (c)(1). This means that districts must go beyond merely allowing parents to be present at IEP meetings. Substantive harm occurs when LEAs seriously infringe upon a parent’s opportunity to participate in the IEP process. See Bd. of Educ. of the Hendrick Hudson Cent. Sch. Dist. v. Rowley, 458 U.S. 176, 208, 73 L. Ed. 2d 690, 102 S. Ct. 3034 (1982) (“Congress sought to protect individual children by providing for parental involvement . . . in the formulation of the child's individual educational program.”). Parent participation must be more than a mere form; it must be meaningful. See Deal v. Hamilton Cty. Bd. of Educ., 392 F.3d 840, 858 (6th Cir. 2004). 

I strongly recommend that parents give their children's IEP team written notice that they request that at least two school days in advance of their child's IEP meeting, the team provide them with copies of all written documents that will be discussed at the meeting. 

Moreover, Iowa law should not accord fewer rights to parents participating in IEP meetings than it provides to the members of condominium associations who are legally entitled to receive ten days before condominium association board meetings, drafts of all proposals for action to be considered at those meetings. 

To ensure that parents have the opportunity to participate meaningfully in developing their children’s IEPs, I recommend that the Iowa Department of Education amend the Iowa Rules of Special Education to include a rule providing that: “At least two school days before an IEP meeting, the school/AEA is required to provide parents with copies of any written documents that will be addressed at the IEP meeting.”

Transition Services

 In the first section of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (20 U.S.C. § 1400(d)(1)(a)), Congress stated that one of the chief purposes of the Act is: to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living. 

The IDEA requires that when a child turns 16, the child’s IEP includes: appropriate measurable postsecondary goals based upon age-appropriate transition assessments related to training, education, employment, and, when appropriate, independent living skills" and the transition services (including courses of study) needed to assist the child in reaching those goals." 20 U.S.C. § 1414(d)(1)(A)(i)(VIII). 

The Iowa Rules of Special Education require transition planning to be in place not later than the first IEP to be in effect when a child turns 14, or younger if determined appropriate by the IEP team. 281 Iowa Admin. Code r. 41.320(2). 

Transition services means a coordinated set of activities for a child with a disability that:

a. is designed to be within a results-oriented process, that is focused on improving the academic and functional achievement of the child with a disability to facilitate the child's movement from school to post-school activities, including post-secondary education, vocational education, integrated employment (including supported employment), continuing and adult education, adult services, independent living, or community participation;

b. is based on the individual child's needs, taking into account the child's strengths, preferences, and interests; and

c. includes instruction, relation services, community experiences, the development of employment and other post-school adult living objectives, and, when appropriate, acquisition of daily living skills and functional vocational evaluation.

20 U.S.C. § 1401(34); see also 34 C.F.R. § 300.320(b) (noting a transition IEP "must include appropriate measurable secondary goals . . . related to training, education, and employment . . . [and] transition services (including courses of study) needed to assist the child in reaching those goals.").

When a child needs specially designed instruction (SDI) to benefit from the child’s transition services, it is “special education” and should be tied to an IEP goal. 34 C.F.R. § 300.18(b)(2)(i). When a child needs related services to benefit transition services, those services should be written into the IEP. These determinations should be made on a case-by-case basis by the IEP team. Letter to Hamilton, 23 IDELR 721 (OSEP 1995). 

When a child with an IEP does not require special education to benefit from the child’s transition services, as long as the transition services are determined by the student's strengths, preferences, and interests, and are provided as a coordinated set of activities, the transition services may include instruction that is available to all children. Id. 

A few more things:

• The IEP team must clearly state the amount of services provided in the IEP so that the school district’s commitment of resources will be clear to parents and providers. 71 Fed. Reg. 46,667 (2006). 

• School districts and AEAs may not tell a student with a disability what that child can or cannot achieve.

• School districts may not restrict transition services solely to a menu of experiences that can be provided on school grounds. 

• School districts are expected to take a leadership position in contacting agencies expected to provide services to the student and to act as a liaison between the parents and the other agencies while the student is enrolled in school. See Letter to Bereuter, 20 IDELR 536 (OSERS 1993). See also Yankton Sch. Dist. v. Schramm, 93 F.3d 1369 (8th Cir. 1996). 

• A school district may not unilaterally delegate its transition responsibilities to parents.

• A district is ultimately responsible to the student for ensuring that the transition services called for in the student's IEP are implemented. 

Parents May Be “Outvoted” at IEP Team Meetings, But Still Have Rights

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) responded to a parent’s letter inquiring about IEP Team decision making in its Letter to Richards, 55 IDELR 107 (OSEP 2010). In the letter, OSEP stated that it is not appropriate for an IEP to make decisions about a child’s IEP by majority vote. OSEP also noted that while the IEP team should try to reach general agreement, the school district has the final responsibility for determining the appropriate services.

When parents and school districts disagree about a child’s IEP, parents commonly have the feeling that they have been, in effect, outvoted by the school district and area education agency (AEA) personnel at the meeting. While the law assigns school districts the final responsibility for determining appropriate services, it also requires that the district provide “prior written notice” of the school district’s decision regarding the child’s educational program and the parents’ right to request a due process hearing.

“Prior Written Notice” is notice given in writing to parents in regard to an action proposed or refused by the school district with respect to a child’s special education program. School districts are required to provide it whenever the district or AEA refuses to implement a parent’s proposal, or proposes to change a child's identification, evaluation, or placement. The proposal or refusal must be in regard to a matter over which the IEP team decision making authority.

The written notice must be provided to the parent after the district or AEA has made the decision to refuse or propose, but within a reasonable time before the district or AEA implements the proposed action. Before the action is implemented, the parent, district, or AEA has the right to request mediation or an impartial due process hearing on any proposed or refused action.

Prior written notice MUST contain the following:

∙ A description of the action proposed or refused.
∙ An explanation of why the district or AEA proposes or refuses to take the action.
∙ A description of the options the district or AEA considered and the reasons why those options were rejected.
∙ A description of each evaluation procedure, test, record, or report the district or AEA used as a basis for the proposed or refused action.
∙ A description of any other factors that are relevant to the district or AEA’s proposal or refusal.
∙ If the proposed action a change in the child’s identification, evaluation, or placement, when that action will be implemented
∙ The name and contact information about the person to whom the parent may address questions regarding the notice
∙ A statement that parents have the right to challenge the decision by invoking their rights under the IDEA’s procedural safeguards.

School districts MUST provide parents with prior written notice when they refuse or propose to do any of the following:

∙ Conduct or deny an initial evaluation
∙ Change or refuse to change a child’s services or placement
∙ Add, refuse to add, or terminate a service, support, or related service
∙ Change or refuse to change the means through which the child’s services are delivered
∙ Provide, deny, delete, or change a child’s access to Extended School Year services
∙ Add, change, or delete an IEP goal
∙ Whenever discipline results in a change of placement