IEPs are being held without parents being aware. What do I do as a special educator.?

Question

An IEP coordinator was hired to handle all the IEPs to free up the special education teachers to teach.

Answer 1

This is difficult to answer without knowing more about the situation and your relationship with the people involved.  I think you need to tactfully let people know that if this is the case it is illegal and you could all get in a lot of trouble.  Document anything that you do to try to fix the situation.

Personally, I would speak to the IEP coordinator and the administrators and the program specialist (do you have one of those?).  You could express it as a concern that they might get in trouble, and so on, rather than as an outrage, or like you are reporting on someone.

Good luck!

Answer 2

That's a toughy.  Can you call a h**l-raising parent just to double check that they received their copy of the IEP from last week's meeting?  An audit team member or department at the state level usually will take call anonymously on this sort of thing.  I know that in my state they audit 100 files from each county.  Several years ago, they pulled 20 from our school.  The parent attendance rate was recorded in the audit numbers.  Maybe they have something similar in your state.

Answer 3

Do you mean the ARC meetings are being held without the parents being notified?  Illegal, right?  If you report anyone, your job's probably in trouble.  Are there any parents who will fight this?  Who are aware of their rights?

Hmmmmmmmmm . . .

. . . thinking . . .

Answer 4

Do you mean IEP plans are beign written without parent awareness, IEP meetings are being held without parent awareness, or both?

In either case, both are illegal.

First of all you need to alert the parents. They are an EQUAL member of IEP teams and they have the legal right to know what is going on with their child.

As far as having an IEP coordinator so the teachers can teach, I think this is a good thing unless I'm missing something??

Answer 5

That doesn't mean the parents aren't being notified.  If, however, parents are NOT notified, that's illegal.  The ones who will get punished for it are the teachers, not the person who was hired just to write IEP's.  Contact your board of education and/or you state BOE.

Answer 6

If you know of a "noisy" parent (I'm one of those), let them know and ask them to keep it confidential.  As a parent of a special-needs child and a parent advocate, I do get quite a bit of information from teachers afraid of retaliation.  I do respect their privacy each and every time I am asked.  You may wish to contact a local support group and let them know, remaining anonymous.  

If you do experience retaliation, conact the US Dept of Education Office for Civil Rights.  You do have protections.  Teachers have won millions in lawsuits for retaliation.

You may also wish to take this to your Superintendent of the school district or other head administrator.

Thank you so much for looking out for the children.  We need more special educators like you!

Answer 7

Do exactly what I did when I heard that Communist-Wealth of Virginia wanted to remove all parental involvement when it comes to a special child's education needs: I contacted the State Secretary of Education as soon as I found out what they were planning on doing.

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This is what I wrote to them on May 29th:

I understand that the Virginia Department of Education is proposing a plan is eliminate the parent's role in determining when services to a learning disabled student should end. Why? Is it because the State of Virginia is tired of wasting money trying to teach a pack of "learning disabled retards" when it is much cheaper and easier just to give up on these kids then trying to teach them. This might be hard for the State of Virginia to comprehend but "The disabled can actually do more in life than clean up after the normal people of society." I know this for a fact because I also have a disability but I also work a full time job during the day as a machinist and attend college at night, double majoring in computer/ electrical engineering, maintaining a 4.00 GPA, on the international honor society, and on the 2006-07 National Dean's List. Yet, most of the teachers that I had during the time while I was attending school here in Hampton, VA, did not want to be bothered with me because of the fact that I did have a learning disability. If Virginia is eliminating parent's role in a student's education because Virginia simply does not want to be bothered trying to teach these kids, I think that it is a true shame. I can't expect much from a state that would call a person "An extremely simple man" and tell that person that "You need to stick to jobs that you know how to do (which means scrubbing toilets for a living) because you don't have the menatality to do any thing else" simply based on a speech impairment and nothing else. I'm not trying to disrespect by any means but I simply can not help but feel like that the government is trying their best to hurt the disabled when they should be helping the disabled instead.

And this is the comment that they e-mailed me yesterday:

Dear Mr. Hargus:

On behalf of Governor Timothy M. Kaine, I want to thank you for and respond to your May 29, 2008, electronic correspondence regarding the proposed changes to the Virginia Special Education Regulations.

Governor Kaine has reviewed the proposed regulations on a preliminary basis and approved the advancement of these regulations to the next stage for the purpose of soliciting public comment.  He believes Virginia has long been a leader in the area of parental consent and involvement in the special education process and has expressed some concerns about the elimination of parental consent and involvement.  Currently, Governor Kaine does not plan to approve any regulations reducing parental involvement.

Governor Kaine has urged the Virginia Board of Education to take this and other public comments into account regarding these provisions and to act accordingly prior to submitting final regulations for his approval.  Your comments will be forwarded to the Virginia Board of Education as part of the public comments received.

Governor Kaine believes that all students are entitled to the best possible educational opportunities.  Students with special needs are entitled to the same opportunities as the most gifted students receive.  

Again, thank you for sharing your concerns with Governor Kaine and me.



                                                                        Sincerely,

                                                           Thomas R. Morris

                                                           Secretary of Education

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We shall see if they are telling me the truth and they keep their commentent to help all students, or if they are just telling me a bunch of bullsh*t lies because they think that I'm some stupid *ss because of my disability.

Answer 8

Ugh, that's a bad situation. We all know that parents are members of the IEP team and are supposed to be fully involved in the IEP process. That is a major violation on the part of the IEP coordinator. It also leaves you in a sticky situation depending on the political climate in your school. No one wants to be a tattletale but we have to do what's right for the kids and follow the law.

If I were you, I would not run to administrators over this because it can make work unbearable for you. Go to the parents of your students- hopefully, you have strong relationships with them. I would make them aware of their rights as parents of special needs children. I would (casually) tell them that they need to inquire about obtaining recent IEP's and refer them to the coordinator. This whole issue should be dealt with accordingly (especially when the assertive parents find out what happened and everything will be put on the table- without sacrificing your position and making your job harder. Good luck to you.

Remember that parents have the most power in politic-riddled schools to fight injustices that occur. Encourage them to be actively involved and educated about the issues that affect their children.

Answer 9

Well, you can't have an IEP without the special education teacher participating.  You can't have an IEP meeting without notifying parents.  If you have a student who is having an IEP, why don't you call the parents to reach out.  "Johnny is having his IEP meeting on the 20th, do you have any concerns you want us to look at for that meeting?"  If they don't know, they should. You're doing nothing wrong by making that phone call.

I've always had very up front, close relationships with my childs teachers, and wouldn't think twice about a call like this.

Answer 10

I would first seek clarification from your special ed. director.  The cooperative I work for has coordinators as well, who obviously are responsible for "coordinating" the IEP's.  They are a wonderful addition, and are responsible for completing necessary paperwork and taking it to the central office, among many many other things.  The special education teacher, however, is still always present at all of our meetings, and the coordinator usually is not present unless it is an initial meeting, a "difficult" meeting, or a 3 year re-eval.