WHAT IS AN IEP MEETING AND WHAT IS AN IEP?
Following completion of the evaluations and your child’s eligibility for special education has been determined an IEP meeting will be scheduled for a time and place mutually agreeable to you and to the other members of the committee. You will receive written notice of the meeting including the names of persons who have been invited to the meeting by the school system. You have the right to bring anyone you wish to the meeting.
The IEP team will look at all the information about your child and will develop an Individual Education Program (IEP) for your child. You are a very important member of the IEP team. You are able to provide the team with important information concerning your child that you and only you are able to provide. You are able to provide information concerning your child’s strengths and special needs that are critical for the planning of your child’s IEP.
It is the IEP that will determine what your child will be taught and be expected to achieve for the agreed upon time of the IEP.
Simply put an IEP is a written document developed in an IEP meeting. An individual education program is a legal document which explains what your child will be expected to achieve over a given period of time. In the IEP meeting the following will be determined:
A. Measurable annual goals are developed and short-term objectives are written which describe what your child will be expected to achieve in a determined period if time.
B. The IEP will also state the special education services to be provided, the related services which will be provide, and any supplementary aid(s) that the school system will provide for the education of your child.
EVERY CHILD WHO IS PLACED IN SPECIAL EDUCATION MUST HAVE AN IEP WRITTEN EACH YEAR!
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP/Products/IEP_Guide/
http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/sla/exceptional/exceptional.asp
http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/iep_guidance.html
http://www.ldanatl.org/pamphlets/iep.html
http://www.adda-sr.org/iep.htm
http://specialed.about.com/cs/writingtheiep/