Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does it need to be in person? One of the major upgrades has been virtual parent meetings. Parents don’t have to deal with taking extra time off work to drive to/from the school, no dealing with the parking lot or not knowing which entrance to use, no waiting for the terribly slow ID system to decide to work, no one on staff has to escort the parents to and from the meeting (which itself takes 5-10 minutes). In person meetings need to be a thing of the past!!

Says the general educator who left the IEP at some point in the middle.

Seriously - the virtual IEP meeting doesn’t engage all the members. People tune out (and leave without announcing they are leaving). What gets lost is the needs of the child.

Schools should give families choice. Their heavy handed approach to schedule meetings without checking with the parent as to preference as to format and time is a passive aggressive way of not treating parents as equal team members.

Who is tuning out of the meeting or even leaving? I would be surprised to learn it was the parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope virtual options will remain in the future. The pandemic definitely allowed certain things to be easier. This is one of them. Same with parent/teacher conferences and back to school night. (I do think parents should have the option for IEP and conferences in person, just pointing out this is very convenient for working parents)

It always was an option. Parents just had to ask for a phone or video option. Same for experts parents want at the meeting. The psychologist that did the neuropsychological testing for my child is in Baltimore. The team could meet in person at my child’s school but she participated over Zoom. Saved me for paying for her travel.

That isn’t true. Having someone call into a meeting was an option, but a fully virtual meeting where everyone is on equal footing was not an option.

I have been to so many more IEPs with both parents, and with service providers who aren’t based at individual schools (e.g. The TVI or AT specialist). In many situations virtual is way better. I think the choice should be the parents’ at this point but I hope fully virtual (not MCPS all in one room with “outsiders” on Zoom that’s awful) remains a choice.

I teach at a Title I school, and have seen so much more parent engagement and participation in the virtual meetings. Parents who have to choose between not getting paid and missing an important meeting for the child can now join the meeting from their job while on a break. Parents with young children at home don't have to pack them up and cart them awkwardly into the meeting, or pay for a babysitter. Just this week I had a meeting with both parents joining separately from their fast food/retail jobs. Virtual meetings are so much more equitable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope virtual options will remain in the future. The pandemic definitely allowed certain things to be easier. This is one of them. Same with parent/teacher conferences and back to school night. (I do think parents should have the option for IEP and conferences in person, just pointing out this is very convenient for working parents)

It always was an option. Parents just had to ask for a phone or video option. Same for experts parents want at the meeting. The psychologist that did the neuropsychological testing for my child is in Baltimore. The team could meet in person at my child’s school but she participated over Zoom. Saved me for paying for her travel.

That isn’t true. Having someone call into a meeting was an option, but a fully virtual meeting where everyone is on equal footing was not an option.

I have been to so many more IEPs with both parents, and with service providers who aren’t based at individual schools (e.g. The TVI or AT specialist). In many situations virtual is way better. I think the choice should be the parents’ at this point but I hope fully virtual (not MCPS all in one room with “outsiders” on Zoom that’s awful) remains a choice.

Mine was virtual. It was 3 weeks ago though.

Anonymous wrote:Why does it need to be in person? One of the major upgrades has been virtual parent meetings. Parents don’t have to deal with taking extra time off work to drive to/from the school, no dealing with the parking lot or not knowing which entrance to use, no waiting for the terribly slow ID system to decide to work, no one on staff has to escort the parents to and from the meeting (which itself takes 5-10 minutes). In person meetings need to be a thing of the past!!

Says the general educator who left the IEP at some point in the middle.

Seriously - the virtual IEP meeting doesn’t engage all the members. People tune out (and leave without announcing they are leaving). What gets lost is the needs of the child.

Schools should give families choice. Their heavy handed approach to schedule meetings without checking with the parent as to preference as to format and time is a passive aggressive way of not treating parents as equal team members.

It doesn't need to be in person, but can be in person if a parent prefers or feels they are better able to participate in person. It's an option based on what the parent wants and by no means has to be a thing of the past. I've done both for my kids depending on what was being discussed and how I felt best participating as the parent. Example - I wanted to be in person to review an evaluation to decide eligibility, but once eligibility was done and we were developing the IEP, I felt fine being on video.

Why does it need to be in person? One of the major upgrades has been virtual parent meetings. Parents don’t have to deal with taking extra time off work to drive to/from the school, no dealing with the parking lot or not knowing which entrance to use, no waiting for the terribly slow ID system to decide to work, no one on staff has to escort the parents to and from the meeting (which itself takes 5-10 minutes). In person meetings need to be a thing of the past!!

It’s odd that schools have not been transparent with the ability to have in person meetings after telling parents for 18 months that the BOE prevented in person meetings. That restriction was lifted at the end of the last school year.

Anonymous wrote:I hope virtual options will remain in the future. The pandemic definitely allowed certain things to be easier. This is one of them. Same with parent/teacher conferences and back to school night. (I do think parents should have the option for IEP and conferences in person, just pointing out this is very convenient for working parents)

It always was an option. Parents just had to ask for a phone or video option. Same for experts parents want at the meeting. The psychologist that did the neuropsychological testing for my child is in Baltimore. The team could meet in person at my child’s school but she participated over Zoom. Saved me for paying for her travel.

I hope virtual options will remain in the future. The pandemic definitely allowed certain things to be easier. This is one of them. Same with parent/teacher conferences and back to school night. (I do think parents should have the option for IEP and conferences in person, just pointing out this is very convenient for working parents)

I’ve requested in person and have had in person minus Central Office staff who remained virtual. It’s disheartening that MCPS is resisting 100% in person even when requested by parents. The virtual meetings have been plagued with technical difficulties and staff leaving mid meeting without acknowledging they left. Literally had one meeting while a staff member was obviously driving. Very unprofessional and disrespectful for the child.

Anonymous wrote:Same as PP. There was a thread on the very same subject just last week, OP.

OP here. I looked and did not see any threads about IEP meetings. I did see the long thread about the mask mandate.

Same as PP. There was a thread on the very same subject just last week, OP.

You can always request that it be in person. I prefer virtual.

Considering that MCPS is dropping the mask mandate, I’m not sure why IEP meetings cannot be held in person.