What to Say: A Parent's Guide to Every IEP Meeting (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798189691034)

You're sitting across from six school staff members, everyone fluent in acronyms - and someone just slid a form across the table for your signature. Do you know what to say next?

Most special education resources explain your rights in dense legal language, then leave you to improvise your own words in the room. This book does the opposite. It hands you the exact language for the moments that matter, built around a curated system of Gold, Silver, and Emergency scripts - not one rigid script, but layered options you can reach for depending on the moment you're actually in.

Inside, you'll find:

• Word-for-word scripts for requesting evaluations, disputing decisions, and responding when you hear "we don't have the resources"
• A Red Flag / Green Flag decision tree for reading what school staff are really telling you
• A documentation binder system and a fill-in follow-up letter template, so nothing important gets lost after the meeting ends
• An escalation roadmap covering every step available before formal due process
• Twelve printable tools, including four fully filled-in sample letters showing exactly what a completed request or dispute looks like

This book is not a legal textbook, and it won't replace an attorney when a dispute genuinely calls for one - it will tell you plainly when that moment has arrived. If you're looking for case law analysis or state-by-state legal citations, this isn't that book. If you want to walk into your next meeting knowing what to say, it is.

You already know your child. This book gives you the words to go with it.