[DeDee76]

I have a really overbearing parent. She's a law suit waiting to happen and 0 support from my LEA. We have been waiting for the school psychologist to get his re-evaluation and BIP since October. I am sure that it's not going to be a "fun" meeting. I am wondering if I can invite my union rep to attend the meeting?

[Haley23]

I don't think you can have her in the meeting unless you can prove there is some relevant reason for her to be there related to the child (i.e. if she works with the child in some capacity). You could try asking the parent to give permission for her to be there, but if the parent is overbearing, that seems very unlikely to be granted.

[KetchupChips]

Are you allowed to audio record the meeting? It depends on your state’s laws I think. It would help document what is said. Also, shouldn’t there be a deadline for the assessments or paperwork to be completed? October seems like a long time.

What does LEA stand for?

[readandweep]

Could you designate someone to type up a transcript during the proceedings and share copies with the team and the parent?

I too have had meetings where I wanted to have SOMEONE on my side there. And these were IEP meetings with regular ed teachers, related service providers and LEAs who I worked with on a daily basis.

Immediately after the meeting document for yourself and your union rep any way you were thrown under the bus by administration. Keep the kid's name out of it.

Also document any time you were told to let the parent have their way or the parent broke protocol in your student handbook and/or teacher contract and administration did not deal with it.

For example, our contract states teachers need 24 hours notice to meet with a parent. Our handbook says parents cannot come to the classroom unescorted or without prior notice. We also have a note in our handbook that states reasonable response time to a parent call or email is 48 hours.

You may not "win" in this situation and you have done noting wrong. Any retaliation efforts by admin are petty. A strong union will back you.

You can always find another job teaching this kind of special ed.

[misscurlyj]

Hello,
In my district we have a person at each school site that attends meetings as a representative of the special education department. It is usually another special education teacher, but their role at meetings is to ensure that we are following policy and requirements for the paperwork and the running of the meeting.
It is helpful to have an administrator that is "on your side" so to speak, but there are times that they may seem to side with a parent or want to give the parent what they want. In those cases, it is often a matter of admin not understanding special education processes OR having all the background information prior to the meeting. This is when a rep from the special education department can be useful.
Sometimes when I, or others anticipate that the meeting may be intense or the parents have concerns, the rest of the team holds an informal pre-IEP/MET/whatever....so that we are all going into it on the same page.
Does this parent have outside agencies or services in the home environment for their child? Things can be tricky with that too....

Your team must be very careful with your pre-meeting. It is one thing to get together so that everyone understand the level of the student based on documented assessment and other issues that may have been documented, but if your team determines placement to the extent that the individuals on the team are not truly considering alternatives at the meeting or presenting alternatives at the meeting, a savvy parent who knows the law could sue under the predetermination violation.

The reason there are many members to the team is to allow for discussion among everyone, including the parent or student depending on the age of the student, to determine the best course of action and the proper goals to produce progress.

It very much sounds like your school is determining what you will provide and pressuring everyone on the school's team to pressure the parent to one option rather than the school considering all options.

OP,

I believe it would be illegal to bring the union rep to the meeting because it would violate privacy laws of the student.

[misscurlyj]

We are meeting for the reasons of understanding present levels as a school team based on documented assessments, etc...
We are NOT pre determining placement and we still consider other options at the meeting itself.
I am offended that based off what you read you are under the impression that the school team is pressuring a parent into one option. That is not how my post was intended to be perceived.
Also, we are talking about one parent every few years...

You may be offended that based on what you wrote I perceived something other than what you meant, but I just had what you shared and how you shared it to guide my perception.

Admin doesn't agree with us by the parents.
We meet to make admin agree with us.
Then we meet the parents on a united front.

So, why not share the assessments in the IEP meeting with the admin there? Certainly if the admin just needed to see the assessments to understand, the entire conversation could be held with the parent there also. Or just ask the admin to look at the assessments ahead of the meeting.

I guess my question is, why are you all going in on the same page? Unless you are convincing others in the meeting to get on your page, sharing the same information at the IEP meeting with the parent there to be part of the process should result in the same end. It is not supposed to be an US (the school) vs the parent. All share, all discuss the assessments and the process if necessary.

You may be offended but it is your words stating that you want to go to the meeting as a united front to meet the parent which is completely opposite as to what is the expectations of an IEP meeting and the need to have many members with different roles.

[teabreak]

I’m not sure you can have the union rep there as the IEP is basically a “need to know” basis for those involved. What you could do is invite your admin or your LEA to take notes for you and help be a bridge between you and the parent. Keep every thing factual in the meeting, and keep your emotions under your hat (Lord knows I had to do this last week!).

Give your admin a heads up and make sure there is documentation and follow up. If this is a sue-happy parent, then make sure there is nothing they can sue over. Does that make sense? Make sure you start the meeting with all the positives. Heck, make a phone call home with some positives and then possible situations and solutions for the meeting. “Hey Mrs. Sue-Happy Parent, Joey has had an amazing week! He is attentive and kind. He is still struggling with his reading so we are thinking that we might want to talk about XX intervention. This would require more time in the pull-out setting. Take the time until the meeting to think on this and determine if you think it would be a good change.” Things like that have worked well for me with tough parents.

[misscurlyj]

"Give your admin a heads up and make sure there is documentation and follow up. If this is a sue-happy parent, then make sure there is nothing they can sue over."

This is more of what I meant by a pre-meeting in my previous post....better stated as giving admin a head's up. Not having everyone agree but just giving the information and supporting documentation. I shouldn't have labeled it pre-meeting...it is more like an informal conversation with all involved. So everyone knows what they each are going to say in the meeting and how the discussion will go.

[Tounces]

I don’t think you can have a union rep there. When we have concerns that there may be a problem, we can invite someone higher up. Maybe a sped ed coordinator.
Good luck