Advocacy Corner 

What Parents Hope School Staff Do and Say at IEPs

Compiled by Sara Kennedy, H&V Headquarters

The following is a list of items that parents may like to share with school staff prior to an IEP meeting to help support the conversations that occur during IEP meetings.

• Remind yourself that this is a “lopsided” process for parents and students and do what you can to prepare and welcome us. (We might come into the meeting room without any of the eval results or forms, we may have no idea what to expect, and we feel like we’re interrupting if the team is all present and chatting already.)
• Celebrate our child’s strengths and use their interests in planning.
• Please remember my child is more than an audiogram or test result.
• Invite team members to listen to a hearing simulation or through a hearing aid as an education regularly. Equipment does not fix access or processing.
• Ask us/our child what we see as programming strengths/issues/solutions.
• Promote shared problem-solving and decision-making with parents and student and outside experts.
• If you promise something, please help implement it or get back to me. Keep us informed.
• Help us through being accountable for implementation of the plan. (I thought somebody else was doing that.)
• We know our child will miss information in a busy classroom or on testing even with (imperfect) technology, supports and services. Please take accommodations seriously. (Visualize a ramp for wheelchairs!) 
• Take our concerns about school safety seriously. How will our child be alerted? Please practice in real time: i.e. don’t make sure students who are deaf/hh are in the classroom vs. the bathroom or hallway, or avoid the drill altogether.
• Support emerging advocacy even if it looks like defiance. My child has to develop agency for a lifetime ahead.  
• Assume until proven otherwise that first issues/behaviors relate to student not hearing, seeing, or processing well.

Ask:

• How can we create a more deaf/hh friendly classroom environment?
• How can we level the playing field for a deaf/hh student socially? (For example, in the lunch room)
• How can we create listening breaks for eyes and ears to address listening fatigue?

For a child receiving an interpreted education:

• The interpreter is present to provide access for all.
• The interpreter is not in charge of education or behavior, the teacher is.
•  Avoid referring to the interpreter as “Johnny’s interpreter” – use our interpreter or the classroom interpreter.
• Avoid saying ASL or sign dependent; refer to ASL as a primary language.   ~

 Editor’s note: Thanks to Mandi Darr, Colorado Department of Education Deaf Mentor Program, the CO H&V Staff and GBYS program and HQ Facebook page fans for this content.

H&V Communicator – Winter 2020