Welcome to Unlimited Parenting, where we discuss having children with disabilities or special
health care needs.
I'm your host Allison, and with me today is Melissa.
And we are going to be talking about the components of an IEP or Individualized Education Plan.
So, let's get into the stuff and the things.
Melissa?
Yes.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for having me.
I'm excited to be back.
We are recording this on a Friday.
We are.
So, I hope it's Friday wherever you are too.
I hope for everyone involved that they are having a lovely Friday as we are.
Yeah.
Good.
Yeah, Friday.
That's all we're going to say about that I guess.
So, like I said, we're going to talk about components of an IEP.
So for the purposes of this, we are going to be taking an IEP that is just the standard
grade level.
Standard, yeah.
So, not transition, not pre-K. We're just going to look at the standard IEP.
So if you'll remember from previous episode, we talked about the 10 steps to special education
and briefly mentioned creating this.
So we're going to talk about components this week and next week we'll do a deep dive into
goals.
Cool.
That's a good way to do it.
Let's break it apart.
That's kind of the plan.
So again, this is, you're going to hear me rustling some papers.
I apologize.
I have an IEP in front of me.
This is Idaho specific.
So if we're doing things out of order or we mentioned something that you don't see on
yours, we're looking at an Idaho specific IEP.
However, a lot of this should apply to everybody, right?
Yeah.
A lot of, I mean, the majority of the components of an IEP or an individualized education plan
are mandated or dictated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA.
So a lot of the components are going to look the same no matter what state you're in.
Wherever you are.
Yeah.
As long as you're in the United States.
After that, we're no longer the experts.
Nope.
So again, just for explicit clarification purposes, we are going to pretend that this
is an annual review.
This is not an initial IEP or the triennial review.
Just our yearly annual review.
So when we're looking at this on page one, it's just a lot of demographic information.
Yeah.
So a lot of those, you know, we just have to have the student's name and birthdate and
their grade level, those demographics.
Yes.
Just that.
Everything has to have.
Yep.
But this is a good point to pause and say, are we within the year, right?
Is this the right date?
Are we following the timeline?
Have I moved?
Yeah, absolutely.
I caught, I had an old work number on my kiddos IEP last year when we met.
So yeah, make sure that your information is correct.
It also is going to have your triennial evaluation date on there too.
So that's where every three years our kiddos are reevaluated to determine if they're still
eligible for special education.
That date is going to be on there too.
So that's nice to know.
Just back pocket when that's coming up.
As a heads up to prepare yourself.
Or your kiddo even.
Yeah.
Those evaluations.
They're there and it's appropriate, right?
Yep.
Exactly.
And then just below that is IEP information.
So what eligibility category?
And again, another good point to pause and say, eligibility category, does it really matter
after you've been found eligible?
It's just a word on a paper, right?
Pretty much.
As long as you're getting the services that you need, it doesn't matter if you're qualified
under OHI or multiple disabilities.
No and they change and there's really, yeah.
As long as you're qualified under one of the 14 qualifying criteria, you're qualified.
Doesn't matter.
Again, if that sounds weird, Idaho 14 categories.
Yeah, there you go.
Just again, as a heads up.
After that is procedural safeguards.
So again, what are your rights and responsibilities as a participant in this program?
They're going to be offered every time.
Yep.
Every year they should be offered at your IEP meeting or the first time you enter into
a state complaint, they should be offered, but you should be offered your procedural
safeguards at least once a year.
And in your native language.
Yes, that is very important.
If you speak Spanish, you can get them in Spanish.
Absolutely.
Whatever your language is.
The DEA requires that, that you are provided those in your native language.
So Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, whatever that may be, they should absolutely be supplied
to you in your native language.
And those are going to come from the state of Idaho.
They're still, they would just be translated into your native language.
That I know you're laughing because that does seem funny.
I am.
But it is a situation that has happened.
Almost a chortle.
So, so I just, I throw that out there.
