Running head: IEP MEETING PAPER

IEP Meeting Paper

Wallace Davis Fullerton
California State University, Chico

The IEP meeting that I attended was for a child who was in
Kindergarten and had been retained from moving on to first grade. The child
Wallace Davis Fullerton

Running head: IEP MEETING PAPER

suffered from serious deficits in language acquisition, reading, and writing.

Despite mild gains during the previous year, he had continued to lag far
behind his peers, and after summer break, he had lost the small headway he
had made and was now significantly behind again. The childs family worked
as migrant farm labors that live in migrant camp housing projects. The family
has a total of three children with this young man being the middle child. The
other two seem to be developing normally according to the mother. The
mother expressed she was wary of holding the child back, but the previous
school that the child had attended had pressed the fact and the parents
reluctantly deferred to the professionals (ill advised) suggestion. The father
did not attend this meeting, but the grandmother and two other children
were present.
The obvious leader of our IEP group was my supervisor Mrs. Key, who
immediately assumed the reigns of leadership and explained (via translator)
what the goal of the meeting was and what kinds of supports they were
going to offer the child. The teacher, vice principal, and staff from the
students previous school (Gray Avenue Middle School) seemed to differ to
Mrs. Key, including Gray Avenues resident psychologist. Mrs. Key firmly
stated that she did not believe it would benefit the student to hold him back
again when the mother inquired if that would help. The other members
remained silent and did not challenge her. The vice principal remained fairly
quiet through the proceedings and the only other member who was rather
vocal was the speech language therapist who was already working one-on Wallace Davis Fullerton

Running head: IEP MEETING PAPER

one with the child as he had an existing speech IEP. Her opinion in this group
seemed to carry equal weight with Mrs. Keys, but only for her specialty area.
It became apparent that other specialists could also take the lead when it
was their area of expertise.
During the meeting I felt confused as to how the Gray Avenue team
had determined that holding the child back was the best option, given the
preponderance of evidence which suggests the outcomes of this decision are
very poor. I enjoyed that the school psychologist speaks as the voice of the
team while individual experts are given floor-time to interject their personal
reasoning to the parent. One of the more impressive aspects was the fact
that all other members of the team respected Mrs. Key enough to defer to
her logic and argument. The cohesiveness of the team was impressive and I
enjoyed that it allowed the parent to feel comforted that the team was well
prepared to tackle the students needs together.
School psychology is a job where you entertain the desires of many
parties and find a balance between them for the benefit of a single
individual. The state has certain goals it wishes you to meet, the
administration also has its own values, the teachers are motivated to lessen
the strain on themselves, and other staff and the parents will have their own
objectives as well. Working within these differing parties to find common
ground which benefits a student is a daunting task for any individual. This is
why counselling training serves us well; we have to be proficient at working
with others and making them feel that their viewpoint has been heard,
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Running head: IEP MEETING PAPER

acknowledged, and appreciated. This comes out during IEP meetings where
the school psychologist serves as the voice of reason in a room of competing
interests. Only through convincing the administration that you have the
childs and schools best interests at heart, convincing the teachers that you
want to make their lives as easy as possible, and convincing the parents that
your ultimate goal is to improve the outcomes for their child, can you truly
serve as a competent school psychologist.
Ultimately, your duty is to improve the childs outcome, as best as you
can, without upsetting any of the other IEP team members. Another difficulty
is navigating the relationship with parents who believe their children suffer
from disorders, or difficulties, that they do not suffer from. Litigious parents
are sometimes jaded over previous encounters with school personnel, or
they may suffer from a victim complex, and assume that all statements are
an assault upon their child. In addition, reassuring the parents that their child
will receive all necessary services, while protecting the district from possible
legal action, is integral to the role of a school psychologist. This part of the
school psychologists role comes into play via the fact that the school
psychologist is the individual tasked with gathering all of the data from the
multiple sources needed to produce team assessment reports (when
applicable) and IEP documents and is intimately aware of the details as a
result. Since the school psychologist assembles these documents, they are
the most fitting candidate to present them in their overall scope and goal,
but not in their totality, because other team members are experts in their
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Running head: IEP MEETING PAPER

respective fields and can provide greater explanation for assessment results
and service provision decisions made in their areas of expertise.
Working with parents and students during IEPs seems natural to me
and I feel that I project a natural inviting stance that causes the parents to
feel safe working with me. On the other hand, I have a tendency to butt
heads in terms of my opinions with teachers and other staff members. I can
tell it will be important to establish strong positive relationships with the
administrative staff in the future to gain their support in backing my
positions in these meetings. I have already found myself in an argument with
a teacher mid-meeting and required the backup of the assistant principal to
clear up the situation. On that point, one of my greatest issues is my
difficulty with communication with other staff members. This may be a
symptom of my limited time on site and a divided focus due to school and
internship demands, but I have always been a pack of one as Alan (Zach
Galifianakis) in The Hangover once said. My difficulty in coordinating efforts
will surely be a hindrance to my work and I will need to develop better skills
for keeping in touch with my colleagues and accommodating them in the
creation of IEP related service documents. To this end, I will have to develop
greater social connections within the workplace as well. It has typically been
my method of operation to avoid workplace friendships of any kid; however,
school districts seem to function much more on reputation and relationships
than my previous employment experiences. Interpersonal skills will need to
be a focus for me to help develop my ability to network within the district to
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Running head: IEP MEETING PAPER

help generate buy-in during my myriad of duties, and this is especially true
during IEP related proceedings.
As a school psychologist, I see it as my mission to represent the teams
decisions to the parents during the IEP process. To this end, it is imperative
that the team already have a strong agreement on the decisions made in the
IEP report. To do this, it is important to clearly articulate each portion of the
report to each member, so that any disputes can be discussed prior to
meeting with the parent. Staffings are vital to this end and help to clear up
any prior misunderstandings or grievances. Presenting a unified front to
parents is vital to gaining the parents confidence in the professionals and
any services to be provided.

Wallace Davis Fullerton