Christine: Our school district uses an online system called SEIS (Special Education Information System) for IEPs and student records. SEIS is very popular, used by over 900 school districts. SEIS creates a documented called “IEP at a glance.” It contains parts of the IEP, but not the entire IEP. The top of the document says “not a student record” and many families don’t know they exist.
I received a copy of my kid’s IEP at a glance and it didn’t match his IEP. I suspect that’s why my kid didn’t receive agreed to accommodations. The sped director said SEIS is working on the problem. The problems are: school districts giving teachers the IEP at a glance vs the entire IEP, teachers relying on the IEP at a glance and not reading the entire IEP.
Because the IEP at a glance isn’t treated like a student record (I was lucky one of our teachers “accidentally” gave it to me), I don’t know how to ensure my kid’s teachers have access to the right information. I would also like to get the word out about IEPs at a glance.
As a result of our childs IEP being shared with individuals who did not have a legitimate reason to be party to his IEP I requested that his IEP be taken off the districts online (real-time system) or that it should be redacted and information such as the modifications page be posted. This is after all the only information that classroom teachers really need. I requested this because teachers were printing out his IEP, carrying it in their purses, leaving it in copiers/ insecure places and sharing this information with class parents/PTO Moms as well as individuals in the community The information in the IEP was being used to predetermine our son’s ability and teachers were tailoring obs/ comments to what they perceived a student who has “that disability” should be placed.
Do you have to agree to your Childs IEP being online in the district? As a teacher myself I know anyone who works in the district pretty much can access it, print it out and in todays world can easily take a picture of it and share it. Before teachers had to go to the secure place, read it, sign off on it and could make notes on what accommodations that student needs in the classroom which to be honest is all a teacher needs access to not confidential medical information.
Christine – Pat Howey had some suggestions for what parents can do when schools provide only IEP summaries. Take a look at this post: Does Your Child’s Teacher See the IEP? https://www.wrightslaw.com/blog/does-your-childs-teacher-ever-see-the-iep/
Yes, from now on I will be sending all of my kid’s teachers an e-mail with the full IEP and ask if it matches whatever they have access to.