Managing the IEP
pete
If you’re planning to take advantage of the choices offered by the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship Act during the 2007-2008 school year, there is no time to waste. New Federal regulations may prevent new students from being identified with special needs and from being served with IEP’s for a year or more. Furthermore, any school that plans to accept students under the program must file with the state by
However, before taking the dive, consider this possibility: For your child, maybe your child’s current placement has the most potential. Most likely, the public system has more expertise, equipment and resources than the available private placement.
The IEP process is a negotiation process—and all of a sudden you are in a much stronger negotiating position. Last month, your child’s public school was effectively the only game in town. You had to take what they offered and make the best of it. Now, your child’s public school is competing with private schools and neighboring public schools for your child. You don’t have to be a great negotiator to take advantage of your improved position. But you need to act wisely.
- Contact your child’s school and request a new IEP before the end of May. It doesn’t matter if they just completed one this spring, everything is different now. If they give you any trouble, tell them “We are looking at our options for next year, and we would like to keep him where he is if we can work a few things out. To do that, we will need a new IEP.”
- Remember, if you leave and later decide to come back, your negotiating position will be much weaker at that time. The public school will know it didn’t work out for you in the other placement, and you may have an even tougher time getting an appropriate IEP that you have had in the past.
- Sit down with your spouse or another confidant who understands your child’s needs, and make a short list of the things that would have to change with your child’s IEP to make the current placement work. Take the list with you, in outline form, to the IEP.
- Don’t spill your guts. Be a little coy about what’s on your list at the IEP. The people running the meeting may be willing to give far more than you realize. Make them open the meeting. Make them make the first substantive remarks. Simply make suggestions concerning the critical issues. When touching on critical topics, decide in advance the least you will accept. And don’t accept less. But don’t let them know where that point is, because they will want to begin negotiations from there. Everyone will be expecting everyone else to give a little in the IEP process, but you need to be sure of your own end points.
- Sit down with the alternative placement and go through a similar process. Your personal list of key points will probably look a lot different in this meeting. Again, everyone needs to understand the few things you will be expecting. You will need to get those things in writing during the meeting so that everyone understands the importance of those issues, and so that plans are carried out even if teachers and administrators change. Don’t spill your guts at this meeting either. Let the school lay out their plans for your child, and insist upon points you have predetermined.
- If the new placement seems like the best option, go back to the public school and patch things up as best you can before you exit. You may be back.
Posted on: Monday, April 30, 2007 at 1:37 pm 
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[...] The Georgia Department of Education is empowered by law to oversee the implementation of the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship Act. The DOE is in the process of providing online access to applications for participation in the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship Program. Participating schools must be registered with the state by June 30. After that, the DOE will provide a list of participating schools. No deadline has been set for student participation, although you should be in contact with your present school if you are planning on taking advantage of your wide range of choices. [...]
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July 17th, 2007 at 7:09 pm