TPP 318a: 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
43 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 16 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?
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Hey, it's Debbie. All this month, I'm sharing some of my most popular school-focused conversations from the archive. So every Friday in September, you're gonna hear an episode on things like IEPs, starting the school year off on the right foot, and what to do if school isn't going as planned. I hope these replays give you some fresh insights and support as you navigate the month. Here's today's show.
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 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.
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 Reber. 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 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 accommodations aren't being effective or if a school isn't following through in a way that the IEP outlines. Through her own school experience, Beth saw inequity in parents' ability to advocate for 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 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
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.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What should parents know before walking into an IEP meeting?
0:00–5:31
2
How can parents identify and reduce the biggest stress points in IEP meetings?
5:31–10:30
3
What makes an IEP goal effective and how can parents help write SMART goals?
10:30–15:54
4
How do you choose the right accommodations and tailor them to a child’s specific needs?
15:54–22:05
5
Can school‑refusal or anxiety be built into an IEP, and what accommodations help with attendance?
22:05–27:16
6
What procedural rights do parents have and how can they request IEP amendments without a new meeting?
27:16–32:56
7
How can parents advocate for twice‑exceptional (2e) learners and ensure all strengths are addressed?
32:56–38:34
8
What resources and next steps does Beth recommend for parents preparing for future IEP reviews?
38:34–43:06
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
TPP 266a: A Conversation with Poet and Advocate LeDerick Horne
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