Sweaty palms are common among parents who are approaching that annual IEP meeting. One of these meetings is called the “review of existing data” (RED) meeting.
In the RED meeting, the school personnel determine if more information is needed in order to make decisions regarding pursuit of a new or different label for a child, or, if more information is NOT needed about the child.
Many times school personnel will suggest that more information is NOT needed since the student is “doing fine”, “everything’s okay”, etc. The parent is then asked to sign that testing is not needed (a waiver). Parent beware! Waiving testing at this point may result in unknown needs of the student going unaddressed! We parents get busy and fail to recognize the need, or, perhaps the changes the child is experiencing as he ages through the years. And, since schools are busy places, they don’t always want to take the time to test our kids.
If a parent decides that “more information is needed” a parent can request so and indicate which tests need to be done. Parents can carefully consider repeating some of the same tests done previously; so that a parent can then be consistent in tracking a students progress (or lack of progress). A parent can ask the school person in the meeting (who is the designated person who is knowledge about educational evaluations) specifics about possible tests for inappropriate classroom behaviors, neuropsych evaluations, behavior analysis, adaptive behaviors, social skills, etc.
These meetings can be intimidating for a parent. Advocates at the iep center help parents prepare for these meetings over the phone and skype consults. What a parent doesn’t do now impacts a child’s education for years. Contact an advocate below:
sign up for our ezine The IEP Center Advocator:
http://eepurl.com/wsEID
Missouri Special Education Advocates 