IEP meeting without me-what happens?

[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.

Lol to my knowledge they cannot do that, I am a special educator. Also I wouldn’t do it on principle because you know I actually want my families to make it to the meeting, even the ones who make me have multiple 2-3 hour meetings. It’s good to get all your concerns out there.

[Anonymous]

Even if they "meet" to accommodate the timeline no major decisions will be made until the parent is a part of the meeting and signs. This really isn't the huge deal some posters are making it out to be. The team make a scheduling issue that's all this is. The school is trying to comply with legal requirements. Speaking as a ln IEP case manager.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if they "meet" to accommodate the timeline no major decisions will be made until the parent is a part of the meeting and signs. This really isn't the huge deal some posters are making it out to be. The team make a scheduling issue that's all this is. The school is trying to comply with legal requirements. Speaking as a ln IEP case manager.

If the school meets without the parent it is predetermination.
How is that not a big deal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if they "meet" to accommodate the timeline no major decisions will be made until the parent is a part of the meeting and signs. This really isn't the huge deal some posters are making it out to be. The team make a scheduling issue that's all this is. The school is trying to comply with legal requirements. Speaking as a ln IEP case manager.

If the school and parent/guardian agree to meet after the annual due date, it's only a black mark against the school, not an illegality. There are also times when it is unavoidable such as when there have been multiple snow days and the IEP meetings could be rescheduled in time or unexpected family/health reasons.

As a parent, I would absolutely opposed the school meeting without me in order to avoid missing the date unless we had agreed ahead of time. I would especially dig my heels in if the school just announced when the meeting was since it speaks to a larger problem at the school. I'm happy to be a partner when I'm treated like a partner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

DP. I would actually copy the Procedural Support Liaison (PSL) for your Pyramid. It sounds like the school team needs some support on procedures and best practices.


https://www.fcps.edu/academics/academic-overview/special-education-instruction/special-education-procedural-support-1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if they "meet" to accommodate the timeline no major decisions will be made until the parent is a part of the meeting and signs. This really isn't the huge deal some posters are making it out to be. The team make a scheduling issue that's all this is. The school is trying to comply with legal requirements. Speaking as a ln IEP case manager.

If the school and parent/guardian agree to meet after the annual due date, it's only a black mark against the school, not an illegality. There are also times when it is unavoidable such as when there have been multiple snow days and the IEP meetings could be rescheduled in time or unexpected family/health reasons.

As a parent, I would absolutely opposed the school meeting without me in order to avoid missing the date unless we had agreed ahead of time. I would especially dig my heels in if the school just announced when the meeting was since it speaks to a larger problem at the school. I'm happy to be a partner when I'm treated like a partner.

I agree this does make the child's SPED case manager look bad and the school equally look dysfunctional or understaffed. Usually schools make sure to schedule these weeks out to avoid any issues. This year also hasn't had any snow days and not being able to meet again for two weeks is crazy.

[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.

Our FCPS ES gave us the option to Zoom. Ask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if they "meet" to accommodate the timeline no major decisions will be made until the parent is a part of the meeting and signs. This really isn't the huge deal some posters are making it out to be. The team make a scheduling issue that's all this is. The school is trying to comply with legal requirements. Speaking as a ln IEP case manager.

If the school and parent/guardian agree to meet after the annual due date, it's only a black mark against the school, not an illegality. There are also times when it is unavoidable such as when there have been multiple snow days and the IEP meetings could be rescheduled in time or unexpected family/health reasons.

As a parent, I would absolutely opposed the school meeting without me in order to avoid missing the date unless we had agreed ahead of time. I would especially dig my heels in if the school just announced when the meeting was since it speaks to a larger problem at the school. I'm happy to be a partner when I'm treated like a partner.

I agree this does make the child's SPED case manager look bad and the school equally look dysfunctional or understaffed. Usually schools make sure to schedule these weeks out to avoid any issues. This year also hasn't had any snow days and not being able to meet again for two weeks is crazy.

Possibly they are snowed under with having to have another meeting with every single IEP student to talk about compensatory hours, as per that Gatehouse announcement a couple months ago. It doubled the schools' workload for meetings.

OP, this does sound like a paperwork/box checking exercise and probably a scheduling mishap, rather than anything nefarious. That being said, they still can't do this. I would write back saying you are happy to sign whatever documentation is needed to show that you agree to hold the meeting outside of the 1-year timeline and to please send you more dates. They are required to make at least 3 attempts at scheduling before they can ever go ahead without a parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if they "meet" to accommodate the timeline no major decisions will be made until the parent is a part of the meeting and signs. This really isn't the huge deal some posters are making it out to be. The team make a scheduling issue that's all this is. The school is trying to comply with legal requirements. Speaking as a ln IEP case manager.

Meeting without the parent IS absolutely a big deal.

- special education attorney

[Anonymous]

OP, how old is your child?

Now that mine is moving into high school next year, they have started to phase us (parents) out and put it more on him. But theirs is a slow, deliberate process and I can't imagine it would be thrown at us like your meeting is. This sounds sloppy and unorganized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if they "meet" to accommodate the timeline no major decisions will be made until the parent is a part of the meeting and signs. This really isn't the huge deal some posters are making it out to be. The team make a scheduling issue that's all this is. The school is trying to comply with legal requirements. Speaking as a ln IEP case manager.

If the school and parent/guardian agree to meet after the annual due date, it's only a black mark against the school, not an illegality. There are also times when it is unavoidable such as when there have been multiple snow days and the IEP meetings could be rescheduled in time or unexpected family/health reasons.

As a parent, I would absolutely opposed the school meeting without me in order to avoid missing the date unless we had agreed ahead of time. I would especially dig my heels in if the school just announced when the meeting was since it speaks to a larger problem at the school. I'm happy to be a partner when I'm treated like a partner.

I agree this does make the child's SPED case manager look bad and the school equally look dysfunctional or understaffed. Usually schools make sure to schedule these weeks out to avoid any issues. This year also hasn't had any snow days and not being able to meet again for two weeks is crazy.

Possibly they are snowed under with having to have another meeting with every single IEP student to talk about compensatory hours, as per that Gatehouse announcement a couple months ago. It doubled the schools' workload for meetings.

OP, this does sound like a paperwork/box checking exercise and probably a scheduling mishap, rather than anything nefarious. That being said, they still can't do this. I would write back saying you are happy to sign whatever documentation is needed to show that you agree to hold the meeting outside of the 1-year timeline and to please send you more dates. They are required to make at least 3 attempts at scheduling before they can ever go ahead without a parent.

So, they would compound their problems by failing to prioritize which meetings should be scheduled first? That's also indicative of a larger problem.

Why wouldn't they combine, where possible, the meetings? My DSs have their annual review in Nov/Dec. We haven't had our compensatory meetings scheduled yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if they "meet" to accommodate the timeline no major decisions will be made until the parent is a part of the meeting and signs. This really isn't the huge deal some posters are making it out to be. The team make a scheduling issue that's all this is. The school is trying to comply with legal requirements. Speaking as a ln IEP case manager.

Meeting without the parent IS absolutely a big deal.

- special education attorney

The school is asking to hold the "meeting" that date to meet timelines but will not finalize anything. Another date will be provided to OP to finalize the IEP. They don't intend to close the IEP without the parent. For whatever reason, they don't have much flexibility to reschedule and still meet the deadline to remain compliant...probably because of upcoming spring break, staffing shortages, illness, etc. I doubt it is as sinister as assumed. The OP presented that the school has said they will have the "real" IEP meeting at a later date. OP isn't required to go along with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I’m a sped teacher in dc. Only a dummy or someone whose score is really close to the cusp would care. It’s worth 5% of our scores and that’s for everyone. So this 1 meeting won’t break anyone’s score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if they "meet" to accommodate the timeline no major decisions will be made until the parent is a part of the meeting and signs. This really isn't the huge deal some posters are making it out to be. The team make a scheduling issue that's all this is. The school is trying to comply with legal requirements. Speaking as a ln IEP case manager.

Meeting without the parent IS absolutely a big deal.

- special education attorney

Nah, not if we made 3 attempts/3 dates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need to give permission for them to proceed. Tell them they don't have permission to proceed and you want a new date.

If you do give permission, they should still send you a draft IEP, so you'll have an idea if any big changes are coming, or if there are new concerns you didn't know about. They'll update the IEP without you, and when you get the final one if you disagree with something you can request another meeting. Or a more informal meeting/phonecall - just because it's on paper it's not set in stone. They can write an amendment at any time to change something.

This. they cannot proceed without you