They came home at 3:15 and said the day was fine.
But you could tell. Not sad exactly. Just somewhere else. Like they'd spent another day feeling, "not good enough" to do what other kids were doing.
You've been watching it for a while. The pull-outs. The different table at lunch. The activities they miss because they're with someone else when the class starts something new.
And you've sat in the IEP meeting and heard everyone go around the table naming everything your child can't do yet. You nodded at the goals. You said it looked good. And you drove home with this pit in your stomach that told
you something is off.
You thought: this doesn't sound like my kid.
Here's what I know after 40+ years at the IEP table.
You're right.
There's supposed to be a thread running through your child's IEP. It starts with who your child is: what lights them up, how they
learn best, what they bring into the room.
And it's supposed to carry all the way through. Into the present levels. Into the goals. Into where your child spends their school day.
When that thread holds, the IEP builds toward belonging. When it breaks, your child gets pulled out of the room.
And it breaks in almost
every IEP I've ever read.
That's what we're doing together next week.
See Your Child's IEP Through a Strength Lens: and Walk In Knowing What to Ask For is a FREE
training for parents. We have 3 live sessions, June 23 through 25. Plus a BONUS session Friday, June 26.
Register at dots.iep.today/join-june.
Here's what each day looks like.
🔵 Tuesday, June 23: Your Child's Strengths Are a Teaching Tool And Nobody Showed You That
Most IEP meetings spend an hour
talking about what your child cannot do yet. Tuesday, June 23 we flip that completely.
Because here is what nobody told you: every strength your child has is a doorway. A child who learns through movement can use that to master reading. A child who loves to build things can use that to learn math. A child who connects through story can use that to develop writing.
Your child's strengths are not a nice thing to mention at the start of the meeting. They are the most powerful teaching tool in the room.
Tuesday I am going to show you how to see that and how to make sure the team sees it too.
You will also learn something that changes everything about how you walk into your next meeting. I call it the
Needs Reframe.
It is the difference between an IEP that says your child struggles with reading comprehension and one that says your child needs instruction that uses their strength in visual thinking to build reading comprehension. Same child. Completely different document. Completely different classroom.
Check out this FB post of two stories of the same child and how your child's story can open or close doors.
When you leave Tuesday you'll never read
your child's IEP the same way again.
🟣 Wednesday, June 24: How to Write Your Child's Strengths Into Their Goals And Hold the Team Accountable
Tuesday you learned how to see the thread. Wednesday, June 24 you learn how to make sure it
holds all the way into the goals.
Because a goal that does not reflect how your child actually learns is a goal that could have been written for any child. It is not accountable to your child.
And when no one is accountable to your child's strengths, your child gets taught the way the teacher knows how to teach, not the way your child actually
learns.
Wednesday I am going to show you what a strength-based goal that leads to belonging looks like and exactly how to ask for one.
And then we put it all into practice.
Two parents from our private Facebook group will share their child's real IEP. I will guide each one through their document live,
tracing the thread from strengths to present levels to goals, naming out loud exactly where it holds and exactly where it breaks.
We want our kids to generalize what they learn and use it in different ways. So that is exactly what we do on Wednesday and Thursday. We're going to take everything from Tuesday and Wednesday and apply it to a real child's real IEP.
Are the
strengths written in a way that teaches?
Are the needs framed around the strengths?
Are the strengths embedded anywhere in the goals?
You have probably never seen anyone do this in real time. You will on Wednesday.
Register at
dots.iep.today/join-june.
🟢 Thursday, June 25: Two More Live IEP Mini-Audits And What To Do Next
Two more parents. Two more real IEPs. Four total children, four different schools, four different teams.
By the end of Thursday we will have gone through four real IEPs and you'll know what to look for in your own child's document. Not because I
explained it to you. Because you saw it. Over and over. Until it became something you cannot unsee.
And if you are ready to take the next step, to have me do this with your child's actual IEP, I will walk you through exactly how that works on Thursday.
🔵 Friday, June 26: Bonus Session: The Tool I Built So Your Child Never Gets Lost in Their Own IEP Again
I built a custom AI tool for parents of kids with IEPs. It is called This Is Me! and it does something I have never seen anything else do.
You'll walk away with the kind of document you have always wished you could hand the team
before the meeting begins. The one that says: before we talk about what my child cannot do, here is who my child actually is.
Think of it as a super-duper enhanced About Me profile.
It asks you questions about your child. Your answers. And then it writes a complete, individualized learner profile: your child's strengths, how those strengths can be used to teach new skills, what
works, what every teacher needs to know before the year starts. It even suggests specific language you can bring straight into the IEP. I've never seen an About Me profile that can do that.
Friday I am demoing it live. And parents who sign up for an Inclusive IEP Audit™ get access to This Is Me! as part of the package.
Come see what it
builds.
Register at dots.iep.today/join-june.
You have already been doing the hard part.
Showing up to meetings. Staying at the table. Learning everything you can, for a child who deserves so much more than a document that could have been written for anyone.
Come do June 23 - 26 with us.
Register at dots.iep.today/join-june.
