School didn't consult us or DS on his IEP!

[thelittlebluepills]

Am I right to be annoyed at this?

We have made it very clear to the school that we are parents who want to be involved in our son's education. Their policy states partnership with parents, but we didn't even know they were reviewing his IEP, we just found a new one in his book bag one day after school.

I insisted on a meeting with the class teacher and the SENCO, which in itself was helpful. I was further shocked to discover that the class teacher had no idea that DS1 had hearing problems for many years, and that it could potentially be an issue again.

Am I misunderstanding things here because I thought both parents and the child were supposed to input to the IEP?

Have you had the meeting?

Otherwise, you can write to them thanking them for the draft IEP and give your availability for the IEP meeting.

You should have input on IEP's/reviews done by the school. You and your son (dependant on age/ability) are part of the IEP "team".

Sometimes it is less time consuming for the school to involve the parents i.e arranging meetings. And also there is sometimes the fact that schools don't like "outsiders" interfering with the way they work even though most of the time the parent/child are the best people to have on the team .

I personally ask for a copy of the IEP to take away with me so I can go over it in my own time therefore no pressure to sign anything that I don't understand or agree with, and pencil in anything I think would be helpful or edit were neccessary, then hand it back for final copy. Should they not like what has been changed/added they can arrange another meeting to discuss .

The following is a quote from the SEN code of practice. A school is obliged to follow it unless there is some exceptional circumstance for them not to.
the SENCOP can be found here

Individual Education Plans
5:50 Strategies employed to enable the child to progress should be recorded within an
Individual Education Plan (IEP). Further information on managing IEPs and Group
Education Plans can be found in the SEN Toolkit. The IEP should include information about:
the short-term targets set for or by the child
the teaching strategies to be used
the provision to be put in place
when the plan is to be reviewed
success and/or exit criteria
outcomes (to be recorded when IEP is reviewed).
5:51 The IEP should only record that which is additional to or different from the differentiated
curriculum plan, which is in place as part of provision for all children. The IEP should be
crisply written and focus on three or four individual targets, chosen from those relating to
the key areas of communication, literacy, mathematics, and behaviour and social skills
that match the child?s needs. The IEP should be discussed with the child and the parents.

IEPs should be reviewed at least twice a year. Ideally they should be reviewed termly, or possibly more frequently for some children. At least one review in the year could coincide with a routine Parents? Evening, although schools should recognise that some parents will prefer a private meeting. Reviews need not be unduly formal, but parents? views on the child?s progress should be sought and they should be consulted as part of the review process. Wherever possible, the child should also take part in the review process and be
involved in setting the targets. If the child is not involved in the review, their ascertainable
views should be considered in any discussion.

Hi. My son has been on action plus for a number of years. The first IEP of each school year has always been drawn up without my input. Each year I have expressed a wish to be present at the meeting and each time I was told that parents don't get invited to the first one of the year due to time constraints. He is now at high school and it seems to work the same way.

As suggested above, if you are not happy with the IEP then you can send it back with suggested amendments and offer to meet to discuss them.

Wow! Never been involved in an IEP meeting and was laughed at when I mentioned I should. Thanks alison222 for that!

Sorry I'm not answering here, just joining the littlebluepills with the sae questions. What do we do when we know school are not following the SEN COP?

Jerbil Go and wave it at them????
Seriously though I would probably write to them quoting the SENCOP which they have to follow - listing page and section no and linking to the online version, ask for a meeting and wait to see what happens next.

I didn't even know ds had one until a 'we are reviewing his iep' form came through last week ... but as we are right in the middle of a dx process am waiting to see what comes of that before raising the iep issue with school.

systemsaddict you don't need a dx for an IEP - just the school to have noticed he needs additional help and to be giving it. At the point that they give additional help they should be writing an IEP

thanks - I'll ask if I can see it I think.

At the MS primary school that DS2 attended, we were given written notice approximately 3 weeks in advance of the IEP review meeting, with a place to mark whether or not we were attending to return to the school. We also got a copy of the current IEP that would be reviewed, so we could look it over prior to the meeting.

If they are not giving you the opportunity to be involved in reviewing the IEP, you need to make it very clear (and in writing) that this is not acceptable and that you expect correct procedures to be followed.

Thanks alison222 will have to save that to favourites, didn't have my copy to hand!

I find it quite amusing when a school quotes "we will not treat a child any different from any other" yet that child has an IEP so the school have acknowledged that more help is needed, prehaps done in a slightly different way to help the child to assess the curriculum, which is obviously personal to them otherwise what would be the point of an IEP?

The question on my mind is how does one be sure that the IEP is being followed? obviously progress would be a general sign but what about the social and emotional side?

My experience in primary school was a letter inviting us to the meeting, rearranging it if necessary as they wanted us there.
The Class teacher TA and Senco were all present.
There would be a summary from the class teacher about how the previous targets on the IEP had gone, input from the TA and a discussion about whether or not the targets were still relevant. The SENCO would type a new IEP while we were there - amending the previous one as necessary while we talked and agreed wording and approaches to make them sensible and workable.
It sounds like we had a much better deal than a lot of you who have posted here. I thought that this was how it was supposed to be done, and didn't realise a lot of schools flouted it so much.

