Keeping up with IEPs and Evaluations

 

Selfie taken during last IEP season

It comes every year. You think you're prepared. You think you're ready. You know it's going to be difficult, but you're going to survive. Maybe you stash an extra candy bar or seven in your desk. Maybe you feel yourself staring daggers at people who seem happy and carefree. Perhaps you kiss your pillow and beg it for a few hours' reprieve with no nightmares about missed deadlines. 

There is always a time of the year called 'IEP season'. For some, it's right at the beginning of the year. For us, it's that February-April stretch. For a lucky few, it's the end of the school year, and once it's over, it's summer. And sometimes, it happens twice a year, like a terrible version of El Nino. It's that time when you have 17 IEPs and 6 evaluations due within days of each other, and you have no idea how you're going to get through it. 

You will, though. And the best way to get through it, as Scar from The Lion King would tell you, is to be prepared. The best way to prepare is to know that the tsunami of paperwork is approaching. To-Do lists are great, but how do you stay on top of your due dates? Do you rely on whatever computer program you use to sort through by due dates? Do you have a list for the year that you keep with you or post on the wall? Do you have a 90-day calendar that you mark with due dates? What works best for YOU?

What works best for me is an Excel spreadsheet that I print out at the beginning of the year. Spreadsheets have never been my jam, but a colleague showed me how to create multiple pages of a spreadsheet and it changed my world. My Excel file is called 'compliance [School Year]', and that's exactly what it is. I have pages for each month, and I'll list each student's name, IEP due date, and reevaluation due date in the appropriate month. Sometimes, the IEP and reevaluation aren't due in the same month; in those cases, the student gets listed in whichever month the earlier one is due, since we typically will hold an IEP and reevaluation meeting together in my school whenever possible. I'll relist the student in the later month, too, if we for some reason don't do them both together. I am analog, so I print this list, and just write in new students (new evaluations, kids who transfer into the building, etc) on the printed sheet and will add them to the computerized master once their new IEP meeting is held. 

I staple these pages together and write the months at the bottom so I know what I'm looking at just at a glance. This gives me a chance to figure out when I'm going to be busy. 2024-2025 is going to be ROUGH for me in February and March, but January is really light, so I am already thinking that I'm going to hold a lot of my February meetings in January/early February, and then start scheduling the March IEPs throughout February and March; so, rather than have 17 meetings in February and 18 in March, I'll have 10 in January, 10 in February, and 15 in March (ideally) - it's still a lot, but I don't know that we have 17 school days in February, so 10 feels a lot more manageable. 

As I go through the year, students whose meetings have been held get crossed off, so it feels good to see the progress. I also try to make sure that all meetings for the following month are scheduled by the end of the current month, and this list makes it easy to keep track of who needs to be scheduled. I'll also highlight reevaluation dates for the current year for myself so I can see those at a quick glance. If I see that I have 3 reevaluations due in February, I'll make sure I've got those permissions out in December for updated testing so I've got enough time.  This has proven helpful this past year, as it seemed like both my school psych and I could NOT keep '2024' and '2025' straight. In May, we were talking about what consents we needed to meet for in September, and she kept mentioning one kid over and over. I grabbed my list and looked, and asked her why we were doing it a year early. "He's due in November, we need to have it done." "But I have him on my list as November 2025." "Yeah, November....wait...crap, it's only 2024 this November." I've done the same, but that's the most recent example I have. ;) 

Like most of the 'master copy' forms I use, it may take a little time to set this up, but once you have it set up, it's SO easy to edit and have ready for the next year! 

I've made an editable blank version available for FREE in my TpT store, too! Just download and go!