Craig's story

Involving parents in the Individual Education Planning (IEP) process

This story describes how a special school staff under the guidance of a new principal started developing student Individual Education Plans (IEPs) that followed the new Guidelines for Individual Education Planning. The story focuses particularly on the processes the staff developed to involve parent input into the IEP process. As such, it provides useful ideas for conducting discussions with parents about IEP priorities.

The thirty two (32) pupils from Kindergarten age to Year 10 who are enrolled at this school are organised into four (4) teaching groups. All of the students are on the Register of Students with Severe Disabilities and therefore an IEP in its most comprehensive form is required for each of them.

At the beginning of 2005, with new leadership at the school, the staff was keen to learn about how their students could be part of the Essential Learnings curriculum; especially through the Individual education planning process. At the school, the class teachers are the personnel responsible for developing students’ IEPs.

The teachers were keen to devote time and effort into exploring the best way to collaborate with the parents of their students as part of the IEP development process. This attitude was based on the widely acknowledged educational premise that:

‘Parental participation is beneficial to students, parents and professionals alike and is best educational practice.’ (Rock,2000, p.31).

The school wanted to develop a process that would provide a model for use in future years.

The action research question that the teachers formulated to encapsulate their work is recorded in the speech bubble below.

References

Dabkowski, D.M. (2004) Encouraging Active Parent Participation in IEP Team Meetings. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 36(3), pp.34-39.

Rock, M.L. (2000) Parents as equal partners: Balancing the scales in IEP development. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 32(6), pp. 30-37.

Giangreco, M., Cloniger, C. and Iverson, V.S. (1998) Choosing outcomes and accommodations for children (COACH): A guide to education planning for students with disabilities. 2nd edn, Paul Brookes, Baltimore.

top