IEP Meeting Questions to Ask
For parents heading into an IEP meeting who want to follow what is being decided. The questions cover how goals are written and measured, service minutes and who delivers them, accommodations in class, and why a particular placement is being recommended.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What does the data say about where my child is right now, and which assessments is that based on?
Why ask it
The present levels section drives everything after it. Ask for the assessment names and dates, because goals built on a year-old evaluation will not match the child in the room.
Can you read each goal out and tell me how it will be measured?
Why ask it
A goal you cannot picture being scored is not measurable. 'Will improve reading comprehension' has no baseline, no criterion and no schedule, so nobody can be held to it later.
What is my child's current baseline on each of these goals?
Why ask it
Without a starting number there is no way to tell next year whether progress happened. If the team cannot give one, ask for the goal to be rewritten with one in it.
How many minutes of each service will my child get, and in what setting?
Why ask it
Minutes and setting are the enforceable part of the document. Words like 'as needed' or 'consultative' can mean almost nothing, and they are hard to change once signed.
Who delivers each service, and what happens if that post is vacant or the person is absent?
Why ask it
Services are missed most often because a therapist role is unfilled. Ask now how missed sessions are tracked and whether they are made up.
What accommodations will be in place, and how will each teacher know about them?
Why ask it
An accommodation nobody tells the science teacher about does not exist. Ask which document teachers receive and when in the term they get it.
How will I hear about progress between now and the annual review?
Why ask it
Ask for the format and the frequency, and for data rather than comment. A quarterly note saying 'progressing' is not progress reporting.
Why is this placement the least restrictive environment for my child?
Why ask it
The team is expected to explain what was tried or considered in a more inclusive setting first. If the answer is about which programmes exist rather than about your child, say so.
What will my child miss when they leave the classroom for services?
Why ask it
Pull-out time comes from somewhere. Finding out it is always the same subject, or always recess, changes whether the schedule is acceptable to you.
How will my child be supported at lunch, recess and during transitions?
Why ask it
Unstructured time is where most of the day's difficulties actually happen, and it is the part of the plan most often left blank.
If behaviour is part of this, what is the plan, and what do you think the behaviour is achieving for my child?
Why ask it
A plan built on consequences with no hypothesis about cause usually fails. Ask whether a functional behaviour assessment has been done and how recently.
What assistive technology has been considered, and who teaches my child to use it?
Why ask it
Devices sit unused when nobody owns the training. Ask what happens to it over the summer and whether it goes home.
How will teachers be given the time to implement this plan?
Why ask it
Implementation depends on planning time and staffing that nobody raises in the meeting. Asking makes the constraint visible while it can still be dealt with.
What would make the team recommend changing this plan mid year?
Why ask it
You want the trigger named now: a number of weeks without progress, a certain rate of incidents. Otherwise the plan drifts to the annual review by default.
What are my options if I disagree with part of this document?
Why ask it
You can raise disagreement in writing, ask for the procedural safeguards explained in plain language, and request an independent evaluation. Ask the team to walk through each route.
Can I have the draft and the evaluation reports before the meeting, and how far in advance?
Why ask it
Reading a draft cold in the room is how parents end up agreeing to wording they did not follow. Several days ahead is a reasonable request and is usually granted if you ask.
What does my child think about all this, and how was their view collected?
Why ask it
Even young children have a view on what helps. A team that has never asked will produce a plan the child works around rather than with.
What is the plan for the handover to next year or the next school?
Why ask it
Transitions are where plans get quietly lost. Ask who hands this over, to whom, and when the receiving staff will actually read it.
Which part of this plan is the team least confident about?
Why ask it
Asking for the weakest part invites honesty, and it usually surfaces the staffing or resourcing concern nobody was going to volunteer.
What are the next steps, who owns each one, and by what date?
Why ask it
Actions with no name and no date attached tend not to happen. Repeat them back at the end so they end up in the meeting notes.
Getting Through the Meeting With a Usable Document
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
The week before
- Ask in writing for the draft IEP and any new evaluation reports, and say you want them before the meeting so you can read them properly.
- Write your own one-page summary: three things going well, three concerns, and what you want changed. Bring copies for the table.
- Ask who will be attending and in what role. If the general education teacher or a specific therapist will not be there, ask whether the meeting should be rescheduled.
- Note the exact wording of anything you disagreed with last year and whether it was ever fixed.
- Bring someone with you to take notes. Following the conversation and writing it down at the same time is harder than it sounds.
Wording to slow down on
- 'As appropriate', 'as needed' and 'when available' remove the obligation. Ask for a number instead.
- 'Consultative' service usually means the therapist advises staff rather than working with your child. That may be right, but you should know which you are agreeing to.
- A goal without a baseline, a criterion and a measurement method is not enforceable, whatever it says about improvement.
- 'Access to' a device or a space is not the same as being taught to use it or being scheduled into it.
- Minutes written per week are easier to hold to than minutes written per month, which can be delivered in one block.
In the room
- Ask them to pause and explain any acronym the first time it appears. Nobody in the room minds, and the alternative is agreeing to something you did not follow.
- If a decision is made verbally, ask for it to be written into the document before the meeting ends.
- You are not obliged to agree to everything in the room. It is reasonable to say you want to read the final version before responding.
- If you disagree with one part but not the rest, say exactly which part. A general objection is much easier to set aside.
- Write down who said what about staffing and timing. Those are the commitments most likely to be forgotten by spring.
After the meeting
- Send a short email summarising what you understood was agreed, including dates and owners. It creates a record without being adversarial.
- Check the final document against your notes, particularly minutes, setting and the accommodations list.
- Diarise the first progress report date and follow up the day after it is due if nothing arrives.
- If a service is not being delivered, log the dates as they happen rather than reconstructing them later.
- Keep every version of the IEP. Comparing this year's wording to last year's is the quickest way to spot something that quietly went missing.