Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Updating IEP

I asked our school psychologist how to update/amend my son's IEP, and apparently the whole IEP team must meet. They seem really nice, so hopefully it won't be a big deal.
His IEP right now only lists as his problem that he is hearing impaired. However, we have documented that he also has an auditory processing disorder but that isn't on the IEP. I'm thinking we should put that in- the two disorders are not the same thing.
I thought about this since my son recently didn't turn in his big, 6-page research paper he wrote. He said the teacher specifically said "do not turn it in," so he didn't. However, I later figured out that she said to turn it and everyone turned it in, except him. I explained it to the teacher and she said, no problem, and accepted it late.
However, maybe sometime a teacher would not be so flexible, right? I figure we should write something in the IEP about that.
Has anyone gone through this- adding new diagnoses to the IEP or adding new accommodations? Will they balk at this or say, sure thing? Thanks for any input!

Sadly we had to add a whole host of new diagnoses and new accommodations to DD's IEP after her last neuropsych eval. There should be no problem having it added as long as it's documented. IMHO there is no reason to have to rely on the kindness or understanding of any individual teacher. This is a legitimate issue for your DS so should be included in his IEP.

We haven't had to add a new diagnosis, but we have updated our ds' IEP without having the full team meet - in our school, if the change was something that the full team agreed on, the change could be made by requesting it via phone or email, the school SPED staff member updated the document, and forwarded the update to us. The times we did this were when we wanted to add or clarify an accommodation.

In this case, I would start by thinking through what accommodation you'd like to have to avoid misunderstandings/misinterpretations of homework assignments, and are there any other accommodations you think should be added for CAPD? If you know what you want to ask for and it's straightforward, call whoever coordinates the IEP at your school and ask if it could be updated without a full team meeting. If you're not sure what to ask for or want to have a brainstorming session with teachers etc, call a team meeting for the update.

FWIW, I think that with the added diagnosis of CAPD you might want to add not just the diagnosis but some descriptive wording to the IEP that explains the impact of CAPD. I don't have an IEP form in front of me at the moment, so I don't remember which part you add that type of info in, but if nowhere else at least in the parents' remarks.

Another upside to having a team meeting for this is it gives you an opportunity to talk to ds' teachers and the SPED staff about how CAPD impacts your ds in the classroom.

Good luck!

polarbear