Comments:

I think that it should be mandatory that parents agree to it. We have a vital team member that hardly ever comes to a meeting so we are never able to get her input and the school excuses her all the time without giving us warning. I also believe that the parent should get to have say on who is part of the team, without this piece, the school can just explain that the vital member was never part of the team even though they work intensively with the child.

If I had a dime for every time a parent complained to me about an IEP team member not being there I would be retired and living in the French Riviera!

If the parent knew and gave consent ahead of time I would, alas, still be working in a non-profit and living in Southern Vermont!

I have concerns about people being held accountable for their piece when working with a child. In my experience with two children on IEPs I have had substandard services with OTs for example. I think there should be a time frame and should allow for review and questions of the provider.

I can see where requiring the attendance of all IEP team members from all curriculum areas would make scheduling meetings a nightmare. I don't know that I agree with having to get the parent's permission to not be at a meeting though. Although there is an advantage to having all members, even when their area of curriculum isn't being discussed, they may still have some insight in other areas. Another tough question.

An IEP Team meeting should include the ENTIRE team. Regular team meetings or specialized meetings could just have a few members. For instance, the FULL team should be involved in planning the overall goals, placement, ESY, service hours, etc.....it may be appropriate to have just a few members of the team to develop specific speech/language goals.

My concern would be that parents would be pressured by certain team members to allow those team members to skip meetings that their input is needed. IEP's are already set up to be contentious, often pitting the parents against the school system. Allowing team members to miss IEP meetings could just turn into another argument between parents and the school, and I think we would all agree that it is in the best interests of any child to have the team function as a TEAM and get along well and that notification is given to all parties PRIOR to the IEP meeting. Also, there needs to be agreement, or a process of appeal.

It's only fair.

More people does not mean better.

Yes; not to do so would be irresponsible.

I believe that this would work.

They should describe efforts, however a meeting should be convened without a parent present.

I think that the whole team needs to know all of the information being shared at each meeting. Especially feedback and input from parent(s).

Yes, parents need to know who and why members aren't going to be at a meeting. We all know how busy educators are today, I believe that if the regs do not require a timeline parents will rarely see the actual documentation.

Many parents don't know this. It's important that the parent understand the importance of all members in the IEP process and make an informed decision.

At least 3 days before the meeting

Timeliness is important especially if a student is in crisis. It should also be noted that a student in crisis means that the family is in crisis. When this happens timelines cannot be met but it should not delay a student from getting needed services.

Hopefully this would encourage team members to be prepared and not be doing things last minute. But I'm not sure how effective that would be. Would this apply to parents, since they are seen as IEP team members?

I think all input is important when making decisions concerning a student and the teachers need to be held more accountable when they have a student with special needs in their classroom.