Once your child has the IEP, there are regular times to review their progress.
Annual IEP Review — Every year, you will have a meeting to review the IEP with the team.
3-year Evaluation — Every 3 years, the school must do another full evaluation and decide if their needs have changed.
Here's what you can do before each:
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Check your IEP binder and make sure you have all your information ready. If you are missing an official document, like evaluation results, you can request copies from the child's school or district special education office.
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Review the Progress Reports.
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Identify your child's needs and your questions.
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Prepare your materials.
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Bring in outside support, if needed.
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Ask for a team meeting before the review if you want to.
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Ask for a Team meeting if you have concerns, even if it's between the annual meetings.
3-Year evaluation:
Every 3 years, the school is required to do another full evaluation to see if your child's needs have changed.
This is important. Your child may have gained skills and no longer needs the same services; or they may have started to have challenges in new areas and require new or different services.
NOTE: If you and the school agree that a 3-year re-evaluation is not needed, you can waive this right. But don't agree to that unless you're sure it makes sense for your child!
It's almost always in your child's best interest to do the re-evaluation. If the school tries to get you to waive your right to do it, do not agree right away! Only agree if there is a very good reason, and you are confident your child's needs have not changed at all.
Make sure that the re-evaluation addresses all of your current concerns. You can ask for different kinds of testing than they did before. For example, maybe you are now concerned with your child's behavior. You can ask for a Functional Behavior Analysis, or FBA. (Click here to read about about FBAs, or find the page in the menu.)
See this page to learn more about what to do if the school asks you to waive the re-evalutation.
Source: LA DOE