2. Presentation Objectives
Recognize and avoid
12 of the most
common IEP missteps
Target skills to build
and maintain trust
between schools and
parents
Adapted from Lake, S. (2010). Slippery slope! The IEP missteps every
team must know – and how to avoid them. Danvers, MA: LRP.
3. IDEA 2004
In the words of a
principal drafter of the
original special
education act, Robert T.
Stafford (1978), “an
individualized education
program (IEP) is the
central part of this act”
The critical role of the
IEP is to improve
educational results for
children with disabilities
4. What does IDEA
promise?
Mandate to ensure a
child with a disability
receives access to a free
appropriate public
education (FAPE)
A written plan – the IEP
5. Meeting the Rowley
Standard
In 1982, the Supreme
Court interpreted the
lynchpin of FAPE is
a child’s access to
educational opportunity,
not the specific
achievement of educational
results
The two prong Rowley
test for FAPE:
Has the LEA complied with
procedural requirements of
IDEA?
Is the IEP reasonably
calculated to enable the
child to receive educational Board of Education of Hendrick
benefit? Hudson Cent. Sch. Dist. v. Rowley,
553 IDELR 656 (U.S. 1982)
6. Misstep 1:
Failing to Obtain Informed Parental
Consent
Purpose for notice of parental consent
Parent’s involvement in identification and response
to a suspected disability is encouraged and
facilitated
The school district must make an adequate
response to parental concerns about children who
may have disabilities
Consent Requirements
Document attempts to obtain
Revocation of informed consent
7. Strategies for Compliance To Obtain
Informed Parental Consent
Provide relevant information
in written form and through documented discussion in the
IEP meeting
in the parents’ native language or other mode of
communication
Document all efforts to obtain parental consent in writing
Develop specific forms for documentation
Fully describe disputed issues about informed consent in the
IEP deliberations
Make sure parents know they can revoke consent
Follow verbal commitments with written informed consent
If the student has reached age of majority and rights are
transferred, make sure the student provides informed consent
8. Misstep 2: Failing to Ensure Parents’
Meaningful Participating in the IEP
Process
IDEA “imposes upon the school the duty to
conduct a meaningful meeting with the
appropriate parties” 18 IDELR 1019 (9th Cir. 1992)
Parents role
Notify parents with sufficient time to ensure
opportunity to attend
Schedule the meeting at a mutually agreed
time and place
IEP notice
Indicate purpose, time, and location
Identify all persons invited
Include required components
9. Strategies for Compliance to Ensure
Parents’ Meaningful Participating in the
IEP Process
Work to ensure amicable agreement about IEP scheduling
If the school elects to meet and adopt an IEP for a student
without the parents’ presence, then they need to have
carefully documented attempts to ensure attendance
Ensure meetings are scheduled and actually held at agreed to
times
Be able to readily show that the parent is an active and
effective participant in the IEP development
Attempt to resolve or mediate any communication problems
Carefully evaluate and consider all parental requests
Encourage school staff to personally contact parents early in
the school year
10. Misstep 3:
Predetermining IEP Services and
Placement
An IDEA placement decision is a
cooperative determination concerning the
location where a school will implement the
student’s IEP
The district is under no obligation to provide the
placement requested by a parent, however must be
willing to consider
Avoid predetermining prior to or outside of the IEP
meeting
11. Strategies for Compliance to Avoid
Predetermining IEP Services and
Placement
Make sure the IEP meeting agenda refers to review a “draft”
IEP and that the “draft” is marked or stamped as “draft”
Caution district staff members to avoid making any statements
that could be interpreted as predetermining services or
placement
Listen carefully to disagreements or concerns and allow
enough time to discuss
Examine relevant documents parents may bring to the
meeting and document consideration in deliberations
Make changes as appropriate to the “draft”
Involve the parents at every stage of the meeting, providing
them with all necessary information to make informed
decisions
Ensure the IEP team actually makes a formal, written offer of
placement
12. Misstep 4:
Improperly Excusing IEP Team Members
Avoid the temptation to routinely or
unilaterally excuse IEP team members –
especially the general education teacher
Be sure to meet prior notice and
agreement requirements
Review IDEA requirements
13. Strategies for Compliance to Avoid
Improperly Excusing IEP Team Members
Prepare standard forms for written input, consent, and
agreement
Comply with IDEA consent requirements
Document district’s reasonable efforts to obtain parental
consent
Anticipate IEP issues
Avoid routine use of excusal process
Make sure parents understand they are consenting to excuse
an IEP team member
Obtain excused member’s written input in advance of the
meeting
Exercise caution if the parents change their mind about
excusal
14. Misstep 5:
Improper IEP Team Membership
Ensure proper composition of the IEP
team – mandatory and permitted
15. Strategies for Compliance to Ensure
Proper IEP Team Membership
Notify parents early enough to allow a reasonable and fair
opportunity to attend
Ensure parental meeting notifications include the purpose,
time, and location of the meeting
To extent possible, schedule meetings at mutually agreed
upon time and place
Keep records of attempts to arrange a mutually agreed upon
time and place
Attempt to use methods other than face to face to ensure
parent participation
16. Misstep 6: Failing to Address Transition to
Postsecondary Activities and Independent
Living
IDEA requirements
Definition of transition services
Transition requirements
