Supporting Parents With the IEP Process

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.