Meeting prep
A one-page agenda and the questions that get real answers
The checklist
Almost all the leverage in an IEP meeting is created in the week before it, not in the room. 0 of 28 done.
A week before
Almost all the leverage in an IEP meeting is created before it starts.
What to bring
Paper beats memory, and a second adult beats both.
In the room
You are a full member of the team, and the meeting is not a presentation to you.
When they ask you to sign
Signing attendance and consenting to the plan are different acts, and one page often serves both.
Within two days
The record closes fast. What you write down now is what happened.
Pick your questions
Choose four or five. A list of twenty gets abandoned at question six, and the ones at the bottom are usually the ones that mattered.
About the data
About the services
About the setting
About behaviour
Before the meeting ends
Your one-page agenda
Print it and take it in. Writing the answers down while they are being said is the single most useful thing you can do in the room.
If the meeting achieves nothing else, what has to change? Teams respond to one clear ask far better than to eight.
Take this in with you
IEP MEETING — [child] THE ONE THING I NEED FROM THIS MEETING [Write it in one sentence. If the meeting achieves nothing else, this.] MY QUESTIONS [Pick questions from the tool to fill this in.] AGREED TODAY — who, what, by when 1. ____________________________________________ 2. ____________________________________________ 3. ____________________________________________ BEFORE I SIGN ANYTHING - Which signature is attendance, and which is consent? - I can take this home before consenting. - If I agree with most of it, I consent in writing to those parts and object to the rest. - I leave with a complete copy of everything I signed. WITHIN TWO DAYS - Email a summary of what I understood was agreed. - Send written consent, exceptions, or both. - Request prior written notice for anything refused. Generated by help.dangon.co
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This is information about what the regulations say, not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for someone who knows your child. Special education law also varies by state. Your state parent center is free, federally funded, and will go through any of this with you.
The asymmetry is logistical, not legal
The district side of the table has run hundreds of these meetings, has met beforehand, and wrote the draft. The parent has run two, is reading the draft for the first time, and is outnumbered six to one. Nothing about that is illegal. It is simply how the meeting is arranged, and almost everything that helps involves closing it before the meeting starts.
The three highest-value things
- Ask for the draft in writing, three school days ahead. Reading it the night before turns a presentation into a conversation.
- Bring a second person. You are entitled to bring anyone. Someone else taking notes lets you participate instead of transcribe.
- Send a summary email within two days. An unanswered summary becomes the accepted account of what was agreed. This one habit does more work than everything else on this page combined.
You do not have to sign in the room
There is no rule requiring it, and there is rarely a good reason to. If the same signature line covers both attendance and consent, write "attendance only" next to your name and send your consent — or your consent with exceptions — in writing afterwards.
Nothing here is stored
Your ticks and your agenda live in this browser tab only. Print or save before you close it.