Begin with a Smile
Last week I drove along the zig-zag roads that climb and descend the Green Mountains and prepared for my next Build Your Family parenting workshop. I over-prepare to squash my fears that attendees will be bored and the information will not be relevant.
During the workshop, the attendees turned hot when discussing IEP meetings. After the workshop, I thought this would be a great topic for my blog.
As a parent advocate, I have been to many workshops about special education law and the IEP process which are valuable resources and information for parents with a child with special needs.
The special education law and the principles around educating your child are based on collaboration between you and the school district. In the Build your Family workshop I talk about relationship building. The questions below outline the topic:
- How do you form a collaborative relationship with your school district?
- The relationship between you and your school district may last longer than most marriages, how do you preserve a positive relationship?
- When your team disagrees, how will issues be resolved?
- How do you behave?
- What pros and cons do team members bring to the team?
Unlike other special education law workshops, the Build Your Family workshop focuses on behavior. In this workshop we talk about your behavior and the schools behavior, and how to come to a win-win agreement.
The guiding principle of the section of the workshop: the only person you can change is YOURSELF. You will lose the battle if try to change other people. However, you can change how you react to people.
When first meeting with new families, I always ask the same two questions:
- How do you prepare for an IEP or team meeting?
- How do you walk into the meeting?
On the second questions, I always get the look, like “this lady is crazy.” Your presentation and behavior sets the stage for the meeting and how the team will be behave.
Next time you have an IEP or team meeting; try some strategies I outlined below:
- Get there early or at least on time.
- Leave your emotions at the door.
- Walk in with a smile on your face and look everyone in the eye as you greet them.
- Sit at the head of the table.
- Bring a note pad to take notes.
- Bring your agenda of the topics to be discussed (email your case manager in advance).
- Begin the meeting by thanking everyone for coming and working with your family.
- Value the team’s time. Ask everyone to stick to the topics on the agenda so you can finish the meeting on-time.
After the meeting assess your performance. How did the team respond to you? What did you notice?
For a consultation to build a better IEP team, email Angela at angela@needucationaladvocacy.org