Exactly.
I throw that out there because you know, we've seen it in this office.
We've seen it.
We've seen many crazy things and we're here to remind you that you, you should have that.
That's an expectation for you to get that.
You should have that.
You can decline it if you don't want it.
If you've seen it a million times or you have copies at home, that's your right to decline
it, but they have to offer it to you.
And we're in the back of it under resources.
So that's where you can, you can find us if you forget our phone number.
We're alongside people like Disability Rights IDO, State Department of Education, Rights
Law.
Yep.
Lots of resources in there.
You'll also notice if you're looking at this IEP forum while we're talking, it should be
linked in the description box wherever you're listening to this podcast.
We'll put it there.
You'll see something, it's in gray, some numbers and it says CFR.
Yeah.
Do you have any idea what that is?
What am I looking at?
I do.
So those are the federal regulations.
I was going to call them the regs.
So those are, like I mentioned earlier, this is all mandated and dictated out of IDEA,
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, for all those acronyms.
So those CFRs come directly out of IDEA and correspond to exactly what section they're
in.
So I think the portion that you are looking at right now is the members of the team members
that are attending and there are some required members.
So those are going to be attached with some CFRs that point to those required members.
Am I, is that where you're looking?
Yeah.
Okay.
No, we're on the same page.
Okay, good.
Literally and figuratively for once in our life.
I'm just kidding.
It doesn't happen.
It doesn't happen often.
No, it does.
It happens all the time.
So those, I don't want to, yeah.
So that's what those CFRs there.
Those are just citing those federal regulations as they can be found to directly correspond
in IDEA.
And they're all over the IEP, not just on this one portion of it.
No.
And if you see them, that's a required portion.
So that if you see it and that's blank in your IEP, that's not right.
We need to go back.
That's a cue to ask some questions.
Yep.
Raise your hand.
I have some follow ups.
Yep, exactly.
Yep.
So next we're looking at Medicaid notifications.
So does the student's IEP include Medicaid reimbursable services?
And boy, is this a whole other conversation.
Yeah.
On iPoll's Facebook page.
Yeah.
We just recently did a lunch and learn with.
So we had Karen Stregel from the, so she's the school based school.
Okay.
It's Friday.
We warned you it's Friday and my mouth isn't working.
So Karen is the school based Medicaid.
She has a couple other really great responsibilities at Idaho State Department of Ed, but she is
responsible for kind of helping districts and families navigate school based Medicaid.
And then Almyra at the Department of Health and Welfare is kind of Karen's counterpart.
And she deals with school based Medicaid for the Department of Health and Welfare.
And the two of those ladies for put an, we can put this in the comment too.
Yeah, sure.
Okay.
I can link it.
So she would explain school based Medicaid and probably would answer a lot of the questions
that we get a lot of the times.
And what I thought was really interesting was one of the key takeaways that you can
say yes to those services, billing to Medicaid.
You can also say no, but it doesn't take away from your budget if you receive community
based supports through Medicaid.
Yeah.
And honestly, and that's what we talked about in our lunch and learn.
That's really one of the biggest misconceptions, I guess I should say that parents don't check
that box to allow the school to bill Medicaid because they are in fear that their home and
community based supports will be affected.
It's going to come out of their budget.
I'm already using that budget for my support worker, my adaptive equipment.
Yeah, exactly.
All the stuff in the things.
Yeah.
So you know, that budget doesn't go a long way.
So we want to protect that budget.
But no, school based Medicaid is a little bit different.
It's not going to affect those home and community based services.
And I mean, I'll throw this out there to our schools are not getting rich off of our kids.
The reimbursement rate is not a full reimbursement rate.
So it's just covering a proportion of those rates that, you know, of those related services.
So whether it's occupational therapy, speech, physical therapy, behavioral intervention,
those are all school based Medicaid billable services, personal care.
I'll put you on the spot.
I checked the box.
Do you check the box?
