Have you ever thought of picking up and moving to a better district? Almost every special needs parent & IEP team member I've ever talked to has had the same dream. But, will IEP progress really improve in a district with more resources? Maybe. Maybe Not.

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Continue the conversation at www.specialedinnercircle.com

With dozens of pages in every IEP it can be hard to focus and prioritize for everyone at the IEP table.

When you look at the details in these 6 areas of the IEP, the rest can fall into place. 

• Parent Input Statement
• Data (simplify!)
• Measurable Goals (don't make this complicated)
• Home to School Communication Plan
• Placement
• Teacher + Team Responsibilities 

Visit www.masterIEPcoach.com for more help.

Special Needs Parents, Special Education Teachers + Teams, you got this! 

Join the Master IEP Coach® Mentorship here!

Let's get focused on where to look in your IEP paperwork!

Yes, there are dozens of boxes to check and forms to fill out, but when you focus on these 6 pieces, everything else fits together smoothly.

1. Parent Input Statement - No matter where you live in the country, every IEP has a section for parents to share their vision, concerns, and input. This area can be a huge driver for an IEP being focused on the child's needs vs getting wrapped up in school district objectives.

2. Data - Where is your child or student at right now? Can you share the data to back it up? Data isn't just for annual meetings. We all need to know what data was collected and what data will be collected for a child to be successful.

3. Measurable Goals - No need to overcomplicate. Keep the goal simple and measurable. No opinions needed. Just the facts!

4. Home to School Communication Plan - Yes, this should be documented. How often communication will happen and what will be communicated is so important. Not...

1. Listen in on what a Parent Input statement is and where to find it.

2. Get out your child's or a student's IEP and look for this section.

3. If you can't find it, go here and I'll help you www.specialedinnercircle.com

4. If this section is clear in the IEP, CELEBRATE! 

5. If not, fill your coffee cup and join me at www.specialedinnercircle.com so I can help!

See you on the inside!

Inclusive experiences between special education and general education students within Generation Z are going to need more support for all students than ever before. Use this new perspective to build inclusive experiences that are successful for everyone involved. 

Book: Generation Z  Unfiltered by Tim Elmore

Master IEP Coach Mentorship: www.masterIEPcoach.com

Stop thinking you're supposed to do Special Education alone. Parents & Teachers if you had an honest conversation with each other, you'd find out that nobody expects one person to know everything about Special Education.

It's time to stop figuring out special education by yourself and do these 3 things:

1. Lean into your expertise.

2. Be humble instead of humiliated when you need help.

3. Stop faking it. You're not supposed to know it all.

Decide you are done doing special education alone. We have too many tears, too many people feeling burnt out, and too much turnover in special education. You can flip the negative feelings when you surround yourself with people who get it!

Resources:
Master IEP Coach: www.masterIEPcoach.com
Special Education Inner Circle: www.specialedinnercircle.com

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After 20+ years of writing IEPs with parents and teachers, I’ve learned a few things...

1. You’re never going to get every goal a child needs into the IEP.
2. A child will shutdown if you stuff their day with direct instruction hour after hour.
3. A child needs time to “be a kid” in their school day. This is often when their biggest milestones will be met.

Need help? Visit www.masterIEPcoach.com

Podcast Highlights:

(00:01)
We're wrapping up 2019 we're jumping into 2020 and for many of this, this us, this feels like a fresh start, right? But really we're right in the middle of the school year, but that doesn't mean that we can't make some really significant changes, if needed inside of a child's IEP. So I posted something on Instagram today and that's kind of taken off, like wildfire here. So I'm going to read to you exactly what I posted. It says, "stop trying to cram the IEP with every goal a child needs. Pick your priorities and leave space in a child's...

Podcast Highlights:

IEPs vs 504s is a hot topic in special education. I'm going to go over six points, real quick, just to give you an overview so you know what questions to ask next about supports for your child at school.

(00:51)
The first thing that you need to know, point number one is that there is a difference between which law is governing this document that's going to help a child with their education. So here's my disclaimer. I'm not a lawyer, I'm not practicing the law, but I am telling you where to look. So if you're going to start pursuing an IEP, you're going to be looking at IDEA law.  For a 504 plan, you're looking at the section 504 of the rehabilitation act of 1973.

(01:55)
Each of these documents have accountability systems set up. It's just knowing where you need to look and who you need to talk to about the support documents. 504's get a bad reputation for not being enforceable. It's not that it's not enforceable, it's that it's enforceable in...

Podcast Transcript:

Welcome everyone to the special education inner circle podcast. I'm excited to be here with you today. We're going to dig on a hot topic for both special education teachers and parents. Actually for everybody who's at the IEP table. In fact, as I was preparing for this hot topic, I opened up my Facebook and I'm scrolling through it and I see almost within the first three posts, I see a story about a man with autism who couldn't get a job. So he opened up his own coffee shop. That is exactly the type of story that we're going to be talking about today and how teachers and parents in the special education system, you are smarter than the system itself and you have to start working together to make things happen. So here's, here's the scoop. Let's just kind of step back just for a minute and talk about how special education is only 44 years old, which in some ways that is a baby.

(01:01)
That is just a little start to what we can do in special education. In...