Why Won’t the IEP Team Listen To Me?

We are regularly told by parents that they presented good data and information to the IEP team but that the IEP team would not listen to them. As the parent, we believe you are the expert in your child and that the IEP team should not disregard your input. However, the IEP team often does not consider parent input equivalent to expert input. So, in such situations, we suggest the parent ask an expert to join the IEP team.

To be clear, if the student is not making appropriate (or any) progress and the IEP team is not willing to listen to the parent, we suggest the parent bring in an independent education expert in the area(s) at issue. If the child has dyslexia and the team will not agree to the proper program, we might suggest that the parent find a dyslexia expert to explain to the IEP team what type of reading program will work and why the current program is not working for the child. We prefer the use of an expert who has assessed or otherwise worked with the child. Indeed, if a parent was able to find such an expert as part of the IEE process, we suggest she ensures that the IEE provider attend the follow-up IEP meeting and tells the team what sort of reading or other remediation is required for the student to make progress, with names of programs and other details (days and minutes per week) as to what a program must include.

It is harder for an IEP team to disregard an educational expert, particularly one who worked with the child, when that person opines on what the child needs. Typically, we do not expect that the presence of a parent or advocate at an IEP is sufficient for the district to enact change and so we much prefer an expert hired by the parent to attend the meeting to support any program changes or related requests.