Oh, I checked the box.
Yeah, I do.
Okay.
Because my kid gets a lot of school based Medicaid services.
Yeah, they need the box.
They need those boxes checked.
Yeah, they do.
Next you're going to see IEP team information.
So all of those team members listed their position and whether or not they were in attendance
for core members, parent, special ed teacher, general education teacher and district representative.
Yep.
Yeah.
And you might have a few others in there if your kiddos getting related services like
a speech pathologist, an OT, a PT, someone like that.
Maybe the nurse if there's a health care plan.
My kiddo has a health care plan.
So the nurse pops in.
But those are not required members.
So if you remember, we just talked about those CFRs.
The required members have a CFR next to them.
The non required members won't.
So that kind of dictates who should be there and who shouldn't.
Generally IEP meetings are a full house though.
Oh, yeah.
It's everybody in their mom at the IEP meeting.
It's the place to be.
Yep.
Happy times.
So then we're going to move to this is the portion of the IEP where you would select
early childhood standard or secondary.
Again we're doing standards.
So at this point we would dive into goals.
Yep.
And like I said, next week we're going to do a really deep dive into goals.
But basically when we're looking at goals, we're looking at the three main components
which are disability impact statements.
Help me, parent input.
So we need parent input and then we need kind of a baseline.
Oh, there we go.
Thank you.
Where are our kiddos at?
Yep.
And then from there we can make benchmarks and talk about how we're going to track it.
But this is the goal portion.
Yep.
And that can be again individualized to one goal, two goals, a million goals.
Some IEPs are 13 pages.
Some are 25, right?
Yep.
Some are two.
Well, probably four.
You know, when you get all that other stuff in there.
But yeah, if we have a speech only IEP, they could be a couple of pages with a couple of
goals.
If it is two pages, please call us.
Yeah.
Sorry.
Yeah.
Two pages would be, you know, just your demographics and then your, you know, your back page with
us on it.
So that probably is, it's more for teasing Melissa.
Yeah.
It's literally my life goal.
It's in my IEP.
I have to track how many times I tease you.
Okay.
Then we're moving on.
You need a behavior chart.
I probably do.
I hate that.
We're moving on to IEP services.
So again, this can look much larger or it can be a much smaller.
How is it?
It's a chart, right?
Yeah.
So it'll be a chart that should be broken apart by minutes received.
Some districts will do minutes per week per day.
So it's going to look a little bit different just depending on your district.
But yeah, it will be in a chart.
Where is it location wise with school, which again is a really fun time to get creative.
Yeah.
PBIS supports maybe on the playground or occupational therapy on the playground.
Start time, end time, again minutes.
And what is this optional statement of service delivery?
So that's kind of a COVID response.
So districts are obligated to provide an optional statement of delivery.
So like a distance learning plan.
If we were to experience a pandemic again that forced us all back into our homes, please
no, don't let that happen.
You put that back into your mouth and out of the universe.
I can find some wood and knock on something.
So if we if something like that were to happen again, this provides that optional statement
of delivery or if a kiddo has a long term illness and is going to be home.
But you know, that's I shouldn't have even said that.
That's kind of a whole other homebound discussion.
But what you're basically saying is just another point of proof of hyper individualization
for this whole document.
It's all bases covered.
Yep, you're exactly right.
So after IEP services, we move to another not that all parts of the IEP aren't super
critical, but this one really sticks out for me personally is LRE or least restrictive
environment.
So just real briefly, we're going to, you know, put the student to the maximum extent
possible with general education peers when and where appropriate.
So least restrictive environment, not a place.
No, not a place necessarily.
No, just and sometimes it does it is listed as a place or it will make sense to have be
a place because when we're talking in terms of like the gen ed classroom or a special
education classroom or resource room, it's easier to point out and put it on paper like
that.
But it can be more than that.
Like, for example, my student participates with his gen ed peers in general education
PE and general education library, general education music.
