Strategies, Tips, and Language to Support Parent and Educators Through the IEP Process

This chapter provides strategies, tips, and language through the IEP process from the first person perspective of a parent turned parent-advocate. This chapter shares with educators what the experience is like from a parent side of the table and the emotions involved. It also is meant to help build a knowledge base for parents and encouragement from the author's perspective as a parent. Lastly, this chapter shows that there are ways to bring the student's voice into their IEP regardless of their communication ability.

Mothers' Perceptions of Satisfaction, Trust, and Power in the Individualized Education Program Process

Parent involvement in the development of an individualized education program (IEP) is a foundational tenet of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Unfortunately, mothers, the parent most likely to attend the IEP meeting, often report negative perceptions and even feelings of disillusion with the IEP process. Including mothers as equal members of the IEP team is crucial to student success, especially for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). To determine the extent of mothers' satisfaction, trust, and perception of the power of the IEP process, we surveyed 929 mothers of students with disabilities. Survey results indicate mothers are neither overly satisfied nor dissatisfied with the process, but almost always perceive an imbalance of power between IEP team members. A high percentage of mothers reported experiences with bullying, coercion, and shame. The findings suggest that more efforts are needed to empower mothers during the IEP process and improve parent-school partnerships.

Narrating Parents/Guardians’ Experiences: Advocating for Students on Individualized Education Programs

The purpose of this study was to uncover the narratives of parents/guardians with students on IEPs to determine their needs and perceptions about the IEP process. The goal of this study was to answer three research questions: 1) How do parents/guardians’ educational experiences affect their ability to navigate the educational system for their child?, 2) What supports are needed by parents/guardians of students with IEPs to support/advocate for their child’s education?, and 3) What are parents/guardians' self-perceptions about their abilities to advocate for their students on IEPs? The researcher developed a narrative methodology design that involved interviewing participants who are parents or guardians of students currently on IEPs in in kindergarten to sixth grade. Participants in the study were mothers with at least one student on an IEP. They participated in two interviews between February and December 2020. Interviews took place during the COVID-19 pandemic that led to school closures. With the exception of the first interview with Participant 1, all interviews occurred after the school closures. This had some effect on the responses of participants and may have affected the conclusions made. Through the interviews, participants shared their personal school experiences as well as their experiences with the IEP process. The researcher determined the correlation between parents/guardians’ education and their experience with the IEP process, what supports are desired by parents/guardians when working through the IEP process, and what parents/guardians' perceptions of the process are. Parents/guardians’ overall were content with the IEP process as an overall system, but participants did share their struggles with the process and supports they wanted from their students’ schools.

Evaluating Parent Participation in Individualized Education Programs by Opinions of Parents and Teachers

All individuals who are responsible for the education of learners with special needs must actively participate in Individualized Education Programs (IEP). Moreover, IEP is a common ground encouraging educators and parents to work together on an education plan. This study aims to evaluate the opinions of both parents and teachers regarding parent participation in IEP. The qualitative approach was used in this study. To profoundly examine the opinions of parents and special education teachers and to make them explain it in their own words, descriptive survey model, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. Descriptive survey model enables to organize data according to the themes put forward by the research questions and to present it by considering questions and dimensions. The purposive sampling method was used in this study to obtain more detailed information regarding the opinions of special education teachers and parents with children with special needs about the preparation and implementation process of IEP. 22 teachers and 25 parents participated in the study. Data were analyzed through content analysis. It was found that most of the parents do not know anything about IEP. It was also found that parents are not involved in the IEP process and they are not invited by the school/institution. As for the opinions of teachers, it was found that they have some problems about getting the parents to involve in the IEP process. It was seen that teachers are lack of knowledge regarding how to include parents in the IEP process.

Which Procedural Parts of the IEP Process Are the Most Judicially Vulnerable?

To provide a missing piece to the legal foundation of professional development and practice for the individualized education program (IEP) process, the authors report the results of a comprehensive systematic analysis of court decisions specific to IEP-related procedural violations after the 2004 amendments of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. Research questions focused on the frequency and outcomes of alleged procedural violations in the following categories: (a) IEP components, (b) IEP team, (c) parent participation, and (d) IEP development. Procedural violations in the parent participation category were the most frequently adjudicated; the outcomes ratio in court averaged approximately 3:1 in favor of school districts for cases across all four categories. Implications for practice include reconsideration of current policies and practices to whatever extent that they were based on case law rather than proactive priorities, per the lack of differentiation in prevailing publications and presentations in special education.