Organization Tips for IEP Meetings

It is back to school season again!  Special education teachers around the country will have a stack of IEPs in front of them with various dates and loads of information to process and remember.  

Don't get overwhelmed.  Get organized!

I have a couple of little tricks that helped me stay organized and prepared for upcoming meetings.  I hope you'll be able to pull something and make it work for you!

Due Dates

The first thing I do is look at when meetings are due.  A few years ago, my district went from having all of our meetings in the spring to having them stretched out over the entire year.  Yes, that means we could potentially have a annual review or triennial review during the first month of school!  Since I am a visual person, I print out a one-page calendar and fill in the names in the months.    

Color Coding

Color-coding makes my life so much easier!  Once I know dates, I look at the types of meetings students will be having.  I like to sort out the triennial reviews from the annual reviews since there is so much more that needs to go into preparing for them. 

In this case, I have my annual reviews in the green folders and my triennial reviews in the orange folders.  I can quickly and easily see which kids I need to evaluate and when those evaluations are due.  

Post-Its

I use a lot of file folders.  Like more than anybody probably ever should.  I like to reuse my file folders but I hate having messy labels.  Post-its totally solve my problem!  I can label my file folders without ruining the folders.  

I write the student's name, birthdate, and the month their meeting is due on the post-it.  You can write other important information on the bottom of the post-it such as medications or ID numbers.  Sometimes, I use more than one post-it on the inside of the folder for information that I may quickly need to access.  

Once the folder is closed, you can keep confidential information hidden if you put it low enough or on a separate post-it.  

Fill the Folders

At the beginning of the year, I fill the folders with what I will need. I like to keep a checklist of what I will need for the meeting.  I can check off what is included and easily see what I am missing.  If a student has a triennial review, I also load the folder with the testing protocols.  There is nothing worse that getting ready to test a student and finding out that you are out of protocols and need to order more!  When I load the folders, I will know right away if I need to order more and can do so before I need them.

Since I bring the folder with me to the meeting, I also put a notes sheet in each folder so I won't forget it.  My notes sheet helps my stay organized and on-task during the meeting as well as helps me document what happened during the meeting for my own records.  

During the school year leading up to the meeting, I throw in work samples, notes from parents, doctors, or teachers, assessments, and anything else that may be needed at the meeting. 

I treat these folders as working files.  They are for my own records and I can put things in and take things out as needed.  At the end of the year, I sort through each file to determine what needs to be saved in their folder that I keep from year to year before passing it along to their next teacher.  The other contents will either be shredded or sent home with the student.  

It certainly isn't a perfect system but it helps me out a ton!  

You can find all of organization sheets I use along with all of my other special education resources in my Special Education Bundle in my TpT store.

Thanks for stopping by!