So it's not necessarily in the gen ed classroom, but it's with his gen ed peers.
Does that make sense?
Yes, but then that's also translating exactly like you said to this piece below average
time outside the general education environment and average time inside that environment.
And that's like those will be percentages, like 80, 20, 50, 50.
Yeah.
Yep.
And that's individualized for every kid is going to be different.
Every student, it's going to look a little bit different because we want a student in
their least restrictive environment to the maximum extent possible.
And this could be a student who is receiving push in services.
So they're in the general education classroom 100 percent of the time, but they're still
receiving special education through push in services.
Absolutely.
So this could look like anything.
The world is your oyster.
Then we're going to move over to placement considerations, which is a series of yes or
no questions.
Things like is this based on the students educational needs that are documented?
Is this close to the students home as possible?
Is this where the student would attend if they didn't have a disability?
Did we consider any harmful effect?
These are kind of LRE questions, right?
Then after that, we're going to move to other considerations.
So I think we should go through all of these because these are all very different.
So number one, special transportation.
Yep.
And that can look really, really different, right?
You can.
Yeah.
Depending upon your students needs, the district's transportation, you know, the companies they
work with.
I mean, our rural schools don't have, you know, large special education buses.
They don't need them.
They don't have a need for them.
So their buses are potentially it's a van or yeah.
So specialized transportation is a related service in a kiddos IEP that they are found
eligible for.
And the districts are obligated to provide special education transportation if the student
is eligible.
And they really have our students, you know, best addresses at heart.
They're really in some cases getting super creative.
Like wasn't there during COVID an instance where I I'm going to butcher this story, so
I apologize in advance.
A student was transported to school in an ambulance or something.
They got really creative, right?
Yeah.
A hotel.
It was a hotel shuttle that was doing some of the transportation.
I would have never thought.
Yeah, I know.
That was super outside the box thinking that like we got to get this kid to school.
It's our responsibility to provide this transportation just like we would provide it for any other
student.
Yep.
I'm like, wow, that's impressive.
We've heard of taxis being utilized sometimes, you know, when busing is an option.
I mean, and this is very much getting into the weeds and going down a rabbit hole of
transportation.
But parents and districts can come into an agreement that parents are paid for the transport.
I mean, it's it's very individualized situations, but this is an individualized education plan.
Exactly.
Ask.
Ask to brainstorm out of the box.
Call us.
We've seen we've seen literally everything.
Yeah, you can't surprise me.
In fact, you know what?
I will pay you to surprise.
We are at no cost to families, but you could pay.
We will pay you if you surprise us.
I don't know.
We maybe shouldn't say that.
Be entered into my weekly drawing.
There we go.
And the Amazon gift card.
I love it.
OK, see, we're losing it.
We're losing it on this Friday.
Deep diving into an IEP.
But it's important.
It's important.
I think it's really cool to share with parents all the things that we've seen made happen
so that they know that, you know, these school districts really do want to support our kids
and all the things that we've tried and maybe something speaks to them.
Yeah, no, I agree.
And that in Idaho being Idaho, you know, we are a rural front here state.
We hear this all the time.
So we got to think outside of the box sometimes, and especially in these little tiny districts.
Yeah, and I said it before on a different podcast, but I think it bears repeating.
I might as well make it a sound option on this soundboard.
But I mean, Boise means something different than Bonner's Ferry, right?
Yes.
Rupert and Kimberly, Idaho might not be the same as West Ada School District.
Absolutely.
So, yeah, we're dealing with different challenges all over.
And so let's get creative and and we can help because like we've seen it.
It's our job to make it work.
Yeah.
So next consideration is our extended school year services required for this student.
So basically, if I'm reading this correctly, how it's it's essentially asking how much
regression is going to occur if this student is out of school for the summer, right?
Yeah, exactly.
So it extended school year, not many kiddos qualify.
It's not to continue working on or it's not to work on the IP.
It is extended school year.
