By Amy K. Onaga, Esq.

To comply with the IDEA's parental participation mandate and ensure parents play an active role in their children's education, your district needs to grab parents' attention, facilitate discussions and encourage collaboration. This resource outlines how to do it, with best practices for cultivating meaningful parental participation before, during and after IEP meetings. You also get checklists, charts and model forms to improve relationships with parents and train staff on the IEP process.

Engender parents’ trust and collaboration — and reduce conflicts — with strategies to:

• Address sources of intimidation that may discourage parents from speaking up during the IEP meeting
• Train staff to respond appropriately to parent requests and questions so parents feel their input is valued
• Remove technical barriers that may impede parent participation in virtual IEP meetings
• Ensure divorced, unmarried, or separated parents focus on the student's needs during the IEP meeting
• And more