The document outlines 12 common missteps that can occur in developing and implementing IEPs. It provides strategies to avoid these missteps and ensure compliance with IDEA requirements. The missteps include failing to obtain parental consent, meaningfully involve parents, predetermine services or placement, improperly excuse IEP team members, and address transition planning, behavioral needs, and present levels of performance. The document emphasizes the importance of the IEP process and following all procedural requirements to provide students a free and appropriate public education.

2. Presentation Objectives
 Recognize and avoid
12 of the most
common IEP missteps
 Target skills to build
and maintain trust
between schools and
parents
Adapted from Lake, S. (2010). Slippery slope! The IEP missteps every
team must know – and how to avoid them. Danvers, MA: LRP.

3. IDEA 2004
 In the words of a
principal drafter of the
original special
education act, Robert T.
Stafford (1978), “an
individualized education
program (IEP) is the
central part of this act”
 The critical role of the
IEP is to improve
educational results for
children with disabilities

4. What does IDEA
promise?
 Mandate to ensure a
child with a disability
receives access to a free
appropriate public
education (FAPE)
 A written plan – the IEP

5. Meeting the Rowley
Standard
 In 1982, the Supreme
Court interpreted the
lynchpin of FAPE is
 a child’s access to
educational opportunity,
 not the specific
achievement of educational
results
 The two prong Rowley
test for FAPE:
 Has the LEA complied with
procedural requirements of
IDEA?
 Is the IEP reasonably
calculated to enable the
child to receive educational Board of Education of Hendrick
benefit? Hudson Cent. Sch. Dist. v. Rowley,
553 IDELR 656 (U.S. 1982)

6. Misstep 1:
Failing to Obtain Informed Parental
Consent
 Purpose for notice of parental consent
 Parent’s involvement in identification and response
to a suspected disability is encouraged and
facilitated
 The school district must make an adequate
response to parental concerns about children who
may have disabilities
 Consent Requirements
 Document attempts to obtain
 Revocation of informed consent

7. Strategies for Compliance To Obtain
Informed Parental Consent
 Provide relevant information
 in written form and through documented discussion in the
IEP meeting
 in the parents’ native language or other mode of
communication
 Document all efforts to obtain parental consent in writing
 Develop specific forms for documentation
 Fully describe disputed issues about informed consent in the
IEP deliberations
 Make sure parents know they can revoke consent
 Follow verbal commitments with written informed consent
 If the student has reached age of majority and rights are
transferred, make sure the student provides informed consent

8. Misstep 2: Failing to Ensure Parents’
Meaningful Participating in the IEP
Process
 IDEA “imposes upon the school the duty to
conduct a meaningful meeting with the
appropriate parties” 18 IDELR 1019 (9th Cir. 1992)
 Parents role
 Notify parents with sufficient time to ensure
opportunity to attend
 Schedule the meeting at a mutually agreed
time and place
 IEP notice
 Indicate purpose, time, and location
 Identify all persons invited
 Include required components

9. Strategies for Compliance to Ensure
Parents’ Meaningful Participating in the
IEP Process
 Work to ensure amicable agreement about IEP scheduling
 If the school elects to meet and adopt an IEP for a student
without the parents’ presence, then they need to have
carefully documented attempts to ensure attendance
 Ensure meetings are scheduled and actually held at agreed to
times
 Be able to readily show that the parent is an active and
effective participant in the IEP development
 Attempt to resolve or mediate any communication problems
 Carefully evaluate and consider all parental requests
 Encourage school staff to personally contact parents early in
the school year

10. Misstep 3:
Predetermining IEP Services and
Placement
 An IDEA placement decision is a
cooperative determination concerning the
location where a school will implement the
student’s IEP
 The district is under no obligation to provide the
placement requested by a parent, however must be
willing to consider
 Avoid predetermining prior to or outside of the IEP
meeting

11. Strategies for Compliance to Avoid
Predetermining IEP Services and
Placement
 Make sure the IEP meeting agenda refers to review a “draft”
IEP and that the “draft” is marked or stamped as “draft”
 Caution district staff members to avoid making any statements
that could be interpreted as predetermining services or
placement
 Listen carefully to disagreements or concerns and allow
enough time to discuss
 Examine relevant documents parents may bring to the
meeting and document consideration in deliberations
 Make changes as appropriate to the “draft”
 Involve the parents at every stage of the meeting, providing
them with all necessary information to make informed
decisions
 Ensure the IEP team actually makes a formal, written offer of
placement

12. Misstep 4:
Improperly Excusing IEP Team Members
 Avoid the temptation to routinely or
unilaterally excuse IEP team members –
especially the general education teacher
 Be sure to meet prior notice and
agreement requirements
 Review IDEA requirements

13. Strategies for Compliance to Avoid
Improperly Excusing IEP Team Members
 Prepare standard forms for written input, consent, and
agreement
 Comply with IDEA consent requirements
 Document district’s reasonable efforts to obtain parental
consent
 Anticipate IEP issues
 Avoid routine use of excusal process
 Make sure parents understand they are consenting to excuse
an IEP team member
 Obtain excused member’s written input in advance of the
meeting
 Exercise caution if the parents change their mind about
excusal

14. Misstep 5:
Improper IEP Team Membership
 Ensure proper composition of the IEP
team – mandatory and permitted

15. Strategies for Compliance to Ensure
Proper IEP Team Membership
 Notify parents early enough to allow a reasonable and fair
opportunity to attend
 Ensure parental meeting notifications include the purpose,
time, and location of the meeting
 To extent possible, schedule meetings at mutually agreed
upon time and place
 Keep records of attempts to arrange a mutually agreed upon
time and place
 Attempt to use methods other than face to face to ensure
parent participation

16. Misstep 6: Failing to Address Transition to
Postsecondary Activities and Independent
Living
 IDEA requirements
 Definition of transition services
 Transition requirements
 Child’s interests
 Age for services
 Postsecondary goals

17. Strategies for Compliance to Address Transition
to Postsecondary Activities and Independent
Living
 Create a formal written transition plan
 Incorporate transition planning into the IEP
 Develop individual transition plans
 Ensure transition planning process starts and is documented at
least by age 16 for each IDEA eligible child
 Involve parents and students as much and as early as possible
 Draft postsecondary goals that accurately reflect the goals that
a child hopes to achieve
 Review IEPs to make sure they identify important skills
needed for transition goals
 Avoid drafting generic transition plans

18. Misstep 7: Failing to Ensure Availability of
a Continuum of Alternative Placements
 Both the Daniel R.R. (1989) and the Oberti
(1993) looked at whether a district complied
with the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
requirement and identified two prongs:
 Whether the student can be educated in a regular
classroom with the use of supplemental aids and services
 Whether the district has mainstreamed the student to the
maximum extent appropriate
 The continuum of alternative placements
ranges from
 least (general education classroom) to
 most (residential placement) restrictive environments

19. Strategies for Compliance to Ensure
Availability of a Continuum of Alternative
Placements
 Make sure that space does not drive placement decisions
 Ensure general educators believe that students with disabilties
can learn content-based curriculum
 Avoid predetermination of placement
 Conduct regular in-service training on LRE and continuum of
alternative placement issues
 Avoid vague, generalized recommendations regarding LRE in
the IEP

20. Misstep 8:
Failing to Consider the 5 “Special Factors”
 IEP teams must evaluate and consider
 Behavior
 Limited English proficiency
 Blind/visually impaired
 Deaf/hearing impaired
 Assistive technology

21. Strategies for Compliance to Consider
the 5 “Special Factors”
 Ensure the IEP team specifically reviews all of the 5 special
factors as a part of the IEP team process, with parental
participation and approval, each and every time an IEP is
developed, reviewed, or revised
 Draft and review behavior intervention plans (BIPs) with input
from an individual appropriately credentialed
 For a child who is blind or visually impaired, consider
instruction in and use of Braille
 For deaf and hearing-impaired, consider the child’s language
and communication needs

22. Misstep 9: Failing to Follow Proper
Procedures for Publicly Placed Private
School Students
 If the district is unable or unwilling to
provide FAPE in the public school, that
district shall assume the cost of educating
the student in a private school

23. Strategies for Compliance to Follow Proper
Procedures for Publicly Placed Private School
Students
 Initiate and conduct a meeting to develop an IEP for a student
placed in private schools
 Ensure that staff knows the district remains responsible for the
education of the student who is publicly placed in private
school
 Ensure a private school representative attends the IEP
meeting

24. Misstep 10: Failing to Follow
Requirements for Interstate and Intrastate
Transfers
 IDEA requirements
 IEPs
 Transmittal of records

25. Strategies for Compliance to Follow
Requirements for Interstate and Intrastate
Transfers
 Ensure the district consults with the parents and provides
services comparable to those in the previous district
 Be familiar with intrastate and interstate IDEA requirements
 Request transmittal of records

26. Misstep 11: Failing to Address a Student’s
Behavioral and Emotional Needs
 Address behaviors that impact the
student’s education
 Consider strategies that include positive
behavior interventions, as well as other
supports to address behavior

27. Strategies for Compliance to Address a
Student’s Behavioral and Emotional
Needs
 Obtain all the behavioral information the IEP team needs
 Determine if the student demonstrated behaviors that are
unsafe and/or interfere with the learning environment
 Carefully review the student’s academic and behavioral history
 Determine if the student has been routinely removed from the
general education classroom because of inappropriate
behavior
 Conduct or update a functional behavior assessment (FBA)
 Develop a behavior intervention plan (BIP)

28. Misstep 12: Failing to Establish and Consider
Existing Evaluation Data and Present Levels of
Performance
 The IDEA has long required the IEP team,
during initial evaluations and
reevaluations to review existing data as
well as present levels of academic
achievement and functional performance

29. Strategies for Compliance to Establish and
Consider Existing Evaluation Data and Present
Levels
 Ensure the IEP team fully considers all evaluation data
 Ask parents their concerns
 Document and discuss the implications of all results from
assessments and evaluations conducted since the last IEP
meeting
 Analyze precisely what the student knows and is able to do
 Ensure the IEP contains a summary or explanation of the data
the IEP team considered, so that any reader can easily
understand the IEP team’s interpretation of the data
 Have the IEP team discuss what the student should know or
be able to do by the time of the annual review

30. Summary
 Comply with federal and
state mandates
 Implement the IEP
 Once an error is
discovered, the best
practice is to admit the
mistake, promptly notify
parents, and take all
reasonable steps to
correct
 Offer compensatory
education for an IEP
error

31. Professional
Development
 Provide in-service
training sessions to
avoid mistakes or
remedy issues
 Work to build
relationships with
parents and include
their input
 Review policies,
practices, and
procedures to avoid
IEP missteps

32. Contact
Special Education Solutions
Region 4 Education Service Center
7145 West Tidwell
Houston, TX 77092
713.744.6365
Linda De Zell Hall, PhD Jerry Klekotta
lhall@esc4.net gklekotta@esc4.net
713.744.6399 713.744.6393