Supporting Parents With the IEP Process
Article overview:
Parents deserve support with the IEP process. There are strategies that schools can use to better support parents. Children and adults can have disabilities and deserve to understand. Right now, most advocacy is driven by parents. When parents are overwhelmed it can be hard to advocate for themselves or their children. While there are larger systematic issues outside of school or parent control, there are still ways for team members to support themselves and others. Some ways for schools to support parents include: highlighting strengths and concerns with progress on IEP documents and assessment scores, writing IEPs in plain English, and providing examples of activities for proposed goals. No one needs to tackle IEPs alone.
Parents deserve the support of IEP teams.
Supporting Parents:
Students are given IEPs when they require extra support, but what are their parents given? While IEPs have the potential to give students the help they need to progress in school, their parents are left with a sea of paperwork, acronyms, meetings, and team communication. Special education can be a stressful and data heavy process for all the adults involved. While school staff has years of experience and a team of coworkers, parents may feel completely alone and lost. Staff are use to creating documents and talking with special education lingo, but it doesn't mean that the parents are. Yes, there are supports in place that can be provided to parents in order for them to learn more about the process, but they are then met with more information. This can be overwhelming for anyone, but especially for parents who have never sat in an IEP before. It can be so easy for these parents to just sign whatever papers are in front of them regardless of what the documents are actually saying. This isn't because the parents don't care, but because the entire experience is chalked full of information and terms that do not come up outside of special education.
Just as students are being supported in the classroom, it is important to support parents in IEP meetings. Not every parent is able to become an IEP expert on their own. Special educators spend years in school learning how to collect and interpret data. They spend years learning to write goals, scaffold support, and understand special education vocabulary. This is schooling that the average parent has not had. As a teacher, it can be so easy to forget that parents are not usually aware of the ins and outs of special education. There are times when it is important to ask questions and get team members to slow down and speak in plain English. But even so, asking questions and telling the team to speak in terms that are easily understood is a skill in self advocacy. If a parent is completely overwhelmed, they may not be able to speak up. Because of this, it is important for IEP team members and advocates to help parents throughout the process.
Just as children can have disabilities, so can parents. Everyone learns differently whether they are a child or an adult. IEP teams need to keep in mind the possibility of working with parents who have disabilities that also need to be supported.
The reason that I started SPED Unjumbled was to be able to support families that are busy, overwhelmed, or completely confused by special education. It can be so easy to shutdown and or not know where to start. I believe that by supporting parents, we can build better discussion and support for children with IEPs. When I was a teacher, it was so easy to feel relieved by parents who didn't ask questions. Even though I believe that I had the best intentions and took good data to support goals and accommodations, I didn't really think about how those parents were feeling on the inside. Were they completely confused? Did they just think I did a great job? I had no idea. As I began work helping schools catch up on IEPs, I noticed that some parents looked defeated, or signed documents so quickly that they couldn't have had time to process all of the information. I didn't view them with judgement, I viewed them with concern and empathy. I started to think more about how I could help these parents feel more confident in meetings.
The more I thought about how to help families, the more I realized how similar it is to what supports are found in the IEP. When starting my business I knew that I wanted to build in supports for parents. With my services, I want to be able to help the parents who have no clue what they want. Through offering video breakdowns, summarized documents, and reasoning for all of my feedback I hope to help parents gain knowledge in a less overwhelming manner. But I'm not saying this to toot my own horn, or to say that I care more than others. I am saying this in the hopes that more parents will feel supported and that more team members will have built in supports for parents.
Parents have a right to parent training. There are parent training centers located in every state in the US. But even so, gaining this training and knowledge can be an uphill battle. Hours of research and training videos can be overwhelming. Just because someone attends a training or researches, does not guarantee that they will feel confident and prepared for their child's next IEP. Having someone there for you as a support can make all the difference. It can be so frustrating that parents need to fight to support their children with IEPs. Not everyone is ready for the fight, and not everyone has the time or resources.
I offer services that are accessible to a wide range of clients. If you or anyone you know wishes to learn more about the IEP process, get support with IEPs, or just ask a few specific questions, I am here to help. I do not want to add to your already stressful workday. I want to complement your day. While the special education system may still be overwhelming, I hope that I can relieve some of that pressure by being here for you.
Here are some ways that I believe IEP teams can make documents more accessible to parents:
-explanations of assessment and testing scores in plain English
-explaining the meaning and purpose of subtests in psychoeducational reports
-providing highlighted documents that point out strengths and concerns with progress
-pausing to allow for processing time
-providing examples of activities that would go with proposed goals
If you are a parent interested in learning more about advocating for your child, here are some options.
Things that parents can do to support themselves and their children:
-collect work samples (homework, class assignments, tests)
-write down concerns when you think of them
-come up with a list of strengths your child has
-go into IEP meetings with questions that you already have
-focus on what information is or isn't written in present levels
-make sure that objectives are written for goals (that way during progress reports it is easier to know if your child is on track)
I understand that not everyone has the capacity to support themselves in these ways, and parents should in no way feel shamed if they are unable to do these things. At the end of the day, everyone is just trying their best with what they have. Talking to friends, community members, advocates, and other team members can make all the difference. Even though it can feel isolating, it is important to remember that we are not truly alone. Needing support is not a bad thing. It is human to need help from others. It is okay to not do things on your own. When IEP teams can work together and support each other, that is when children can thrive. The whole point of having IEPs for students is that they support progress and understanding. By supporting parents in understanding IEPs, the team can better support students.
Final Thoughts:
While I know that teachers and staff are juggling so many tasks day to day, I also believe that parents should truly understand what they are signing. There are systemic issues underlying the problems faced by parents, teachers, and schools. I do not want to downplay these issues by putting responsibility solely on school staff, but unfortunately this is what we can control on a micro level. Policy change is a whole other beast! While it is definitely important, that is maybe a problem to discuss in a different article.
All of my articles are written by myself based on my experiences, knowledge, and opinions. None of this article is written with AI. This article is for information purposes and is not legal advice. If you need any support with navigating IEPs and advocating for yourself and your child, please feel free to reach out to me! I love supporting families. My goal is always to allow for supportive and meaningful communication between team members. Let me know if you have any questions.