A Parent’s Guide to Back to School IEP Readiness

Welcome back to the Don't IEP Alone podcast! In this episode, Lisa Lightner dives into the realities of back-to-school season for parents navigating IEPs. She shares strategies to help you get organized before classes begin, including a game-changing new approach to reading and understanding your child’s IEP. 

Whether your summer break is winding down or you’re already prepping backpacks, Lisa Lightner offers practical advice to help ease your worries, focus on what you can control, and move into the new school year feeling confident and empowered. 

Plus, she tackles common concerns about related services and reminds you—you’re doing better than you think!

1. Introduction and Welcome

• Lisa Lightner greets new and returning listeners 00:01
• Brief mention of podcast hiatuses and evergreen episodes 00:13
• Reference to the "February freak out" experienced by parents and advocates 00:20

2. Back-to-School Transition for IEP Parents

• Personal anecdote about shopping for back-to-school with her son 01:29
• Discussion about not having the luxury to delay back-to-school planning as an IEP parent 02:29
• Emphasizing the need to prepare before school starts to avoid children being left behind 02:35

3. How to Read an IEP Effectively

• Announcement of a new "How to Read an IEP" PDF, blog post, and YouTube video available in show notes 02:59
• Explanation of the common mistake: reading IEPs cover to cover instead of by issue 03:32
• Introduction of a new method: track specific issues (e.g., executive functioning) throughout the IEP 04:00
• Encouragement to focus on 1 or 2 main concerns for the new school year 04:49
• Mention of IEP progress monitoring—caution not to wait until report cards (often as late as Thanksgiving) to check progress 05:11

4. Self-Assessment and Reassurance for Parents

• Encouragement to focus on progress, even small, rather than stress 05:52
• Reassurance that listening to the podcast means parents are ahead of the game 06:22
• Observation that most IEPs have bright spots, not just problems, based on Lisa Lightner's IEP record reviews 06:52
• Invitation to email Lisa Lightner for support if things feel dire 07:34
• Reminders for parents to take deep breaths and acknowledge their prior experience 07:38
• Welcoming both new and returning IEP parents 07:47

5. Patience with IEP Related Services at Start of School Year

• Encouragement not to panic about missed related services in the first weeks (e.g., OT, speech) 08:12
• Explanation that scheduling and caseloads are often still being settled in the first week or two 08:49
• Suggestion that IEPs are often written to account for start/end of year disruptions 09:05
• Importance of perspective: missing a couple of sessions likely won’t affect long-term success 09:33
• Practical advice for documentation and following up if no contact after two weeks 09:54

6. Closing Remarks

• Reminder to document ongoing issues for patterns 10:04
• Goodbye and encouragement to tune in again 10:15

