The most important part of your IEP (and it isn't in your IEP)

It is SO easy to get wrapped up in your child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) Meetings and negotiating your IEP Agreement document…. it is where we, as parents, feel like we have the most control…

For me, this is why thinking about the IEP Agreement as a Contract is such a helpful model…

Because, with contracts, I know that the most important thing isn’t the contract itself, it is the people on the other side of the table.

Good Will, Competence, Adequate Resources

Everyone has (or has heard) a terrible contractor story. Bathrooms that take a year to repair. Houses that never seem to get done… and we also hear the same thing in the news where someone scammed, cheated, or otherwise abused a consumer (or us as the public).

Most of the time, these people had a good contract (or a reasonable contract).

I used to work in the government with contractors and later I was a contractor and one of the most important things I’ve learned is:

You can’t “contract” someone into doing a good job.

You can’t “IEP” someone into educating your child.

It isn’t the words on the page that are going to ensure that your child gets a good education, it is the people…. so focus on that.

And my shorthand for looking at the people is:

Good Will – do they want to do a good job of educating my child (NOT whether they are nice or care… that is different).
Competence – do they have the skills to do the job required for my child.
Adequate Resources – do they have the “stuff” they need (where “stuff” can mean things, tools, or hours of training or support).

If you look at the IEP, it mainly specifies what you and the school district through the specific IEP team agree (or not) are adequate resources.

So, this is where you should build a report card: for each IEP team member, give them a grade for Good Will,, Competence, and Adequate Resources… and, where there are shortfalls, can those be compensated for from other members of the team or in some other way….

… and if there are serious problems, focus on addressing those… probably outside of the IEP meeting or agreement process itself… can you replace a bad teacher? Change to a different school? Run for school board? Work problems outside of school? or is it time to move?… you can also look at legal recourse… but it is unlikely you are going to be able to “sue” someone into doing a good job… and how good are your other alternatives even if you win?… because at the end of the day, your goal (presumably) is a better educational outcome for your child.

This may flip the way you think about your IEP and IEP meetings.. it has for us.

Our goal with our formal and informal meetings and everything with our school is to try to convince everyone that they want to do their best job to educate our son (… ironically perhaps, this is exactly what we would be doing if we weren’t in special education!)… and then use the IEP process to support that objective.