I’ve officially completed a year of planning for and conducting virtual IEP meetings. Like many (if not all) of you, I NEVER thought I would EVER say that. Seriously. If someone would’ve told me two years ago to create a Zoom Link to send home with my IEP meeting invitations I would’ve thought they were crazy. I mean, I didn’t even know what a Zoom Link was before. Ha!
It’s really crazy for me to think about. For 13 years, I did things just about the same exact way for each of my IEP meetings. Then, 2020 showed up and switched it all up on me. BUT I survived. With only a few tears shed.
Over the past few months, I would get asked in my e-mail and in Instagram messages how I conduct/handle certain virtual IEP meeting procedures/items. Now that a year has passed, I feel confident enough to share how I prepare for my meetings virtually.
From Paper IEP Planning to Digital
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I’ve always kept a binder FULL of IEP forms and student information. Although, I still have my massive IEP binder (I’m not sure I can ever fully part with it), I ended up going full digital on my forms and important paperwork needed for meetings. One of my main reasons for doing this was simply because I was tired of carrying my massive binder back and forth – especially when we were switching between remote and in-person learning. I created all of my IEP Meeting Binders to be easily accessible in Google Slides. Now all of the information I typically kept in my binder is kept in my school Google Drive. I can access this information from anywhere – on my school computer, on my home computer, and even on my iPad.
Turning My Google Drive Into My Digital IEP Binder
Each of my caseload students has their own folder in my Google Drive. I didn’t do this last March when we shut down, but started doing this in September when the new school year started. It did take a little bit of time to set up, but it’s been a HUGE game changer in staying organized digitally. And I mean HUGE game changer. Because everything switched to digital, I am able to easily save meeting input, transition forms, student work, report cards, etc. into each of their folders. I simply download/save it all as a PDF right into each student’s folder in my Google Drive. In years past, I would print out all of these forms/papers and put them in my binder. Hence, why it was so full and heavy by the end of the year.
My Google Drive is also the keeper of ALL of my input forms. At the beginning of the school year I made a copy of each of the Google Forms and saved it into each of my student’s folders, in my Google Drive. This made it easy for me to send input to teachers, parents, students and to the nurse and then have their responses end up in one easy to find location (like I mentioned in the paragraph above). I’ve been using my Google Forms to collect input for many years now. This was the first time I made each student their own form, and I can honestly say it made a WORLD of difference.
Making My Google Forms Simple to Complete
I send all input forms to teachers, and other members of the team I need input from, via e-mail. There is a box to check in Google Forms that allows them to see and complete the form right in the e-mail. Sending the form this way doesn’t require the teachers to click any link to complete the form. Many teachers have thanked me for including the form this way. They told me that seeing the form right away made them want to complete the form right away. Haha. Which, I’m guilty of not replying to an e-mail right away and then it getting lost. So, I’m happy this little feature made things easier.
Inviting Parents, Students, and Other IEP Team Members to the Virtual Meeting
When I send my Google Input Forms to parents, I also send the IEP invitation as an attached PDF, and the Zoom meeting link. Fortunately, all of my students’ parents have e-mails they check pretty frequently. I consider this e-mail my first attempt. If I don’t get a response within a few days, I mail everything home and make a phone. Now, the majority of my caseload students’ parents opted for a phone conference rather than a Zoom meeting link. Which was totally fine. I still sent the Zoom link to the rest of the IEP team members, and then my LEA would call the parents and students on speaker phone for us all to hear. Everyone invited to attend also received a draft copy of the IEP, to have during the meeting.
Keeping Up with Student Transition
As far as collecting student input, I do this same procedure I do for parents. My students are all of transition age and receive their own invitation and input form. If they don’t respond to my e-mail, I would also send an input form home and call home. Throughout the school year, we complete different transition activities/services in my classroom. I keep track of everything using my Transition Tracking Sheets. Recently, I’ve made the sheets digital. I really was over carrying any sort of binder back and forth, haha! Having all transition information that I needed and could easily upload into my students’ folders in my Google Drive made the transition section a breeze to complete.
Staying On Top of All the IEP Paperwork
Amid being overwhelmed by trying to keep track of
everything digitally, I created this IEP Meeting Planner to eliminate loose checklists laying around(and potentially getting misplaced). My IEP Planner was such a great help in keeping track of what I needed to complete before each meeting, while being away from my physical classroom. It helped me so much I still continue to use it while I’m back in my classroom.
With this school year coming to an end, I’m excited/anxious to see what the next school year will bring. Will I still be planning for virtual IEP meetings? Will I changing how I go about preparing again?! We’ve definitely ALL learned how to quickly adapt and change to everything this past school year had thrown at us.
I hope I was able to offer you with some tips/advice on how to plan for any virtual IEP meetings you have. AND AS ALWAYS, if you have any tips/advice on how you plan/conduct your meetings, PLEASE leave them in my comments below! I love learning from others, as well as sharing others’ ideas with others!
Below are links to all resources (found in my TPT shop) I have mentioned above:
IEP Planner and other Planning Interactive PDFs
My Amazon Affiliate Link to my iPad stand: