I signed an IEP with some mistakes in it.?

Question

A week ago I signed my daughter's next year's IEP after a 4 hour IEP meeting. When I got home and looked at the abbreviations, I realized they did not put "Standardized Test" as the method of evaluation as agreed in the meeting (which I have on audiotape). They put "Teacher Observation" and "Work Samples." It is very important she be evaluated with standardized tests because the school is famous for fudging their evaluations of her work. Can I call another IEP to fix this or does she have to actually start school in the fall before I can do that?

Answer 1

Standardized Tests refer to the state testing program and is probably on another page of the IEP. These tests are only given once a year. I assure you this is high stakes testing and nothing is ever fudged in this area with licenses on the line and major fines.

You surely want your child to have ongoing formative evaluations since these evaluations are used to inform instruction.

Teacher Observation and Work Samples are used on Goal/Objective pages. These are forms of evaluation used for classroom evaluation and are ongoing throughout the school year.

Instead of calling the school to reschedule, try talking with the special education director, or whoever is in charge of this department in your school district. Ask about standardized testing for evaluation. I am sure you will learn that this only refers to state testing once a year. Once you have an answer, you will know whether or not to call the school and reschedule the IEP meeting to do an addendum which should take no more than 10-15 minutes.

Answer 2

Send a simple email indicating after reviewing the IEP and listening to the audio tape, you found this mistake and would like it corrected.  It should be a very simple request.  If they refuse to change it, request it again with direct quotes from the audio tape and include the statement, "Should the District deny my request to change the IEP to accurately reflect was agreed upon in the IEP meeting according to audio tape, please provide Prior Written Notice with all required content."

Prior Written Notice (or PWN) is a much-underutilized requirement of the law.  PWN requires the school district to outline what is being refuse, the reason for refusal, and proposed alternative solutions.  Once you have PWN, depending on the state you live in, you can file a compliance complaint with the Dept of Education or file for Due Process.

But most importantly, I always tell parents to NEVER sign an IEP at an IEP meeting.  Ask for a dirty copy to take home, review, listen to the auido tape, make sure the notes accurately reflect the audio tape, and sleep on it.  Always remember that you can agree to all, none or even just a portion of an IEP.

Answer 3

Well they are 'fudging' this so they can get out of doing the tests.

Schools are famous for agreeing to something and then putting somethign different in the IEP plan, hoping the parent won't notice.

Better check the whole IEP plan.

Here is what you do, according to IDEA, federal special ed law-

1. Write a letter to the district sped director explaining the whole situation. (also note it's on tape)

2. State taht you are requesting 'prior written notice' for their refusal of standardized testing becuase even though they agreed with it 'verbally' they did not agree with it IN WRITING so legally they are REFUSING this .

3. State that you are formally retracting your signature from the IEP plan because you disagree with what they wrote, and that you THOUGHT this was written in IEP plan because it IS what they agreed to verbally, and that's WHY you SIGNED it in agreement.

(they can NOT come back and say 'well, you agreed with this')

4. State that you are requesting another IEP meeting to have standardized testing written into the IEP plan.

5. State that if the IEP team still refuses this request you will be requesting prior written notice again.

See, when the school starts, stops, changes or refuses they have to put LEGAL reasons in writing to the parent in this prior written notice. If they DON"T have legal reasons, they can't do what you are requesting prior written notice for.

So, when you request this they should change the IEP plan with no problem because they will NOT put their ILLEGAL reasons in writing.

You have a legal right to call IEP meetings AT ANY TIME.

When you send this letter they will have to hold the meeting within 15 days and give you an official IEP meeting notice stating teh date, time, reason and who will be in attendance.

If you need help email me  [e-mail]

Answer 4

you can call another meeting.   you are legally allowed toopen the IEP every day if you want to

try calling the person that wrote it up first tho {that should be who schedules the meeting also}   they may be able to add it without to much trouble

Answer 5

I agree, you may be able to simply call the person who wrote it and ask the to make the change and send you the corrected copy to sign.  But since you were audiotaping the 4 hour discussion, that leads me to believe things haven't been easy for you.  So I say try to call the teacher of record first to see if you can easily get the correction, and if that doesn't work, request a new meeting formally in writing, stating what it is you want.  Your version of a prior written notice.  It shouldn't be that big of a deal, though.  An IEP is designed to be a living document, that means it can be changed as needed throughout the year.

I just realized school may already be out for you.  If that's the case, you can investigate getting together with the director of special ed to see if she can do it with the school administrator, and just excuse your child's teacher and related services providers.

Answer 6

First look in another section of the IEP - typically things dealing with standardized testing is NOT by goals and objectives.  In that section (typically it is the 2nd page and before goals) see what it says and what testing accomodations are allowed on what tests.  Teacher observation and work samples are appropriate for certain 'goals' like social skill goals, work completion goals, organizational skill goals - although I prefer to collect data too.

It is possible that the grade your child is in does not have standardized tests OR what you are referring to is the regular classroom tests (math, social, reading).  Standardized Tests are related to state or federal standards related to Adequate Yearly Progress, or No Child Left Behind or state programs.

A simple call to make sure you are all using the same words to mean the same thing might be all you need to fix this.  Once you figure that piece out - ask for another meeting if you want or need to.

Answer 7

A FOUR hour IEP meeting?  I guess you had all your lawyers and advocates there as well?  Why did you sign it if it had mistakes in it?  I'm sure you've memorized you rights by this point.  You should pull that out and see what your rights are.

Answer 8

First I would behave as if it was just an error (even though it sounds like you suspect it was not). I like email addressed to the teacher of record with a return receipt to communicate and cc everyone in the meeting.  Explain that you noticed the error and you hope to fix it without calling for another IEP during the summer (they don't want to come in).  

I would ask for the test to be named, an approximate time period as to when the test was given, and a list of any adaptaions--extra time, a scribe, whatever your daughter needs.

Be nice at first, save the tape and forcefullness for later, if it's needed.  Good luck and keep advocating!

Answer 9

Signing an IEP does not mean that you agree with it, only that you attended the meeting.  Even if you choose not to sign it, the IEP team can implement it without your signature.  

There is something called an amendment to an IEP.  It can't be used to change big things, like goals or placement, but they can use it for something like this.  The requirements are that they have parental input, which you can give by phone, and two other members of the IEP team sign off on it.  It should only take a few minutes to do.

It sounds as if this was up for discussion at the IEP meeting, and after a four hour long meeting it is very possible that it was a simple oversight and not intentional.  

If school is already out and the case manager, supervisor, or other ESE personnel are not available to fix this it may need to wait until school starts again, but since it is such a simple fix it shouldn't be a big deal in the fall.

If you feel very strongly that you want it in place before school starts again and the school can't help you may need to contact the district or area supervisor.