Yes, you're exactly right.
It is for the kiddo that is nearing mastery of a certain skill.
And we don't want to see that that summer slip, that regression happen.
Or if we know that, yeah, we're going to have big, big regression come fall and we need
to alleviate that.
But extended school year is completely different than a traditional school school year.
They're going to be just working on those very individualized skills that that would
be showing those signs of regression.
So not not like a summer camp, but not as academically intensive focus, just making
sure that we're not going to have to make up for lost time.
Yeah.
OK.
So extended school year, again, it looks different in different areas or different districts.
Sometimes it can.
It can be really challenging because it's at a different school or a different placement
than the child traditionally, you know, during the regular school year will be going.
So it does.
It's very individualized.
Let's just put it at that, which that's going to be our go to answer for.
We need a button that says that.
Yeah.
It's very individualized.
I mean, we're not.
I mean, it's not a lie.
It's not.
It's just not summer school.
Right.
Yes.
Don't think it's summer school.
Don't think it's heavily academic, but just know that it is an option and some people
qualify for it.
Yeah.
And this is right about the time where they're letting you know if your student is qualifying
in preparation for the extended school year.
So right around into February, middle of March is when that notification usually happens.
Yes.
So we're recording this in February.
You might not hear it for a couple of months, but I mean, maybe we can make a Patreon and
give people sneak peeks to the podcast.
However, if you have any questions, you can call us any time and we would have this conversation
with you.
You don't have to wait for the podcast.
You can hear my voice Monday through Friday, nine to five.
OK, moving on.
Does the student have limited proficiency in English?
Is the student deaf or hard of hearing?
Does the student have unique communication needs?
Is the student blind or visually impaired?
And does the student have health care needs?
So this is essentially the we're making sure all the other things are checked off and that
we don't need to address anything before we move forward.
Right.
Exactly.
That's exactly what it is.
Do we need to bring in any outside support?
So do we need, you know, if we have a student with a visual or hearing impairment, that's
when we bring in IESBD, any assistive technology, we can, you know, there's there's a lot of
options there.
And those students that their English isn't their what their first language is limited
proficiency.
OK, so that's sometimes where we have that ESL students.
So English is a second language.
That's where we just identify all of this so that then we can identify the supports
that the student needs.
Yes.
So those those ones that we just listed are more they're looking at the physical things.
The next part is behavioral need.
Yep.
So the next one goes, does behavior impede the students learning or the learning of others?
And then at that point is where we would ask, does this student have what we call a BIP,
a behavioral intervention plan?
Is it working?
Do we need to adjust it?
What does it look like?
And then we're going to talk about the goals and then again, how those goals are reported
on because BIPs can have different reporting than the other goals throughout the IEP.
So sometimes we're really looking at those behaviors more often.
So that can look like, let's just say students name is Timmy.
Timmy has a series of coping skills that he knows that he can utilize at any point.
So how many times did Timmy use those coping skills without needing any kind of prompting?
So that reporting looks different than did some let's say Timmy's other goal was something
along the lines of Timmy's going to be asked once a week to say the alphabet phonetically
or something along those lines.
So that's where reporting can look very different.
So and then you again, you can have a behavioral intervention plan standalone.
It can go with a 504.
You see it here in an IEP.
This is just another section, very individualized, does not apply to everybody.
Yes.
You handled that nicely.
Thank you.
I was dying and trying not to cough into the microphone.
So I apologize.
But isn't that so nice?
I just did it, right?
I didn't need help.
Why would you need help?
For those of you listening who don't recognize my voice, I'm sorry, you probably will soon.
But I am the newest member of Idaho Parents Unlimited.
You are.
But you are now you very much have solidified yourself as the behavioral expert at Idaho
Parents Unlimited.
Through many years of experience.
Yes.
She's lived in the behavioral trenches and has crawled her way out.
I've written them.
I've seen them.
I dream about the bibs in my sleep.
