Schools are obligated to notify parents of the meeting early enough to ensure that one or both of the parents have an opportunity to attend, schedule the meeting at a mutually agreed on time and place, and take whatever action is necessary to ensure that the parent understands the proceedings of the meeting, including arranging for an interpreter for parents with deafness or whose native language is other than English. A common accommodation is arranging for one or more parents to attend the IEP meeting remotely via phone or videoconferencing. 

For any participants invited by the parent, ensure a current Release of Information is on file

An Individual Who Can Interpret the Instructional Implications of Evaluation Results

Licensure Requirements

In Minnesota, a teacher who is licensed in the student’s disability area must be part of the student’s IEP team. Ideally, the student's case manager is licensed in the student's disability area, but when this is not the case, an additional team member who is licensed must participate in the team meetings. The licensed teacher must provide consultation and indirect services to any general and/or special education teachers providing instruction to the student.

To meet minimal compliance requirements, a single special education teacher or service provider licensed in the student's primary disability area must be invited to the meeting (and participate in full unless agreed to in writing). During state file review, auditors will check that the IEP team included at least one special education teacher or service provider. If none have signed on the Record of Team Meeting, the auditor will check for a written agreement and written input from an absent team member in this role. 

When the case manager is preparing the Notice/Record of Team Meeting form, any individual filling the role described above should be listed with their licensure (e.g., "Licensed ASD Teacher" or whichever licensure/category is relevant to their involvement in the meeting).

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Specifically for students under the ASD category, there are several options for including a licensed team member:

• Licensed ASD teacher, licensed at the age/grade level of the student. 

• Licensed academic and behavior strategist (ABS) teacher for students in K-12, with a range of mild to moderate needs, 

• Licensed early childhood special education (ECSE) teacher for children from birth through age six.

OHD, TBI, & D/B: There are three Minnesota disabilities which currently do not have Minnesota teacher licensure. These are Deaf/Blind, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Other Health Disabilities. In these cases the federal standard of, "a teacher knowledgeable about the student's disability" will be utilized. The category Severely Multiply Impaired also does not have licensure but typically one of the disabilities in this cluster has Minnesota licensure.

Best Practice

To meet the standard of best practice, the case manager would invite all individuals responsible for providing specialized instruction to the student. For example, if a student is receiving specialized instruction in math, reading, and social skills from three different service providers, all would be invited and attend the IEP meeting.

IDEA defines this individual as someone who is "qualified to provide or supervise the provision of specially designed instruction to meet the unique needs of students with disabilities, is knowledgeable about the general curriculum, and is knowledgeable about the availability of resources of the district."

Building administrators typically fill this role, but they may also designate individuals in their building who meet the qualification. If a building administrator is unavailable, the administrator should designate an individual to fulfill this role. For information regarding who has been designated in your building, contact your building administrator.

District Representative Qualifications:

• Oversee provision of specially designed instruction

• Knowledgeable about the general curriculum

• Knowledgeable about the availability of resources of the district

For Shared Setting IV Programs: Resident District Representative

If a student is placed out-of-district in a shared program, legally a representative from the student’s resident district must be included on the Notice of Team Meeting for IEP meetings. However, they are not required to attend the meeting and the IEP team does not need to follow the formal excusal process if the resident district representative is absent (provided there is still someone at the meeting filling the normal required role of administrative representative). In most cases, the district representative would be the building principal in the student’s resident district school, but in some cases the principal will delegate this to a different staff person. 

In cases where the student has been open enrolled in the district where the shared program is located (e.g., a student's resident district is Willmar Public Schools, but they open enroll in KMS and then begin attending the Cosmos Education Learning Center), the IEP team does not have to invite a representative from their resident district. The key difference here is between district placement and open enrollment.

Someone who is already attending the meeting in another legal role can also fill this role. Evaluation reports must be developed by a multi-disciplinary team, meaning that a single special education teacher (or any individual) cannot complete the entire evaluation themselves. In many cases, the training of the evaluators does not overlap, and it is clear that multiple team members must be invited so that each can speak to the area of the evaluation report that they are qualified to interpret. For example, a school psychologist would need to be invited to the meeting to interpret the results of a BASC rating form because no other member of the team is trained to interpret those results.

