Organize and bring your child’s paperwork with you.
The most important ones to bring are:
your child's current IEP
new audiological reports
new evaluation reports
Take paper to use to write notes during the meeting.
The Beginnings parent notebook is a great organizing tool!
For the meeting, think of your main goal(s) - try not to have more than 3. It tends to “muddy the waters” if there are too many issues.
Make yourself a script if you need to - read it if you get nervous!
If you are nervous that the meeting is going to get rough, bring a friend or your Beginnings Parent Education Specialist to help you stay calm, focused, and to help take notes.
Go into the meeting with the mindset that everyone is there because they are there for your child and want to do best… but, even though they are the professionals, you are still the one that knows the child the best - and a crucial part of the team.
When it is your turn to talk, thank someone. You can thank someone for the hard work with your child, something one of the team members reported on, etc.
If you don’t understand the vocabulary they are using, ask! There’s only so much IDEA, LRE, FBA ,PLOP, ABR, and CBM you can take!
Don’t leave the meeting without a copy of the IEP, even if they say it is “all messy and I’ll clean it up tomorrow.” Just say, "Give me a copy of the messy one, and I’ll throw it away when I get the clean one."
