Question

What happens at an IEPT Meeting?

Answer

Decisions about your child's education are made with you.

At The IEPT members discuss the following and prepares a written report:

• Your child's present level of educational performance.
• Present level of educational performance includes how the disability affects involvement and progress in the general curriculum and for preschoolers, participation in appropriate activities.
• Eligibility for special education (at those meetings when a MET report is presented).
• Annual goals and short-term instructional objectives (STIOs), specific to your child's educational needs.
• STIOs should also relate to involvement and progress in the general curriculum.
• Appropriate objective criteria, evaluation procedures and schedules for determining whether the instructional objectives are being achieved.
• Special education and related services (see Special Education Programs and Services, page 22) needed (including the name and rule numbers), giving consideration to the accessibility of physical facilities, transportation, adaptive devices, aides or restraints, and room and board.
• The projected dates for initiation of programs and services and their anticipated duration.
• The extent, if any, to which your child is not able to participate in regular education programs with non-disabled children.
• The extent of participation in state or district wide assessments and necessary modifications and how your child?s progress towards goals will be reported to you.
• Program and service options in terms of the least restrictive environment.
• Prevocational and vocational needs for any student 12 or older.
• If appropriate, a statement of necessary transition services.
• One year before your child reaches the age of majority, a statement of his or her adult rights.

As a parent, during the IEPT process, you have the right to:

• Be notified before an individualized educational planning committee meeting is convened and have the purpose of the meeting explained to you.
• Invite a person(s) to accompany you to the meeting.
• Request that a representative of your resident school district be invited to any three-year re-evaluation IEPT meetings conducted by the operating district.
• Request that your child attend the meeting, if this is appropriate.
• Review written evaluations prior to the IEPT with your child's special education teacher or other qualified individual from the school district..
• Receive a copy of the individualized education program at the conclusion of the IEPT meeting.

You and the other members of the IEPT, working together, develop the student's program. If there are differences of opinion at the IEPT, it is not necessarily a bad sign. Differences of opinion may be a sign that both you and the school are sincerely concerned about the student. However, if at the end of an IEPT meeting all the parties are not in agreement, you as the parent have a right to appeal the recommendation through the mediation or hearing process.

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