5 Reasons Why You Should Have More Than 1 IEP Meeting In A School Year

With Back To School season upon us, it’s time to make sure each child’s IEP is still effective. Summer is often a time of growth for our students, so it isn’t surprising that things need to be tweaked a bit.  But the question is… when should an IEP be held outside of the regular yearly one?

Here are five times it would be appropriate to hold another IEP.

We Can’t Tell The Future

The IEP team does their best to use the data they have to develop a plan that will meet the needs of the student, but unfortunately nobody can tell the future. That means as time goes on, the IEP might need to be updated. 

New Needs Pop Up

Students are growing and maturing every day, so it makes sense that new needs might pop up that need to be addressed. New goals or new accommodations might be needed. Waiting a year to address them just isn’t going to cut it. 

Increasing Inclusion Time

The goal of any IEP is to ensure our students are with their same age peers in the least restrictive environment (LRE) and that means we want to make sure our students are truly included in everything possible. The minutes on the IEP need to reflect this time. 

Concerns Need To Be Addressed

As the year goes on, concerns might pop up. While there are some that can be addressed in an informal meeting with the teacher or other service provider, some can’t be and must be documented in an IEP. 

Some of these reasons include situations such as, 

• Service minutes not being met, 

• Inclusion minutes not being met, 

• Accommodations not being used,

• Behavior plan not being followed,

• Concerns are not being addressed with informal meetings…

Efficacy of Interventions Need To Be Regularly Assessed

Interventions listed in the IEP have to be assessed to ensure they are effective. It would be ridiculous to expect everything to work all the time. Each child is unique, so their interventions will be too. While we need to give interventions an opportunity to work, a full year is way too long. Around 8 weeks is a reasonable amount of time to determine if an intervention is effective. 

Remember, IEPs are not intended to be static documents. They are intended to be fluid and change when your student’s needs change. 

This FREE mini-guide will give you expert tips and advice to help you feel more confident in understanding your child’s IEP.

It also includes a Pre-IEP Planner to help you get organized and prepared for an IEP.

What’s included:

• Learn why thoroughly understanding your child’s IEP is so important.

• Understand the common mistakes families make when navigating special education.

• Learn why families are unsure when navigating special education.

• Learn what you need to know so you can feel confident in your ability to be a collaborative IEP team member.

Questions about whether you should request an additional IEP? 

Drop your questions in the comments.