So she's our go to.
So I'm glad that that's the part that I decided to get a tickle in my throat.
Couldn't have done it better.
Please don't when we talk about assistive technology.
I'm going to need you then.
I got it.
I gotcha.
We're going to move on to accommodations, adaptations and or supports.
So when we're looking at accommodations, we're going to answer questions like presentation,
timing, setting and response.
So a common adaptation that I see a lot for whatever reason is preferred seating.
Yep.
Yeah, that's I would say hands down probably the most common adaptation.
And that can happen in an IEP or a 504.
Right.
Because that's an accommodation.
But right.
So I digress.
Can you give an example of an accommodation that would fall under that would be needing
specifics under timing and schedule?
As far as preferred seating or any accommodation, is that like I sat accommodate?
Yeah, that's a really good one that has the schedule and timing.
So those or just testing in general.
So if a student needs additional accommodations for test taking, so the frequency or the timing
would be when when a test is happening, you know, so we don't know where does that setting
happen?
If a student needs extra support or maybe they need to take their they need to do their
testing in a quiet room away from from others.
Maybe they need to do it in a different type of seating situation.
So that's where you would then pull in.
So your timing and your schedule is going to look a little bit different.
Even your setting because potentially they're taking it in the test in a library or in a
quieter setting.
We see preferential or we see seating as an option.
So that could look like a balance, a balance board or a ball seating, something for a student
that has trouble focusing and needs that seating or even something as simple as I am visually
impaired so I sit in the front of the class or I can't sit next to Bobby.
So I'm just seated somewhere differently than Bobby.
Yeah.
Or some sometimes kiddos have urgent bathroom needs and they need to be seated.
I told you it's Friday and I am okay.
They need to be seated next to the you know in the back.
Okay.
Thank you.
I'm glad I got her on that one.
Trying so hard not to laugh.
If you know me in person, you know my laugh is one that would just rupture your eardrum
if recorded on a microphone.
So I'm trying really hard.
That's true.
So hard here.
But I also wanted to take this opportunity to plug that if you are taking ISATs or IRI
or any of those, correct me if I'm wrong, but you can only use accommodations that you
normally use in your IEP.
You cannot request extra accommodations.
So if you're not using accommodations for test taking and then you want to try to use
them for the ISAT, they're going to tell you no, right?
Yep.
Yeah.
So have those in there if you want them.
Absolutely.
And then after accommodations, we're going to move to adaptations, which are changes
to what the student is learning, not how they're learning.
Yeah.
So let's say Timmy's in fourth grade.
Timmy needs lower lexile level learning essentially for reading.
So he's getting second grade instruction.
So that's where his adaptation comes into play.
Yep.
So we're still following content standards, but we're just making that adaptation to a
lower lexile score for Timmy.
So that, yep.
Maybe that's the only time Timmy gets pulled out of the general education environment is
just for that.
And then he's with his general education peers for the rest of the day.
Or maybe Timmy is always in an inclusive classroom.
Yeah, he can have those individualized.
Yeah, those push-in supports.
Yeah.
And that's again what this document is for.
It's going to spell it all out so everybody knows.
And then after that, we're going to move to participation in statewide and district wide
assessments, how timely.
And then we're going to have a whole bunch of options.
So IRI, ISAT, ISAT-ALT, we're not going to test them.
Again, I'm going to put you on the spot.
Okay, put me on the spot.
You have a child who does not take a lot of testing.
However, he still does take the ISAT, correct?
He is nonverbal.
He is nonverbal, yep.
He is in seventh grade.
So he takes the ISAT-ALT and he goes until he can't go anymore.
And that's probably one question.
And that's okay because he, you know, he's in that 3% of kiddos realistically in the
state that qualifies for the ISAT-ALT because he has some pretty significant learning disabilities,
cognitive deficiencies.
And so he qualifies for that.
And that has been determined by his IEP team, but he still takes them.
And for the most part, every student really takes it.