Having said that DS has just moved to Secondary and we haven't seen and IEP yet. I will be chasing that one.

As an ex-primary teacher, we would write the first IEP and send it out - precisely because of time constraints. We would then have a parents' evening at the end of terms 2, 4 and 6 (the old-style terms) where we would discuss the IEP review and new targets. The new IEP would be written by the start of the next term.

The SENCO, TA and teacher would only be present together during school time for reviews with the Ed Psych.

In an ideal world Alison222 I suspect that's how I think it should be done, or would like it to be done! It's all OK to put an IEP review into a parents evening, by that I mean I think it's permitted? However, we and I suspect most parents evenings are set to 10 minutes duration and this doesn't seem a lot of time.

Oh, I know - I wasn't saying it was GOOD, but that's how we did it. It meant that we could say it had been discussed with the parents.

If we ran out of time, we would sometimes make appointments to see the parents again after school one day.

At ds' last mainstream school. The IEP was sent out to us 4 days before parents evening with a not stating that we could 'discuss' it at the parents evening 10mins slot.

We re-wrote the whole thing as no way was there going to be enough time to 'discuss' it and handed it to the teacher who got very defensive and cross and told us it was too late to make any changes as it had been set by the LA

Thanks for the replies - good (but slightly worrying) that I am not alone in this

I requested, and got, a meeting with the class teacher and the SENCO, and it was very helpful - but so much of what I had to say about DS1's behaviour and learning difficulties seemed to be fresh news to the class teacher!

Alison - thanks for the COP - I shall be adding it to the letter that I send to the school - I've also managed to find the school's SEN policy which states that parental involvement is key and that parents will be consulted. I shall point out that OFSTED are likely to take a rather dim view of them not following their own policy....

I have suggested many amendments to the IEP - especially as the "ideas for support/assistance" are wholly inadequate (IMO). see what you think

"Encourage DS1 to focus fully on the task." - not really that helpful as doesn't say how, and IMO restates the problem that he is poor at concentrating - 8 years of "encouraging" him to concentrate hasn't worked so far.......

"Provide exercises for DS1 to punctuate. Encourage proof reading." again how?? "encourage" seems to be a vague statement.

targets should be SMART
Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Time

Those targets don't appear to fall into this from what I can see.

Yep - ridiculously woolly targets. As a primary teacher who had very little to do with writing IEPs, even I knew that targets had to be measurable and specific (Indeed, I knew about SMART targets as mentioned by Alison).

I think they are allowed to tie one IEP review a year in with with parents' evening.

Regardless of this, when sending back the availability form for parents' evening I always ask for double-time (and still run over).

Hi I am going to be writing my dissertation on parental participation in their child's IEP. With my son being on school action plus this is a topic that is very close to my heart. By reading the many comments posted I am concerned that more needs to be done in schools to ensure that parents have an equal right in their child's IEP. Any comments or questions would be very much appreciated.

It seems to be a recurrent theme in schools IMO.
They say they work with parents but we don't hear the half of it most of the time!
It's disgusting the way you havent been involved in the IEP especially if you have expressed a desire to want to be involved.

For me, They put dinky on SEN reg Without my knowledge, and I don't know what this entitles her at school as nothing but a new behaviour chart recommended by the play therapist has changed, or if it has I have no idea. I asked 3 times for a contact book so I knew what was going on at school and got 2-5 word entries until I told them it was unacceptable as I saw dinky run out of the room and have to be calmed by the senco before reentering and this wasn't in the contact book and they had no idea I had seen it as I was outside spying watching her settle.

After half term I am going to be back on the case making sure I know what is going on and how they intend to help her...

Schools don't work with parents, they want parents to work with THEM, on their agenda, with them feeling good about their 'outreach'!

just found this thread while searching for info on IEP reviews....and its unfortunately confirmed i'm as clueless as I thought I was!

did DS's 1st IEP last tern, well I say did...SENCO showed me/read it out to me like I was one of the kids, then asked me to sign it and said she would 'go through it' with DS after (and in his words, she read something to him but didn't explain it, so he just smiled and said ok)

I did phone a week later and ask what a few bits meant, and when senco finally got back to me got a half hearted explanation.

So for the review... what can I ask/expect?

one thing on the last one was ''I will ask for help when I need it'' is it just me thinking that's a bit vague and doesn't really clarify anything?

are they meant to be vague sweeping statements or proper explanations/plans on paper? They seem to happily tell me (in long techy terms I don't understand) details verbally in person, but are very reluctant to right it down, and insist it doesn't need to go on there...

Ds is now 9, started school at 5, in that time I have never been invited to attend or have any input into an IEP. Despite my writing to them and asking to be included.

I have re-written IEPs and made them SMART, I have quoted SEN COP etc, etc. All of which has been totally ignored and just given me a reputation for being a trouble maker and 'taking up too much of SENCO's time with my writing' seemingly turning it into a personal battle.