Error in IEP - should I correct?

[HighSchoolParent]

I just noticed an error in my child's IEP. One of his WISC-V index scores is 78, which has a descriptive category of "very low." The school psychologist who did the evaluation wrote the correct descriptive category in her report, but everywhere in his IEP and diagnostic summary report, the descriptive category says "low average." Maybe it is a typo, but his school has a long history of denying his disability and this feels like more of the same.

I wish I had noticed this before I signed his IEP, but I was focused more on his goals and accommodations.

I try to keep my communication with the school to what is absolutely necessary. I don't want to nitpick every little thing, but this feels like a big thing. Should email them and ask them to correct it now, or wait for his renewal in a few months?

[Carolyn Rowlett]

Whether a typo or purposeful, this absolutely needs to be corrected.  I would email the IEP team now and ask for an amendment.  If they prefer to wait until the annual meeting/renewal, at least get them to acknowledge the mistake in your email correspondence with them and that it will be corrected on the next IEP document.  One exception would be if they are doing a re-evaluation and do not plan to set forth previous results in the new IEP document under the argument that they are no longer "present levels" (this has, unfortunately, been successful in some cases).  In that scenario, you would definitely want the current IEP changed now.

[JSD24]

I'd address this with a question:  I was looking over my child's IEP and saw where it said 78 on the WISC-V and this was listed as 'low average'.  A 78 is 'very low'.  Either the number score or the description is incorrect.  Can you please verify how my child did on this?

The typo might have been the number or the description.  I wouldn't want to assume which is misstated in the IEP.

[HighSchoolParent]

14 hours ago, Carolyn Rowlett said:

Whether a typo or purposeful, this absolutely needs to be corrected.  I would email the IEP team now and ask for an amendment.

Thank you. I will do that. Sometimes I have a hard time knowing what to follow up on and what to let go, so I appreciate your confirmation that this is one to follow up on.

11 hours ago, JSD24 said:

I'd address this with a question:  I was looking over my child's IEP and saw where it said 78 on the WISC-V and this was listed as 'low average'.  A 78 is 'very low'.  Either the number score or the description is incorrect.  Can you please verify how my child did on this?

The typo might have been the number or the description.  I wouldn't want to assume which is misstated in the IEP.

I know the number is correct. The school psychologist wrote it and the correct descriptor in his report and we had a conversation about it in the meeting. The descriptor changed in the writing of the IEP.

[HighSchoolParent]

Update, I sent a short email asking for an amendment to change the descriptor category. Five days later I have had no reply. I am left wondering if this is big enough to email again and how hard I will have to work to get the mistake fixed. This is why I find the IEP process so exhausting. Even getting a factual error corrected is time consuming and difficult.

[Jenna]

The IEP process is exhausting, but I agree with Carolyn and JSD24 that the error has to be corrected. I've seen typos of districts that weren't formally challenged at the time they were sent, used against the child years later.

FERPA allows a parent to request that errors in the student's records be corrected, but that can be another process too. Maybe send another follow-up email to the school psychologist saying that you understand it's a busy time and that there's a lot of illness going around/school closures due to weather, etc. and maybe they've been out of the office, but you'd like to ensure this area is clear in the IEP. Maybe state that you hope they are able to update this area by the end of next week, but if you don't have an update by then, you will follow up with the director of special education.