Students have a right to attend beginning at age 14, but parents may allow them to attend before that. Speaking from the perspective of a professional IEP team member, I feel strongly that the majority of 14+ year-old students should attend their own IEP meetings, as they need to understand their learning needs and strengths better than any of the adults in the room, as they will have to live with them their whole lives. From the standpoint of self-advocacy, it is also crucial that they begin to have opportunities to understand their own most effective compensatory strategies and accommodations, so that they can make educational, career, and life choices for themselves that suit their profiles, and speak up with confidence when accommodations are not provided by their environment.
