Alignment to State Standards: Involving Young Students in the IEP Process

Whenever we complete IEP paperwork, we wanna make sure that we're always including the students future goals, opinions, and ideas, and that they are actually considered and included. But when we're working with students that young, it's hard to get an accurate snapshot of what's going going on. So for some special education case managers, it can just be easier to let it go with the students and not really, go through the process of trying to include them especially if they don't have our traditional communication system. But just because a child can't speak doesn't mean they don't have anything today to say. So we're definitely not gonna do that. Think to what a student's IEP is supposed to include. A child's specially designed instruction or SDI. It's supposed to include their preferences, their learning styles. And for a very young student from the ages of three or five, they might not be able to relay their thoughts and opinions in a traditional manner, but that doesn't mean that we can't include their preferences and their motivators and really their strengths as we see them into what's going on inside of the IEP and the IEP process. I think the way to include them at that age where sitting through an IEP meeting is probably not ideal is to make sure that we're representing them accurately, presenting objective data and then clearly stating the students preferences, learning styles, strengths, and needs. And as an aside, preparing your student for their future meetings is an absolute essential part of this process. So start working on response modes and communication systems. Work on choice making and self advocacy as part of your classroom instruction. That way as your student moves forward, they're better prepared to participate in future IEP meetings.