Don't IEP Alone with Lisa Lightner, Special Education Advocate

Thank you for listening to this episode of Don't IEP Alone. See you next time!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Hello, welcome back to Don't IEP Alone Podcast. I'm Lisa Leitner, your special education advocate hostess with the most us. Um, thanks for tuning in again. Yeah, it's been a while. If you are listening to me for the first time, I want to say welcome. Thanks for being here. If you are listening to me and you've listened to a lot of the episodes, you know that I talk about the February freakout with parents, and I'll be very brief with this because it is August. Um, February is a time when parents kind of freak out, and any advocate will tell you that is when their schedule really starts to book up. And it is when mine starts to book up every single year, and then I freak out because I'm busier than I want to be, and I say, Oh my god, something's got to give. And I end up often putting the podcast on hiatus, which I am happy to do now. I mean, I'm not happy to do it, but but there are over a hundred evergreen timeless information episodes. So if you ever want to listen to something, you know, there's plenty there if I'm not recording live or not not doing new episodes. Anyway, it is back to school time. Maybe you're already back to school, maybe you are getting there. Um my son and I, we've been doing some shopping because he is growing like a weed. For those of you who are oh so tired of the six, seven jokes. My son is actually six foot seven. Um, and he's really tired of the jokes. He doesn't think they're funny anymore because he is actually so tall that every time we go somewhere, people stare at him, people stop him in the store, they make jokes, and of course they ask him, How tall are you? And when he says six, seven, oh, you know, that starts a whole thing. But anyway, we're we're in back to school mode here for sure. But if you're not there yet, maybe you're not even ready to be there yet. And you're like, oh my god, why is she bothering me with back to school? I still have two more weeks of fun in the sun and maybe the beach or the mountains or a lake or the pool. I know, I know, I know. Um, unfortunately, as IEP parents, we weren't kind of given that luxury. We do have to think about these things before school starts, or you know, our kids really could be left behind if we don't engage. It's not something fun, but I always say, you know, focus on what you can control. These are the cards I was dealt. So that might mean that I'm reading an IEP by the pool because I but because I have to read an IEP in August. So the first thing I want to tell you is that in the show notes, I'm gonna put a link to a post. Um, I've been telling parents to do this for a long time, and I finally got around to doing a PDF for it. And then when I did the PDF, I was like, well, I really should explain in a blog post how to use this PDF. And then in the blog post, I was like, you know what, let me just make a video for YouTube explaining how to use this PDF. Um, anyway, I'm gonna put it all in the show notes today. But what it is is that it's how to read an IEP. Because the biggest mistake that you're probably making is that you start at page one and you start reading, and then by about page seven or eight, you've completely tuned out and you're barely past you know your kids' name and address because it's clunky language, it's unfamiliar language, it's a bunch of numbers and things that you don't understand, and it really is no wonder that you don't read them cover to cover. This is a new approach to reading IEPs, and it's by issue and taking your child's issues. So let's just say it's executive functioning and starting at the beginning and saying, okay, what does this section of the IEP say about executive functioning, like present levels? What do his evals say about executive functioning? Is there a goal for executive functioning? And so on and so on, so that you can track a specific issue throughout the IEP rather than trying to, again, read it from start to finish and say, well, wait, what did it say about executive functioning? What is he getting for executive functioning? Um, and you don't have to print the PDF. Notebook paper will be fine, whatever you use to take notes. Um, so I'm gonna, like I said, I'm gonna put that in the show notes. And that is something that I strongly recommend that you do for back to school is think about which concern for you is most important heading into this school year, and just pick one or two and say, you know what, I really need to do these things and follow these things throughout the school year. Because the other piece that I pointed out in an email the other day is that most of you have your IEP progress monitoring reports will come concurrent with report cards. Meaning, when you get a report card, you will get your child's IEP progress monitoring report and progress toward goals. So, what that generally means is that as we sit here in August, you may not see your first progress monitoring report until almost Thanksgiving. And you don't want to wait until Thanksgiving to discover that something isn't going well. So let's draw your attention to it right now, focus on it, read it, read what your IEP says about it, um, think about how that went in ESY and so on and so on. Okay, so that's the one thing I want you to do before back to school. The other thing that I want you to do as we are heading back to school, and maybe you're even getting triggered just by listening to this, because IEPs are such a source of stress for so many, is to remind yourself that you're doing better than you think. Even if you're listening to an IEP podcast, you are doing better than a whole lot of parents. Okay, so you are doing better than you think, and things are probably better than you think as well. And I'm I don't say that to be dismissive of what are probably very real concerns that you have about your IEP, but I do a lot of IEP record reviews. Um, and I'll put that link in the comment and in the show notes as well. I do a lot of IEP record reviews, and parents are just kind of like beside themselves, and I get it. When you're in the weeds and you're in the thick of things thinking about what you need to fix in your IEP, it can be really hard to remember what's going well. But very seldom do I read an IEP where just the whole thing is garbage, right? There are probably some real bright spots to your IEP and things that are going well and working well. Okay. So it's probably not as tragic as you think. It might be. If it is, email me. Um, the other thing I want you to do is to please take some deep breaths. You've been here before, you've done this before, and you're gonna do it again. Um maybe this is your first school year with an IEP, and if so, welcome to this crazy little world of ours. But for many of you, you've been here before, you've done this before. This is not your first back to school with an IEP, it's not your first school year, and you know, you've done it before and you can do it again, and just make a promise to yourself that you're going to get better and better at it. The last thing I want to talk about today is that related services. Please be patient about related services. Chances are your IEP was written to adapt to this concept or to adapt to your hours. But every year I get emails or Facebook comments from parents who are like, it's the third day of school, and my kid didn't get OT yet, and I don't even know who the OT is or when they're getting it, or how much, you know, whatever. I shouldn't say how much that should be in your IEP. Um the first week or two of school, classes are usually still kind of, you know, they're waiting for the dust to settle on those. Um there still might be some changes and caseloads and things like that. Um, and it was your IEP service hours were probably adjusted to not receive services like the first two or three weeks of school and the last two or three weeks of school. So they're probably not, or I shouldn't say probably, but they may not be short changing you hours. Um, one of the things I always tell parents is to keep your eye on the lighthouse of will this matter on graduation day? And will one or two sessions of OT or speech or whatever it is, will they really matter at graduation day? Probably not. Um if your entire IEP success or progress hinges upon one or two sessions, then then something's awry. So be patient, give them a week or two. If after two weeks you haven't heard anything about service hours, schedules, anything like that, that's when I tend to drop an email, but not too much before. And again, you can always document it so that if a pattern develops and you're four weeks into school, six weeks into school, and you still haven't heard anything, then you reach out. Okay, you guys have a great rest of your day. I want to cut it off here because we're at 10 minutes, but you have a great rest of your day, and please tune in again. Thanks so much.