Can a school deny an IEP meeting request from parent?

[JanelleM]

I had a friend reach out today, she verbally requested an IEP meeting with her son’s special education teacher to discuss her concerns that he currently does not spend anytime with non disabled peers, or in a mainstream classroom.  The teacher told her it was too early to schedule one and instead scheduled a parent teacher conference with the principal, and the teacher. She asked both myself and here ABA case manager to attend with her.

The only advice I felt comfortable enough to offer was to request a meeting in writing to start the documentation trail. 
We are in NC, is this allowed? 
Thanks! 

[Carolyn Rowlett]

I'll preface this with unfortunately, I don't have time to look up the law and department of education guidelines  in NC right now, but wanted to respond in general.

It's never "too early" to schedule an IEP meeting.  It may be too early to schedule the annual meeting, but parents can request an IEP meeting at any time.  Yes, it should be in writing.  Also, it should not just be a request to the special education teacher (that might be construed as just requesting a "regular" meeting with a teacher).  It should be a request to the entire IEP team.  If the parent doesn't know the entire team members, copy the principal on the request and ask that the request to forwarded to all IEP team members.

I would also advise having her put in the request for a meeting specifics as to why she wants to change the IEP to a less restrictive environment.  If she's wanting to make changes to the IEP document, she needs to have data supporting this request - even if the data is just observations of the ABA case manager, etc.  However, an evaluation would hold more weight.  If it has been more than a year since the last school evaluation, she can request another one because she feels her son has improved.  If it hasn't been a year yet, she can request an IEE.

[JanelleM]

Thanks for the answer! It was very helpful. I reread all I could to check both state law federal laws and couldn’t find anything that specifically said a parent can request an iep meeting and it had to be granted, so I reached out here.

[Carolyn Rowlett]

You are correct!  But see the link below for help in making this argument.

 

https://www.makespecialeducationwork.com/blog/what-gives-parents-the-right-to-request-a-team-meeting

[Lisa Lightner]

They can, but they have to provide that on a PWN, I believe (only if they refuse). I cannot find this at the moment (the citation) I'll look for it later.