IEP meeting without me-what happens?

[Anonymous]

Send an email stating that as a parent you are an equal part of the IEP team and that by having a meeting without you present to create the IEP is against the core of IDEA and a violation of FAPE.
(unfortunately the US Department of Ed website is down right now)

That as a parent, you know your child and can bring to the table important elements that you see. By disregarding your voice, you are not an equal part of the team.

[Anonymous]

What county are you in? In DC, an individual performance metric is completing the IEP annually (on time). They do a lot of questionable things to meet this metric.

[Anonymous]

They can meet without you if you initially agreed to that time and could no longer make it.

If they offered you 3 different times/days and you could make none of those they can have the meeting without you.


This doesn't mean the IEP can be finalized without you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They can meet without you if you initially agreed to that time and could no longer make it.

If they offered you 3 different times/days and you could make none of those they can have the meeting without you.

This doesn't mean the IEP can be finalized without you.

I am not the OP but our school offered 3 options once - they were all on the same day - and it was a day that I could not meet.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all. This is FCPS. They only offered one day and time. They said they need to meet to meet required timelines and will meet with me another time to go over the IEP and that time likely won’t be until sometime mid to late April.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are required to have to IEP by a certain date annually by law. They must have reached that date. Don't worry about it. The meeting without you is just on paper no decisions will be made. The real meeting will happen when you attend.

Then they miss the legally required date, and that is on them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all. This is FCPS. They only offered one day and time. They said they need to meet to meet required timelines and will meet with me another time to go over the IEP and that time likely won’t be until sometime mid to late April.

I would document and cc the superintendent. Not acceptable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They can meet without you if you initially agreed to that time and could no longer make it.

If they offered you 3 different times/days and you could make none of those they can have the meeting without you.

This doesn't mean the IEP can be finalized without you.

I am not the OP but our school offered 3 options once - they were all on the same day - and it was a day that I could not meet.

Did they take that as a reason to not have you at the meeting?

They need to document repeated attempts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They can meet without you if you initially agreed to that time and could no longer make it.

If they offered you 3 different times/days and you could make none of those they can have the meeting without you.

This doesn't mean the IEP can be finalized without you.

I am not the OP but our school offered 3 options once - they were all on the same day - and it was a day that I could not meet.

Did they take that as a reason to not have you at the meeting?

They need to document repeated attempts.

My child is parentally placed at private school. The school district always schedules meetings on days when the private school is off. It is a ridiculous game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all. This is FCPS. They only offered one day and time. They said they need to meet to meet required timelines and will meet with me another time to go over the IEP and that time likely won’t be until sometime mid to late April.

You need to escalate. Send another email and propose 2 days and times that work for you.
State that as an IEP team member you need to be in attendance and it is a denial of FAPE for them to hold an IEP meeting without you as they are not allowing parental participation.
You can also offer to send an email recognizing that the school will be missing the date but that you believe that having the parent involved is more important than rushing to meet an date.

This puts the school on notice. CC the chain of command.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They can meet without you if you initially agreed to that time and could no longer make it.

If they offered you 3 different times/days and you could make none of those they can have the meeting without you.

This doesn't mean the IEP can be finalized without you.

I am not the OP but our school offered 3 options once - they were all on the same day - and it was a day that I could not meet.

Did they take that as a reason to not have you at the meeting?

They need to document repeated attempts.

My child is parentally placed at private school. The school district always schedules meetings on days when the private school is off. It is a ridiculous game.

That seems like it would be helpful since you'd need to be off work anyway for childcare reasons.

I'm a private school teacher, and I'd much rather call into an ISP meeting on a professional day, than have to negotiates subs for it.

Have you actually told them it doesn't work for you?

[Anonymous]

What part of the IEP process are you in Op?


Can't you Zoom or set up a tele conference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are required to have to IEP by a certain date annually by law. They must have reached that date. Don't worry about it. The meeting without you is just on paper no decisions will be made. The real meeting will happen when you attend.

That date can be extended if parents and school mutually agree. I am a Special Ed teacher and we would reschedule unless we have made at least 3 attempts to schedule and each time parent did not respond and/or was not available.

[Anonymous]

I would keep my tone in all exchanges friendly/respectful/conciliatory. State that you have only been offered one time for which you have a conflict and you will need to be offered two additional times. State that as a team member you need to be included in the meeting. I have found that teams will try to put you off, but if you are clear and direct they will accommodate. For example, I record all meetings. The first time I put in my advance request to record, the head of special ed said "oh, we don't do that here." I very politely told her that I understood that I had the right to record and I was providing the required notice and she said okay. If a firm and direct email doesn't work, I would keep escalating to the next level.

[Anonymous]

I would say this happens frequently at my FCPS school. The team just documents on the PLOP pages that they met on the original date and the parent was unable to attend and that they will reschedule. It shows that an IEP was drafted and an attempt was made to meet the annual deadline. We also have many cases in which we meet multiple times to get through the whole IEP and are months out of timeline.

In Virginia they can’t implement anything without your written consent. Tell them that you can’t reschedule your work commitment and ask for another date.