There are some students who opt out completely, but then that changes how they graduate.
Is that correct?
Or am I misleading?
There should I strike that from the record?
No.
Well, it's part of a bigger picture of graduation requirements, I guess I would say.
Some, so I'm trying to answer this.
I wish I could insert some Jeopardy music while we pause for diplomacy, right?
And how we're going to answer this.
So students that are, oops, I hit the microphone.
Sorry.
Students that are meeting graduation requirements will have, yes, State of Idaho.
I think it's the, you're putting me on the spot.
Okay.
I'm going to pause for a minute and just say that if you feel like your child does not
need to take the ISAT, please reach out and we can help you guide you through that process
of how to deny that on the IEP and opt out.
However, a lot of students take it.
My student takes it.
Your student takes it.
Everyone's students in this office.
Yeah, we take everybody.
Everybody takes it.
Some people don't want to take it and that's fine.
Exactly.
But in terms of graduation requirements, there's, it's getting into the weeds.
So I know this could be a 30 minute conversation and I'm happy to do that.
Let's have another podcast about that.
Well, we were planning this podcast.
We said, now, listen, we're just going to stick to the topics.
We're not going to go too in depth.
And this was her saying this to me because she knows I'll keep asking.
So I was trying.
For example, she's trying very politely to guide me back to the paper.
It's not working.
You must say it to my face.
Okay.
Written notice of special education action.
So is this the prior?
This is the prior written notice section, right?
Yep.
So this is where we're including the school is including all of the actions they have
proposed.
So any changes that are being made, anything that's being added, redact, right?
Yeah.
Anything that you have added during the course of your IEP meeting, any of those, maybe we've
added a couple of accommodations.
Maybe we've removed a couple, but yeah, that's where that's going to be noted.
And then why?
Why did we agree to this?
Why did we disagree with this?
What did we consider when we were doing that?
What did we look at?
Yep.
And any other information that may not have fit into any of those categories I just listed
that might be relevant to the discussion.
And if you're not having, if you don't have this IEP form in front of you right now, let
me just say that there are so many CFRs.
They're listed next to this prior written notice section.
So I guarantee that you would see that in the procedural safeguards too.
So this is very important and will always be provided if a change is going to be made.
Yep.
And prior written notice has to happen.
There's a lot of instances where it has to happen.
So that's why it's dedicated a big portion to it because it's a very big component of
IDEA and getting this information to parents.
And it must be in your native language.
It must be in your native language.
Yes.
And then we moved to consent for initial placement, which is on this IEP even though we say we're
doing an annual review.
So you're doing, so we'll stick with the annual review.
You're going to sign.
And when you sign, you're saying that you're present.
Yep.
That's all you're doing.
Not consent.
No.
Because you've consented to that initial IEP.
So that's the only time that your signature is signing consent.
Any other time that you sign, you're just signing that you are in attendance.
So for the purposes of this podcast, we're going to say, no, this is not initial placement.
Correct.
And I will, let me add that this is, please do.
This is specific to the state of Idaho.
So if you're listening somewhere else, the whole signing thing.
Thank you.
The whole signing thing, we hear that quite often parents say, I'm not signing.
I refuse to sign.
And that's just essentially in Idaho saying that you were not in attendance at the meeting.
It has no repercussions.
There are other things.
That's when you call us because this is a bigger conversation.
Yes, because you're going to get the copy of the IEP and then you have 10 days to dispute.
You could do some stay put pendency.
I digress.
Yes, we do that.
Please, Allison, digress.
So then we'd move on to a copy of the IEP has been provided to the parent guardian.
It should be in that moment.
Not necessarily.
If there were a lot of proposed changes or amendments or, you know, we added, we removed
the school has 10 days after that IEP meeting to supply the parent with a copy of the IEP.
So I always ask for one ahead of time.
