IEP Meeting Preparation: A Decision-by-Decision Checklist

Before the meeting

• Write your top two or three concerns in plain language and connect each concern to a school task, setting, or outcome.
• List the decisions you want the team to make. Examples include evaluating an area of need, changing a goal, clarifying service time, or adding an accommodation.
• Review the current IEP, recent progress reports, evaluations, work samples, attendance, discipline information, and communications that relate to those decisions.
• Mark unclear language, missing baselines, services without frequency or duration, and statements that are not supported by data.
• Send important concerns or requested agenda items in writing before the meeting when practical.

During the meeting

• Ask what data supports each proposed decision.
• Ask how present levels connect to each measurable annual goal.
• Confirm how progress will be measured, how often it will be reported, and what will happen if progress is insufficient.
• For every service, clarify who provides it, how often, for how long, where, and when it begins.
• Before moving on, summarize what was agreed to, what was refused, who owns each next step, and the expected date.

What the federal rules say

IDEA requires schools to afford parents an opportunity to participate in meetings concerning identification, evaluation, educational placement, and the provision of a free appropriate public education.

An IEP must include present levels, measurable annual goals, how progress will be measured and reported, and the projected start date, frequency, location, and duration of services and modifications.

The school must take steps to ensure parent participation, including notice early enough to attend and scheduling the meeting at a mutually agreed time and place.

What to avoid

• Trying to solve every issue at once without identifying the most important decisions.
• Accepting broad assurances such as “we will monitor it” without a measure, owner, and review date.
• Leaving unclear whether a request was agreed to, refused, or still under consideration.
• Treating the meeting as a debate about intentions instead of returning to needs, data, services, and progress.