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Student Involvement: Attending vs Participating
Posted by Misty Crouch on 10/4/2018 7:00:00 AM
Recently, I attended a conference for an 8th grade student. My purpose at the meeting was completely unrelated to the student’s involvement in the meeting. However, during the course of the meeting it was refreshing to see the level of involvement this student had in his annual case conference, especially when it involved discussing his strengths and weaknesses with other participants. At the end of the conference, the teacher felt compelled to apologize for the length of the meeting. I reassured her that what was discussed by the student definitely added to the quality of the meeting and required no apology.
Just like many teachers with transition age students, this teacher had how to “plan” for a meeting in which the student was invited, and where the student was asked to share his perspective on different aspects of his IEP. The teacher, naturally, had some worries. What if the student doesn’t want to share? What if the meeting runs long? What if the student gets off topic? How do we cover all of the information that needs to be covered?
Student involvement in IEP meetings is considered an evidence-based practice for students with disabilities and a research-based practice for students with both learning and intellectual disabilities by the National Assistance Center on Transition (NTACT). Within the practice description for Using the Self Directed IEP to Teach Student Involvement in the IEP Meeting, NTACT provides educators with the 11 steps necessary to teach students how to lead through their own meetings following a model-lead-test format.
Some might ask about the necessity of teaching students to lead their IEP meetings before they are transition age. I found a great article that discusses the necessity of inviting students INTO the IEP process not just TO the IEP meeting when they are close to or at transition age (around 14 years old.) In an article entitled Why Is This Cake On Fire?, the authors provide an analogy comparing a lack of invitation to the student to planning an IEP meeting to a lack of invitation to the student to planning their own birthday party. The authors suggest that “by the time that students become teenagers, they may have decided that IEP meetings are not important at all since no one as invited them or included them in the planning phase (Van Dycke, Martin, & Lovett, 2006, p.43).”
An issue also found in this article is the difference between just attending versus participating. What are your students doing at their meetings? Are they just attending or are they participating? If I go back to the example that I provided at the beginning, this student was not just attending. He actively participated in conversations in his meeting. He took ownership of areas of his learning that were discussed and engaged in conversations about them. Encouraging students to participate earlier in these conversations and teaching them about their IEPs at younger ages could help alleviate some of the “what if” questions that might come up when planning these meetings.
Check out the article and the Self Directed IEP lesson package provided by NTACT. Don’t hesitate to email me at mcrouch@earlywood.org if you would like any additional resources!
~Misty Crouch, Transition Coordinator
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