Parent Input

[MsSarah]

I'm a new special education teacher this year. When writing IEPs and editing during the meeting, I've always included parent input of a child's strengths in the IEP section for reading, writing, math, etc. The form my school uses does have a section for overall strengths/interests/preferences as well, where I put parent input. I also get teacher input for each section - I figure that as a team, what everyone say's is helpful to put in the IEP.  For example, if when discussing reading, the parent says that at home they've noticed the students comprehension improve because of a love of a specific genre of text, I feel that belongs in the section for reading strengths, in addition to what the teacher says.

However, I was getting help from someone else this last week and she said that any input the parent gives can only be written in the Parent Concerns box. Other than the fact that parent and teacher input are both required, I don't know the finer details - are parent comments only allowed in one section? Or is it a state/teacher preference?

 

I know I could ask someone else in my district, but this site has helped me clarify so many things, and sometimes it's hard to separate tradition from what is actually written.

[Carolyn Rowlett]

It is a little difficult to answer your question without actually seeing your form, but I'll give it a try!

It might depend on who the "someone" is from whom you were receiving help (if it is someone above you in the "chain of command," you need to tread more lightly), but I would respond/follow up with them asking if there are any written school district or state policies that would assist you with the finer art of drafting an IEP.  (A written policy would take out the "tradition" variable.)  However, there likely is no school district policy.  Besides asking the "someone" for state policies, I would suggest you go to the state department of education (special education division) website on your own and look up their policies on IEP's.  It might be in a State Plan, FAQ's, or even a handbook for parents.

Another practical suggestion is to ask your special education director to look over a few of your IEP drafts since you are new to this area and want to make sure you are doing it correctly.

To answer your question "outside of the district," and I could be wrong, but to my knowledge the IDEA does not specify where the parent concerns have to go in the IEP document.  Sometimes they are even attached to the end of the IEP.  They are appropriate for both Present Levels and Parent Concerns (and Parent Concerns may be considered a subpart of the Present Levels section).  If your form has a parent concerns section, I would suggest putting them there at a minimum.  But I see nothing wrong with repeating them under "the IEP section for reading, writing, math, etc."  (I'm making the assumption that these section you refer to are under Present Levels.)  Schools may prefer that those sections only list objective data, evaluations, etc., which is fine - as long as the parent concerns are listed somewhere.  However, if they are allowing subjective comments from teachers under the reading section, for example, there is no reason why they should not also allow parent comments in that section.

Hope this helps.

[JSD24]

As a new teacher, you might need to do as you are told so you can become an 'old', tenured teacher.  IMO, the present levels are the present levels no matter if they are at home or at school.  Also, attributing a statement to the parent makes it clear that this is the parent's observation but I can see where the unwritten policy at your school is school related info only and that needs to be followed.  I've also seen in my own child's IEP that services were being provided without a baseline evaluation ever being done so is was based on teacher observation that the services were needed.  They eventually did an eval but that was after the IEP was in place for a year and a half.  (The results were worse than I imagined.)