Do we REALLY want our students to be an active part of the IEP team?

Yes.  Yes is the right answer here.  But the longer I teach, especially secondary age students, the more I realize that there are many, many teachers who are DOWNRIGHT FEARFUL that we may help create an adolescent who legit tries to think critically with their non full formed brain.  It is slightly terrifying that the 15 year old tenth grader I'm teaching will be driving in less than a year, voting in less three years, and raising their own families faster than any of us feel okay with.

In response to this fear, I think we so often as special education teachers, push these students out of their own IEP process out of a fear that they just might HAVE AN OPINION.  And it might not mesh with our IEP "system" that we have had in place for the 27364 years we've been teaching.  What if- GASP- the student shared with the team something we DIDN'T AGREE WITH?  

However, since transition is a part of an IEP- and legally required I might add- we muddle our way through notifying students of their meeting, giving them a transition survey, and usually doing the minimal.  I had found over the last 2 decades of mainly teaching students of transition age, that I find myself doing a minimally adequate job of providing transition instruction for one of two reasons:

1.  Time-  People, we've got to pass these high school classes.  We've got to do the math and read the stuff and so often quality transition services fall by the wayside.

2. Lack of resources- I've worked for a few administrators who did their best to provide us with resources.  The quality of those was spotty at best but unless I wanted to create it out of thin air, there just wasn't much available to me.

So this summer, I really had enough with those two reasons.  Next year, I'll be working with 9th and 10th graders and wanted to have some transition resources ready to go at the start of the year.

So, I give you Understanding my IEP- A 7 lesson unit designed to walk students through the major parts of their IEP.

Here's my back to school transition plan-

1.  Give THIS survey.

2.   Using Understanding my IEP, I'll address one part of the IEP per week. The materials are editable and I will also throw in additional resources throughout the semester.

3. Walk into that student's IEP meeting SIDE BY SIDE with the student and the parent.  All the while knowing that I've prepared that student (who by the way still may say dumb things because they STILL DON'T HAVE A FULLY FORMED BRAIN) to be a member of their IEP team to the best of their abilities.

Let's go team!