Child’s interests
Age for services
Postsecondary goals
17. Strategies for Compliance to Address Transition
to Postsecondary Activities and Independent
Living
Create a formal written transition plan
Incorporate transition planning into the IEP
Develop individual transition plans
Ensure transition planning process starts and is documented at
least by age 16 for each IDEA eligible child
Involve parents and students as much and as early as possible
Draft postsecondary goals that accurately reflect the goals that
a child hopes to achieve
Review IEPs to make sure they identify important skills
needed for transition goals
Avoid drafting generic transition plans
18. Misstep 7: Failing to Ensure Availability of
a Continuum of Alternative Placements
Both the Daniel R.R. (1989) and the Oberti
(1993) looked at whether a district complied
with the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
requirement and identified two prongs:
Whether the student can be educated in a regular
classroom with the use of supplemental aids and services
Whether the district has mainstreamed the student to the
maximum extent appropriate
The continuum of alternative placements
ranges from
least (general education classroom) to
most (residential placement) restrictive environments
19. Strategies for Compliance to Ensure
Availability of a Continuum of Alternative
Placements
Make sure that space does not drive placement decisions
Ensure general educators believe that students with disabilties
can learn content-based curriculum
Avoid predetermination of placement
Conduct regular in-service training on LRE and continuum of
alternative placement issues
Avoid vague, generalized recommendations regarding LRE in
the IEP
20. Misstep 8:
Failing to Consider the 5 “Special Factors”
IEP teams must evaluate and consider
Behavior
Limited English proficiency
Blind/visually impaired
Deaf/hearing impaired
Assistive technology
21. Strategies for Compliance to Consider
the 5 “Special Factors”
Ensure the IEP team specifically reviews all of the 5 special
factors as a part of the IEP team process, with parental
participation and approval, each and every time an IEP is
developed, reviewed, or revised
Draft and review behavior intervention plans (BIPs) with input
from an individual appropriately credentialed
For a child who is blind or visually impaired, consider
instruction in and use of Braille
For deaf and hearing-impaired, consider the child’s language
and communication needs
22. Misstep 9: Failing to Follow Proper
Procedures for Publicly Placed Private
School Students
If the district is unable or unwilling to
provide FAPE in the public school, that
district shall assume the cost of educating
the student in a private school
23. Strategies for Compliance to Follow Proper
Procedures for Publicly Placed Private School
Students
Initiate and conduct a meeting to develop an IEP for a student
placed in private schools
Ensure that staff knows the district remains responsible for the
education of the student who is publicly placed in private
school
Ensure a private school representative attends the IEP
meeting
24. Misstep 10: Failing to Follow
Requirements for Interstate and Intrastate
Transfers
IDEA requirements
IEPs
Transmittal of records
25. Strategies for Compliance to Follow
Requirements for Interstate and Intrastate
Transfers
Ensure the district consults with the parents and provides
services comparable to those in the previous district
Be familiar with intrastate and interstate IDEA requirements
Request transmittal of records
26. Misstep 11: Failing to Address a Student’s
Behavioral and Emotional Needs
Address behaviors that impact the
student’s education
Consider strategies that include positive
behavior interventions, as well as other
supports to address behavior
27. Strategies for Compliance to Address a
Student’s Behavioral and Emotional
Needs
Obtain all the behavioral information the IEP team needs
Determine if the student demonstrated behaviors that are
unsafe and/or interfere with the learning environment
Carefully review the student’s academic and behavioral history
Determine if the student has been routinely removed from the
general education classroom because of inappropriate
behavior
Conduct or update a functional behavior assessment (FBA)
Develop a behavior intervention plan (BIP)
28. Misstep 12: Failing to Establish and Consider
Existing Evaluation Data and Present Levels of
Performance
The IDEA has long required the IEP team,
during initial evaluations and
reevaluations to review existing data as
well as present levels of academic
achievement and functional performance
29. Strategies for Compliance to Establish and
Consider Existing Evaluation Data and Present
Levels
Ensure the IEP team fully considers all evaluation data
Ask parents their concerns
Document and discuss the implications of all results from
assessments and evaluations conducted since the last IEP
meeting
Analyze precisely what the student knows and is able to do
Ensure the IEP contains a summary or explanation of the data
the IEP team considered, so that any reader can easily
understand the IEP team’s interpretation of the data
Have the IEP team discuss what the student should know or
be able to do by the time of the annual review
30. Summary
Comply with federal and
state mandates
Implement the IEP
Once an error is
discovered, the best
practice is to admit the
mistake, promptly notify
parents, and take all
reasonable steps to
correct
Offer compensatory
education for an IEP
error
31. Professional
Development
Provide in-service
training sessions to
avoid mistakes or
remedy issues
Work to build
relationships with
parents and include
their input
Review policies,
practices, and
procedures to avoid
IEP missteps
32. Contact
Special Education Solutions
Region 4 Education Service Center
7145 West Tidwell
Houston, TX 77092
713.744.6365
Linda De Zell Hall, PhD Jerry Klekotta
lhall@esc4.net gklekotta@esc4.net
713.744.6399 713.744.6393