The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) includes a series of procedural requirements to help Individualized Education Program (IEP) Teams and special educators develop and implement legally compliant IEPs. These procedural requirements can seem unnecessary or tedious, but when faced with a state complaint or due process hearing, full compliance helps protect against liability. The following tips will help school officials navigate some of the IDEA’s important procedural requirements.
Tip 1: Schedule annual IEP meetings with sufficient time to meet and issue a prior written notice before the current IEP expires.
An IEP must be in effect at the beginning of each school year and reviewed at least annually. Parents must receive prior written notice of the proposed IEP within a “reasonable time” before the IEP is implemented. “Reasonable time” is not defined by the IDEA, but the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) has indicated that parents need time to fully assess the proposed IEP and respond.
For example, if a student’s IEP went into effect on May 15, 2025, the IEP Team must implement a new annual IEP no later than May 15, 2026. This sounds easy enough, but if the annual IEP meeting is scheduled for May 14, 2026, the school may find itself out of compliance for one or more of the following reasons:
- if a mandatory member of the IEP Team is suddenly unable to attend the IEP meeting on May 14, the meeting may not proceed (unless the parent and school meet the requirements for that Team member’s excusal) and an IEP cannot be drafted;
- all the IEP Team’s mandatory members attend, but the IEP Team is unable to complete the IEP in a single meeting and thus, a timely annual IEP cannot be completed; or
- the annual IEP is drafted on May 14, but the IEP cannot be implemented on May 15 because parents will not have a “reasonable time” to fully assess the IEP after the written notice is provided and before implementation.
Tip 2: Ensure all mandatory IEP Team members are present.
MDE recently released an updated guidance document, Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team Roles and Responsibilities. Though this document exceeds certain state and federal requirements, it provides a useful reminder for school officials about who must attend a student’s IEP meeting.
Mandatory IEP Team members are:
- parent/guardian(s);
- at least one of the student’s general education teachers;
- at least one of the student’s special education teachers;
- a district representative;
- a person who can interpret the instructional implications of evaluation results;
- at the discretion of the parents or the school, other individuals who have knowledge or special expertise regarding the child (related service providers often fall into this category); and
- when appropriate, the student.
The same individual may satisfy more than one role. However, it is best practice to avoid having a person serve in too many roles because IEP Teams should have varying input to enable a thorough discussion of the student’s needs.
A district representative is a person who is: 1) qualified to provide or supervise the provision of specially designed instruction, 2) knowledgeable about the general education curriculum, and 3) knowledgeable about the availability of the school’s resources. The district representative should have authority to commit school resources and be able to ensure timely implementation.
Students must be invited to IEP meetings if the IEP Team will discuss postsecondary goals and transition services. Until a student is 18, parents may deny the student the opportunity to attend, but regardless, school personnel must obtain the student’s input and interests regarding postsecondary plans.
An IEP Team mandatory member may be excused from the IEP meeting only if the parents and school agree in writing that 1) the member’s attendance is not necessary because that member’s area of the curriculum or related service is not being discussed or modified, or 2) the member’s area of curriculum or related service is being discussed but the mandatory IEP Team member submits written input before the IEP Team meeting. Excusal should be used sparingly, and the school must obtain the parent’s signature on a written excusal document.
Tip 3: Do not include service minutes, placement, or a pre-filled prior written notice in the draft IEP.
Schools may not predetermine services or placement. Only an IEP Team may make those decisions after considering a student’s areas of need and present levels of academic achievement and functional performance. Nothing indicates predetermination more than going into an IEP meeting with a draft IEP that states how many minutes of special education and related services a student will receive and in what setting. Though relevant members of the IEP Team may have an idea of what services, including duration, frequency, and location, will be appropriate, the final decision must not be made until after the IEP Team has discussed the areas of need.
Prior written notice is “prior” in that it must be provided to the parents before an IEP is implemented, but the notice may not be drafted until after the IEP Team meets and develops an IEP. Unless the school has predetermined the student’s special education programming, it cannot have prepared a prior written notice before the IEP Team meeting.
Tip 4: Provide prior written notice in the parent’s native language or other mode of communication.
A parent must be able to understand the school’s offer of a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to their child and therefore, if the parent is not literate in English or does not use written language, the school is obligated to translate the prior written notice into the parent’s native language or otherwise to ensure that the parent understands the offer.
If a parent seems to understand English but is a non-native speaker, ask whether they need the document translated. Do not assume that someone proficient in spoken English is also sufficiently literate in English to read and understand the IEP document’s complexities. The money and effort required to translate prior written notices will likely be well worth it if a “lack of parent participation” allegation is made during a due process or state complaint.
Tip 5: Consider whether the student is eligible for extended school year (ESY) services and document why or why not.
An IEP must include a statement of eligibility for ESY. Many IEP Teams fail to document the ESY consideration beyond checking a box that a student is or is not eligible. Often, it is difficult to ascertain from the IEP whether the Team even considered ESY or simply left the box checked from the previous IEP. MDE issued guidance on ESY in April 2023 that explains ESY and offers a checklist for determining whether a student is eligible.
If a student is determined not eligible for ESY, include a statement in the prior written notice that ESY programming was considered and rejected and explain why the student was determined not eligible.
Developing an IEP that is procedurally compliant with the IDEA is critical to developing a substantively compliant offer of FAPE. All special education staff should be trained in these procedural requirements so that schools are well positioned to defend their students’ IEPs.