IEP Questions to Ask
Questions for parents reading an IEP draft or sitting in an annual review. They ask which assessment sits behind each identified need, whether the annual goals can be scored, how many minutes of each service are written in and where, and how much of the day happens outside the general education classroom.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What are my child's strengths, and where in the school day do they show up?
Why ask it
An easy opener that quietly tells you how well the team knows your child. General praise from someone who sees him daily, with no example attached, suggests the goals were written from the file rather than from watching him.
Which assessment or observation led to each identified need, and can I see it?
Why ask it
Ties every need in the draft to a document you can read at home. If a need is listed and nobody can name the test, work sample or observation behind it, get that in writing before goals are built on top of it.
Can you read one annual goal aloud and tell me how you will know it has been met?
Why ask it
Forces the goal into numbers. Anything that cannot be restated as "from here to there by June, measured this often, with this tool" is a goal nobody can be held to at the next review.
What services will my child receive, how many minutes a week, and in what setting?
Why ask it
Minutes and setting are the enforceable part of an IEP. Wording like "as needed" or "consult" with no number attached tends to shrink once the school year gets busy, and leaves you nothing to point at.
Which accommodations are general education teachers responsible for, and how will they find out?
Why ask it
Accommodations usually fail at the handoff rather than in the drafting. Ask who tells the science teacher in September, and what happens when there is a long-term substitute.
How many minutes of the day will my child spend outside the general education classroom?
Why ask it
Turns least restrictive environment into arithmetic you can check. It also surfaces pull-outs scheduled during art, recess or lunch, which parents often discover only in October.
Who delivers each service, and is it one-to-one or in a group?
Why ask it
Group size changes what the service actually is. Thirty minutes of speech in a group of five is not thirty minutes alone, and the service page rarely says which one you are getting.
How often will I get progress data, and will it be numbers or written comments?
Why ask it
Comments like "making nice progress" cannot be compared across terms. Asking for the same measure the goal names, at fixed dates, gives you something concrete to raise in the spring.
What assistive technology was considered, and why was it included or left out?
Why ask it
The team has to consider it, so there is an answer either way. "We did not discuss it" is itself useful, and a reasonable basis for requesting an evaluation.
If the data stays flat for two reporting periods, what happens next and who starts it?
Why ask it
Names both a trigger and an owner. Without both, a stalled goal usually rides out the full year and reappears, barely changed, at the next annual meeting.
Does my child qualify for extended school year services, and what data decides that?
Why ask it
ESY turns on evidence of regression and how long skills take to recover, not on whether the summer program has space. An answer about staffing or budget means the decision is resting on the wrong thing.
What will the transition plan say about work, further study and living independently?
Why ask it
Transition goals get copied from a menu more often than anyone admits. Listen for whether your child was asked what they want, since the plan is supposed to start from their stated interests.
If behavior gets in the way of learning, is there a functional assessment behind the plan?
Why ask it
A behavior plan with no assessment of what the behavior accomplishes for your child is usually a list of consequences. Ask what the team thinks the behavior is communicating.
What would genuinely help if we did it at home, and what should stay at school?
Why ask it
Protects your evenings. A good answer names one or two specific practices. A long nightly program is a sign instruction is being shifted onto you.
Which accommodations carry over to state and district testing, and which do not?
Why ask it
Some classroom supports are not permitted on standardized tests, and April is too late to learn that. Any mismatch needs writing down now, while there is still time to practise without it.
Can I take this draft home before signing, and what happens if I agree to only part of it?
Why ask it
Tells you whether this is a discussion or a signing ceremony. Partial consent is available in many districts, and asking makes clear you know the difference.
If I disagree with something here, what are my options and what are the deadlines?
Why ask it
Dispute timelines are short and start running from particular notices. Getting the sequence and the dates on the record now beats reconstructing them under pressure later.
Who is responsible for social and emotional needs during unstructured time?
Why ask it
Lunch, corridors and transitions are where most social difficulty happens and where the document is usually silent. Ask which adult is actually present and watching.
Who is my single point of contact when something goes wrong mid-year?
Why ask it
Heads off the loop where the teacher refers you to the case manager who refers you to the district office. One name and one preferred channel saves weeks.
What have I not asked that you would want a parent to ask?
Why ask it
Invites someone who has sat through hundreds of these meetings to name what parents miss. Answers often surface a service nobody mentioned or a district practice you had no way of knowing existed.
Working through an IEP draft
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the meeting
Get the draft early
Ask in writing for the draft a few days ahead. Many districts will send it if asked. Reading twenty pages of goals cold, in a room of eight people, puts you at a disadvantage you do not need to accept.
Mark the goals that did not move
Bring the last two progress reports and flag every goal where the number stayed the same. Those are the goals worth spending the meeting on, and the ones most likely to be quietly rolled over.
Decide your three changes
Meetings run long and the last stretch turns into paperwork. Lead with the three things you want changed rather than holding them for the end.
Note where home and school disagree
If reading looks fine at school and falls apart at homework time, say so early. A gap like that often changes what gets measured and where.
In the room
- Every time a service is named, ask for minutes and setting before the conversation moves on.
- Interrupt and ask when an acronym goes past you. The team uses dozens and will keep going if nobody says anything.
- Write down who said what. Attribution matters more than exact wording if you have to follow up in March.
- You can ask for a break, or to reconvene on another day, if decisions are being made faster than you can follow.
- Bring a second person. Someone else taking notes frees you to actually listen to the answers.
Common pitfalls
Signing to be agreeable
Your signature generally records consent to the plan as written. Taking it home to read is ordinary and does not interrupt services already running.
Accepting goals that cannot be scored
"Will improve reading comprehension" has no score. Ask what the baseline is today, what number counts as met, and which tool produces that number.
Letting the timetable decide placement
If a pull-out lands during the one class your child looks forward to, ask whether the need or the timetable drove that. The question alone sometimes moves it.
Treating the document as fixed
You can request a review at any point in the year, not only at the annual. Say that out loud if the plan is being presented as settled.
After the meeting
- Ask for the finalized document and read it against your own notes. Wording shifts between the meeting and the paperwork more often than you would expect.
- Put the reporting dates in your calendar so a missed progress report is visible rather than forgotten.
- Email a short summary of anything agreed out loud but not written in, and keep the reply.
- Keep everything in one folder in date order. Continuity is what disappears when staff change.