I was just about to say you can make that request, but it's nothing that is, you don't
have any legal basis to request that it's kind of just, hey, if you have that available,
I'd love to take a look at it so that I could be a more prepared participant in the conversation.
Yeah, it's a good best practice in schools.
It really cuts down on the amount of time that an IEP meeting can take if a parent has
pre seen what is going to be in it and that, you know, can kind of start on some of those
questions.
It's helpful, I guess is what we're saying here.
But yeah, you have 10 days after your IEP meeting concludes to get a copy of that IEP
to your hands.
Thank you for hanging in with us this long.
We are so close to being done.
This podcast is almost the length of an actual IEP meeting.
Of course it is.
We didn't even talk about goals.
That's why I knew, I knew it had to be its own thing.
I'm like, I would never, I would never get through it.
I just wouldn't have so much to say.
So then we'd move on to who do you contact if you need assistance?
So this is where you're going to get your school district contact information and then
wouldn't you know, a list of agencies.
Why are we not first?
I'm just kidding.
So we have Idaho State Department of Education.
Because they are first.
I mean, I guess that makes sense.
And we love them.
Of course we do.
We have, we actually, I would like to plug.
Yeah.
If you've come from out of state or you're new to special education and you somehow found
this podcast, we really do.
Idaho has a great partnership with the State Department of Education that is really honestly
not replicated in other states.
And I've been to other states, even though I'm the newest person here, I've seen it and
I've heard other places complain.
How did you do that?
How did you make that work?
We get that question all the time.
Any national conferences that we go to with our peers is not replicated across the country.
Our state department and our relationship is, it's a great one and we are so lucky.
They wish we could be us.
Yeah, they do.
We've heard that time and time again, how in the world, you know, and we've, we've sat
on panels to discuss our partnerships and the different projects that we work on to
try to help other states replicate.
I think that's what, again, here we go off in the weeds.
My thought is that, you know, Idaho is small enough still that we are able to really forge
those relationships and maintain them.
That's my thought.
Shout out to you, Angela Lindig, executive director of Idaho Parents Unlimited for putting
in the work.
Yes.
And those relationships have been, yeah, they've been built over, over the time.
It hasn't just been, you know, within the last year.
Since 1985.
Yeah.
So that's why the State Department comes first and then comes us and we are kind of sandwiched
in disability rights.
There's Idaho Legal Aid, Idaho Bar Association.
So unfortunately, this makes us sometimes look like we are attorneys or we play them
on TV or on podcasts, but we do not.
I will give you a lot of advice, but please do not listen to any legal advice I give you.
We are not attorneys.
I will absolutely provide you the resources that will get you to the people who should
be providing you legal advice.
Yes.
Yes, we will.
I'm only here for the purposes of entertainment.
And that even that sometimes is quite a struggle.
Sorry.
Hey, I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
I'll mute your microphone.
She will.
I will.
Don't test me.
So that is the whole IEP.
Without goals.
Without a deep dive.
Yeah, without a deep dive.
We briefly discussed them.
So on that note, any lingering thoughts you really want to add here?
I don't think so.
For the people to know.
No, the IEP is a long document that is a legal document, but I will say this, it's fluid
and it can be changed at any time.
I just got off the phone with a parent and told her the exact same thing.
It's not written in stone.
So just know that.
And please call us.
Uh huh.
Yeah.
We'll help.
We need a 1-800 number.
1-800.
Idaho parents unlimited.
That's all we had with.
Thank you so much everyone out there for listening in.
If you are in Idaho or planning on moving to Idaho and have any questions on systems
or services for children with disabilities, please do not hesitate to reach out to us
on our website.
That's ipulidaho.org.
I-P-U-L-I-D-A-H-O.org.
Be sure to come back next time where, surprise, surprise, we're going to have an in-depth
discussion on strengths based goals.
And then after that, we'll take a small break from IEPs.
And discuss other areas of concern.
Until then, I'm Allison.
And I'm Melissa.
And this has been Unlimited Parenting.