TPP 318: What Parents Need to Know about the IEP Process, with Therapist Beth Liesenfeld
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
42 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 13 hours ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What should parents know before walking into an IEP meeting?
If you can kind of stay one step ahead of this process and say, hey, you guys are missing this big emotional regulation piece, or even if your child is being qualified under a specific learning disability. But you also suspect that they have anxiety and they're having some behaviors around anxiety. That anxiety needs to be in there, right? Even if they're like, oh, it doesn't relate to this specific learning disability, it doesn't matter. They're supposed to be comprehensive. And so In that way. Then you can look at the IEP and say, okay, is every need or challenge in that present level being supported somewhere in the IEP down the line?
Welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I'm your host, Debbie Rieber. If you are a parent of a neurodivergent kid with a diagnosed learning disability, you likely have had experience with individualized education plans, otherwise known as IEPs. And if this is you, my hunch is you have some feelings about IEPs and the whole process. The stresses, the unknowns, the fact that it might feel like you have to understand a completely different language just to get the support and services your child needs and deserves in school. So I thought it was about time I dedicated a whole episode to the subject of IEPs, and I invited occupational therapist Beth Liesenfeld, the woman behind a company, podcast, and resource called the IEP Lab, to answer your questions around how parents can better prepare for an IEP meeting, what actually makes a good IEP, and how we can go about making changes on an IEP if we realize the accommodation.
Aren't being effective, or if a school isn't following through in a way that the IEP outlines. Beth is an incredibly knowledgeable expert on this subject. And as you will hear, she is truly passionate about providing insider information of the school's process and culture to parents in order to increase collaboration between parents and school's staff. Through her own school experience, Beth saw inequity in parents' ability to advocate for a quality IEP for their child. And now she teaches parents a four step process to effectively advocate for their children within the schools through online workshops and interactive, supportive online courses. So I really hope that this episode helps you decode some of the parts of the IEP process that may seem confusing.
meeting and that it empowers you to show up differently in your next IEP meeting. And now here's my conversation with Beth Liesenfeld on what you need to know about IEPs. Hey Beth, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for agreeing to come on and take all my questions about IEPs. As I was saying before, I hit record. We've certainly talked about IEPs. I've had educational advocates on the show. We've talked to some parents about their own experience, but I haven't had an IEP expert on the show. So I'm really looking forward to this. I have a lot of questions, but I would like if we could start by having you just Introduce yourself, who you are, what you do in the world.
And then a question I ask my guests always is their personal why for the work that they do.
Yeah. So my name is Beth Liesenfeld. I'm an occupational therapist by training. And I started the IEP lab, which is my company, in 2020 before the pandemic, actually. And what happened was I was an adaptive horseback riding instructor actually before I came to OT. And so very, very heavily interacted with parents. And so that's always been my jam is working with parents. And I worked in early intervention and I worked in outpatient therapy. And then I always knew that I was going to be in schools. I come from a family of educators, probably knew all along that I was going to land there. And so when I came into the school setting that first year, I was like, oh my gosh, this is different. Because it is not parent-centered.
It is not even parent-friendly.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What should parents know before walking into an IEP meeting?
0:00–5:47
2
Who is Beth Liesenfeld and why does she focus on IEP advocacy?
5:47–11:30
3
Why does the IEP process feel like a different language to parents?
11:30–16:29
4
What are the biggest stress points parents face during IEP meetings?
16:29–21:16
5
How can parents tell if an IEP is well‑designed and supportive?
21:16–26:38
6
What strategies help parents create effective, measurable goals in an IEP?
26:38–31:51
7
How can parents modify or amend an IEP when accommodations aren’t working?
31:51–37:16
8
Can twice‑exceptional or high‑ability students qualify for an IEP or 504 plan?
37:16–42:33
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
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TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
TPP 091a: A Conversation With Steve Silberman About His Book “Neurotribes”
TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids