IEP is a crucial program for students with learning disabilities. On paper, it ensures to address all the necessary provisions that a student needs. Even though coordinators strive to ensure these, violations can occur.
Thankfully, there is a provision for the parents to identify and report these breaches. For that, they may need to comprehend how a violation looks and also what is the process of reporting it. This post focuses on providing you with all of these insights with a list of examples and detailed procedures. This guide will support you in times of violation.
IEP violation- An outlook of examples
IEP Violation is technically a breach of the law and the child’s rights if a teacher does not follow a student’s individualized education program (IEP). Failure to implement an IEP is, unfortunately, a regular substantive violation – but it may be quite significant and impede children from progressing or receiving the required education. Before doing anything further, parents should contact their child’s teacher and explain the situation.
Below are the examples of IEP violations:
- Failure to provide previous written notice of rights and planned meetings.
- Failure to follow state-imposed deadlines.
- Not Allowing parents to engage meaningfully in the IEP formulation process and educational decision-making.
- Individualized assessments are not conducted and completed.
- Failure to guarantee that all members of the required team attend IEP meetings.
- Failure to create an IEP that is tailored to the child’s specific requirements.
- Failure to follow the IEP exactly as it was written.
- Failure to offer education and services in the least restrictive setting possible, taking into account the requirements of the kid.
- Failure to keep accurate records.
- Failure to train employees and aids in the areas of impairment that the kid has.
- Failure to educate parents about their child’s disabilities.
- Before the case conference committee meeting, not able to decide on placement and services.
- Failure to give records to parents within 45 days of their request.
- Failure to provide extended school year assistance to the kid resulted in skill regression over the summer break that is difficult to recover.
- Failure to enable a special needs kid to participate in extracurricular activities to the same extent as his non-disabled classmates when the youngster could do so with school accommodations.
- Failure of the school to protect the kid from being punished for behaviors or inactions that are symptoms of (caused by) the child’s impairment.
- Despite signs that the kid was failing academically or behaviorally, the school failed to recognize that the youngster required special education or services.
- Failure to follow protocols prior to suspending or dismissing a special education student
- Failure to communicate about objectives, placement, or services
- Informed consent was not obtained.
- Failure to put the IEP into action
- Failure to offer advance notification of a program change
- Refusing to make any changes to the IEP
- Failure to set annual goals based on the needs of students.
- Goals that aren’t full, suitable, or quantifiable aren’t written. Failure to set annual IEP goals that are demanding, ambitious, and quantifiable.
- Failure to deliver appropriate special education and related services based on peer-reviewed research
- Failure to provide all of the student’s educational needs with special education services.
- Failure to track the student’s progress toward his or her objectives and make required educational modifications.
- Failure to account for all of the student’s educational requirements in the Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFP).
- Failure to stick to the alternate placements schedule
How to report for IEP violation?
If there has been an instance where you feel that there has been a violation in the IEP, you have one year from the date of the incident to make a complaint. Reporters can take help from a sample complaint to be sure of the format.
- The report that is being submitted to the authorities should consist of the following:
- Name
- Phone Number
- Address
- Child’s Name
- Child’s School
- Teachers’ Names
- A brief explanation of the problem
- Violation that occurred
- Date & Time
- The IDEA section that was not followed
- The remedy being seeked.
- The parent or reporter now needs to wait for a maximum of 60 days, till the time the state or the authority makes the decision.
- Meanwhile, the parents or the reporter of the violation must inform the study team of the child through the phone. Legitimate efforts should be done to explain the situation.
- The reporter must follow up with a certified letter that states the interaction with the authority and the proposed remedy.
- If the child’s study team is unable to resolve the situation, the reporter must contact the district’s special education director to give a heads up on the whole situation.
- A timeframe must now be set, along with specifications as to what exactly the reporter of the violator wants.
- Send a fax or a certified letter summarizing your talk and the recommended remedy.
- If the special education director is unable to settle the matter, the reporter of the violator can contact the county’s special education office and describe the situation. Again, a timeframe should be set along with specifications as to what needs to be done.
- If the county special education office is unable to address the matter for whatever reason, individuals can contact the state’s special education department to inform about the incident.
- Send a certified letter outlining your conversation and the recommended remedy. Send a copy of the letter to everyone with whom you’ve previously communicated.
IEP violations can be handled…
As members of the IEP team, parents should carefully explore their alternatives for reinforcing their rights and finding solutions. An expert special education lawyer can assist you in understanding the legislation and determining what measures are required. If you feel that your child’s IEP plan is not being followed, you can take the necessary steps as stated above to enforce the plan. Check out the above insights to get a better idea. We hope this will empower you by educating your rights as parents/stakes.
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,