Parent involvement in IEPs - any teachers out there?

[debs40]

I have a meeting with SENCO and one of my son's class teachers on Friday to go through a new draft IEP.

He is a bright 7 year old with Social Comunication Difficulties and developmental coordination disorder. He's doing averagely well (although teachers this year have not given any feedback on this - I honestly believe they aren't aware of the abilities of the children in their class - e.g. parents have to ask for children to move up reading levels, they are never read with by teachers).

Anyway, school have been VERY slow to cotton on to DS's problems despite me flagging this up for over a year and despite ample intervention from external agencies. This is largely because I was the one who had him referred for assessment by the GP. He is now awaiting diagnostic testing for an ASD and having OT for coordination issues.

Anyhoo - my question would be, whether it is considered normal practice to involve parents in drawing up IEPs. I've read SENCOP and the Lamb report and this suggests yes but I wondered what your experience is. The school have been incredibly reluctant to involve me at any level and have positively resisted my attempts to be involved. However, they have now agreed to look again at the IEP targets and strategies following my son's move on to SA+ (at my instigation because the previous targets were really pretty poor and very vague).

I imagine I will be handed the IEP as a fait accompli again but I was going to ask for time to take it home and consider it before agreeing it. Do you think this is reasonable?

It's what I do with my parents and IEPs, and if we've had a conversation and I think that the IEP should be rewritten, I do that too.
They work much better with positive input from the parent, and usually it gives me a chance to explain if anything is not clear enough.

As a parent my experience is that the teacher writes the IEP, we discuss it, I sign it. So if I wasn't happy with it I had the option of not signing it. I certainly think it's accecptable to take it away to think over. Also my dcs IEP have been very specific with a review date on them.

Completely reasonable to want some time to consider the IEP. It has to be worth the paper it's written on - and it's very valuable as a paper trail if at some stage you want to go down the Statementing route; it's your evidence that XY and Z strategies were tried but ineffective without additional support.

Good practice is that teh parent, and the pupil, should be involved in the drawing up of the IEP. Targets should be achievable and realistic, and the IEP should be reviewed at least termly.

Thanks. I have asked them to pop a copy of it in my son's book bag tomorrow so I can get a chance to look at it and consult mumsnet!

The new ones are as follows:

Target - To develop DS's awareness of facial expressions

Strategy - Use X materials

Success - DS will begin to recognise facial expressions as an important tool to communication

Target - DS will begin to engage in true two-way interchanges.

Success - DS will use active listening skills and questioning during 2-way interchange

No strategy

The other targets remain as before. Am I being too pedantic or am I right in thinking that this is all way too general and too vague to determine success?

Do you have a salt. It is useful to have their input when drawing up IEP,s for social communication disorders. How will they measure vague targets. Salt will hopefully know the stages of develping 2 way communication and an acheivable stage can be picked. If the issue was spelling the goal wouldnt be. He can spell but. he can spell 3 letter cvc words and get 9/10 in spelling tests before moving on or whatever

Mmm, SALT discharged and left it to school to deal with but I have been in touch with the SALT team and they said they would happily help with drafting targets. I have passed this on to the school but they have not gone back to SALT. They seem to really hate external agencies being involved in any way and really dislike me being so proactive.

I should add that these are not draft targets, they have been added on to the IEP with a comment that I can add to them if I would like and they agree.

So much for the Lamb report!

I used to prepare a draft IEP before a meeting with parents, based upon either information from the class teacher/parents, or advice from outside agencies. This was then discussed and amended after that discussion.

Sometimes all of the targets were amended, sometimes only one. Strategies were often added, after hearing about what worked well at home.

I once tried going to the meeting without a draft IEP, and writing all the targets, strategies and success criteria with the parents, but the process was extremely time consuming and un-manageable when multiplied by the number of children with SEN in the school.

Yes, I agree Littlefish, that would be like drafting by committee. I am disappointed that these have been added to the IEP - it is a long document with space for updates -and I have not been invited to comment on them but may suggest additions which can be discussed.

I've just re-read the targets etc. and they do seem very vague.

"Target - To develop DS's awareness of facial expressions

Strategy - Use X materials

Success - DS will begin to recognise facial expressions as an important tool to communication"

Personally, I think they should be focussing on one particular emotion first - e.g anger or sadness. The strategies should be far more detailed, saying who will be supporting the intervention, how often the intervention will take place and what will be done. The success criteria should be much tighter e.g. DS is able to recognise the difference between an angry face and a happy face and give an example of a situation when he might see them" (obviously, I don't know your ds but you see what I mean!)

Thanks Littlefish that is really helpful. I couldn't work out how they would measure progress against this and your suggestions are really helpful.

I have had a horrible and unnecessary battle to get to this stage. The school have not wanted to include outside agencies or me but have admitted that they don't understand his needs. It's soul-destroying

Can I also ask:

1. whether it is usual to have undertaken some baseline assessment to monitor progress and whether this should be on the IEP

1. Whether the IEP should detail strengths and weaknesses

1. whether the IEP should set out why it is required e.g. this child has SCD etc

I'm not sure there is any prescribed level of information required on an IEP. It's been a while since I was a Senco, so I might be wrong.

On IEPs, I always used to have a section that said what the strengths, weaknesses and current concerns were. I also used to put a simple code on them e.g. SPLD, SCD, ASD, PD or whatever.

Thanks. I'm dreading this afternoon. Another meeting which will make me look difficult or undermining for pointing out that thir giving my son targets which are difficult to meet. They really hate any parental involvement in this process

My DS (reception, 5 in May) has rather poor coordination / ine motor skills. He is struggling with his writing. I asked his teacher at the parent-teacher consultation last month to get him some extra help. She arranged an intial assessment with someone at the the school whose title I don't know (possibly SENCO?) and they have called me in for next Thursday so the three of us can sit down and discuss way forward and for me to bring any medical information I have. Together we will sit down and discuss whether he needs an IEP (I think he probably does). For all I complain about this school's lack of attention to math, I have to say I am very happy with the respnse I have received here.

DD (year 2) also has an IEP, but her teacher has been off sick since November and no one can find any record of this IEP and she never gave me a copy of it. Ho hum...