If It’s Not in the IEP, It’s Not Driving Anything

You can share with the school what works for your child.
You can explain their strengths, their triggers, what helps them learn.

You can put it in an email.
You can fill out an About Me profile.
You can say it again and again in meetings.
 

And none of that requires the school to do anything differently.
 

If what you know about your child never makes it into the IEP connected to present levels, goals, accommodations or modifications, and instruction, it stays optional.

Easy to ignore. Easy to forget.

That’s not because you didn’t advocate well enough. 

It’s because the dots were never connected in the one document that the school is legally required to follow.
 

Inclusion Starts by Connecting the Dots

Inclusion doesn’t get built during the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) discussion.

Inclusion isn’t something you argue for at the end.
It’s something you build into the IEP from the beginning.

A strengths box filled in for compliance doesn’t change your child’s day. 
 

What does change your child’s day is when those strengths are translated into:

🔵 present levels

🟤 how goals are written

🟢 which accommodations/modifications are necessary

🟣 instructional strategies that are used

That’s how inclusion moves from belief to paperwork to classroom practice.

What Thursday’s Live Will Show You

On Thursday, February 5, I’m going live to show you how to Connect the Dots:

🟢  From what you already know about your child to what gets written into the IEP,
🔵 to what teachers are actually accountable for implementing.

I’ll walk you through a process, with a little help from AI, called This Is Me, not as a feel-good profile, but as a way to translate strengths into IEP-ready language that actually drives decisions.
 

You’ll see how:

🔴 “Here’s what works for my child” becomes something enforceable
 

⚫ Strengths stop being “nice to know” and start shaping instruction
 

🟡 Page one of the IEP sets the tone for everything that follows
 

I’ll also walk through an example so you can see how those dots get connected, on paper and in practice.
 

No tech skills required.
Just a clearer path from knowing your child to protecting their access and inclusion.

DATE: Thurs., Feb. 5th
TIME: 10:30 am Mtn. Time, 12:30 pm ET, 11:30 am CT, 9:30 am PT
PLACE: The Art of Advocacy Facebook page
I hope to see you there!

For belonging and being valued,

P.S. If you joined (or caught the replay of) my most recent Facebook Live, we talked about a big mindset shift:

Inclusion isn’t something you ask for at the end of the IEP.
It’s something you start building on page one.

That conversation sparked a lot of questions, especially this one:

Okay… but if inclusion starts on page one, what are we actually supposed to write there?

That’s exactly where this week’s Facebook Live picks up.
Thurs. Feb. 5th.