Special Education and Annual Reviews: It is Time to Prepare

Believe it or not the time to start preparing for your child's annual review at school is now.  If you haven't been keeping records and documentation throughout this year then it is imperative you start collecting data and information now.

Instead of providing a dissertation on the importance of record keeping, I want to give you  letters of request and a step by step plan of action.

You don't have to be an advocate or attorney.  You don't even have to interpret all the information you get back. 

You only need to determine:

• How your child is doing, by way of seeing what goals have been met and which ones are not being met 
• You then theorize why a goal isn't being met, and request additional services or changes in order to rectify that situation

To get started you need information.  I propose a team meeting in person, as opposed to records/test scores being provided alone, but it depends on your individual situation.  I have a template because I do this so often, but here is what you should convey in your request:

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From:

To:

Cc: File,

Regarding: (insert child's name/grade level): Meeting request

Date:

Dear _________:

To adequately prepare for annual reviews and to ensure we're all on the same page, I'd like to schedule a meeting to discuss _____'s progress and strategize goals for next year.  I understand how difficult it can be to coordinate numerous schedules, however, I request the entire team attends, so we can share information and determine appropriate goals.

I would like to specifically discuss ________ (list anything and everything you want to talk about with every single person on your child's team).

I will do my best to work around the team's availability [insert any exceptions or days/times you can not meet].

If you can provide me with ________ (list any records/information you want; even samples of work), it would be most appreciated, so I can review and have the same information as everyone else prior to meeting.

Thank you for your time and attention.  I look forward to meeting with everyone to ensure a smooth transition into next year.

Best Regards,

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By conducting a team meeting you give staff the opportunity to share information and, while you may think this naturally takes place, I can tell you it doesn't and you're bound to get feedback telling you how beneficial it was to everyone that attended.

This also helps with accountability; you're less likely to encounter a situation where someone contradicts what took place or what was decided upon, as the entire team was present. 

You should also invite supervisors - this means building administrators, department chairs and committee chairpersons.  Lets say at this meeting you all decide and agree to have your child do ABC and the teacher agreed.  Should ABC not occur, you have immediate recourse, since the supervisor of those responsible knows the teacher agreed to do ABC.  You also save time, and there is no second-hand reports of "well, the teacher said ..." 

Typically these meetings take a bit of time but I promise you if you start conducting them you'll find yourself working with more focus, more effectiveness and it will benefit your child in the long run.  This is also a great advocacy strategy and if you'd like more information on the ins-and-outs of conducting these meetings, simply post your request below. 

You may want to consider new goals and skills you'd like to see addressed and propose these are added to your child's IEP. Keep in mind, an annual review is to plan for the upcoming school year, so new goals may not be 'official' until next year; check with your special education chairperson for more information.