Determinations regarding this role can be difficult, however, and this is most common when multiple evaluators are each trained to complete a component of the evaluation. For example, a special education teacher might complete a majority of the components of an evaluation for an OHD student, and a school psychologist might complete an observation to fulfill the multi-disciplinary team requirement. The special education teacher and the school psychologist are both qualified to interpret the results of an observation in this area, and thus the school psychologist would not necessarily be considered a required team member in this case.

When making decisions about who and who not to invite, the case manager should communicate with the team member(s) in question and cooperatively determine whether or not the case manager is qualified to interpret the components of the evaluation report those individuals completed.

The student is a required team member only if the team will consider post-secondary goals and transition services. If the transition-age student does not attend the meeting, the school must find other ways to make sure that the student’s desires and interests are considered. 

As students get older, it is a good idea to encourage them to take a more active role in the IEP team. This allows them to have a strong voice in their own education and can teach them a great deal about self-advocacy and self-determination. Transition-aged children may even lead the IEP meeting.

If there is an agency other than the school providing postsecondary transition services (e.g., vocational rehabilitation, the county, etc.), they are required to be invited to the meeting and listed on Notice of Team Meeting form. However, the IEP team does not need to follow the formal excusal process if the agency representative is absent. 

A required team member can be excused from an IEP meeting in whole or in part if the parent and the district agree in writing.

If the team member's content area WILL NOT be discussed or modified:

• This is a rare circumstance. It is possible if you are having an additional IEP meeting to discuss a specific component of the IEP. For example, you hold an IEP meeting to discuss behavior concerns, and the DAPE teacher is unable to attend. The DAPE goal is not being discussed at the meeting.

• Prior to beginning the IEP meeting, written consent for excusal must be obtained from the parent. This is documented on the Agreement Regarding IEP Team Member Attendance form in SpEd Forms.

If the team member's content area WILL be discussed or modified:

• This is by far the more common circumstance. Written consent from the parent must still be obtained prior to beginning the IEP meeting. The key difference in this case? Prior to the meeting, the team member who will miss all or part of the meeting must submit appropriate input in writing to the IEP team.

• General education teachers should describe expectations in their class, the student’s use of accommodations and/or modifications, and assistance needed by a paraprofessional (if applicable). Service providers should report progress on previous goals and provide draft goals for the upcoming year as well as any recommendations the IEP team should consider.

Keep in mind:

• Case managers should call parents and complete the excusal process before the meeting date. If circumstances do not allow for this (e.g., general education teacher gets sick day of meeting), the excusal process should be completed prior to the start of the IEP meeting, and parents have the right not to proceed with the meeting if they want the team member present.

• Team member excusal from a meeting cannot impact the student’s right to FAPE, the student’s ability to benefit from his/her program of specialized instruction, nor the parent’s opportunity to meaningfully participate in the development of the IEP (for example, it is rare that the case manager would not be at the meeting). 

• Unless prior written consent was received from the parent, no required IEP team member may be excused from a meeting (in whole or in part).

The district must make multiple attempts to arrange a meeting in which a parent is present. Documentation may include: phone logs, letters, and a log of home visits. Documentation of multiple “attempts” must be kept, which implies that a minimum of 2 attempts by the district is required. The public agency must keep a record of its attempts to arrange a mutually agreed upon time and place, such as:

• Detailed records of phone calls made or attempted and the results of those calls;

• Copies of correspondence sent to the parents/guardians and any responses received; and

• Detailed records of visits made to the parent’s home or place of employment and the results of those visits

Per MDE, because discretionary IEP members are not required members of the IEP team, the school district is not required to obtain written agreement or written consent from a parent when that member is unable to attend an IEP meeting.

In most cases, no. IDEA 2004 is clear that the manifestation determination team should include: a district representative, parent/guardian(s), and relevant members of the student’s IEP team. The statute indicates that the district and parents should work together to determine which IEP team members are "relevant" and should be invited to the meeting.

If a student is placed out-of-district in a federal setting IV-VIII program (i.e., ELC-New London, ELC-Marshall, ELC-Windom, ELC-Cosmos, ELC-Pipestone, ELC-Montevideo), legally a representative from the student’s resident district must be included on the Notice of Team Meeting for IEP meetings. However, the resident district representative is not required to attend the meeting and the team does not need to follow the formal excusal process if they are absent.