Tip of the Day: Take the Copy of the Safeguards

As I sit here pouring through IEPs that indicate parents were offered the procedural safeguards and had no questions and having flashbacks to testimony in hearings (apparently asking a question - even if unanswered by a district IEP team member means you participated - but I digress) I thought that it would be great if the actual procedural safeguards were attached to the IEP.

So here's my tip - and I know it means one more piece of paper that you don't want - but take the procedural safeguards and attach them to your copy of the IEP. Or note on the copy the date you received it, what meeting, and who gave it to you (I actually like this option better). Even better if you have the person who gave it to you intial and date it. Why is this important? Well as I sit here pouring over documents that indicate parents had no questions about procedural safeguards and wondering if I can track down a copy from two years ago, I thought how easy it would be if it was already with the document. But why? Well these "safeguards" get updated occasionally (likely when the district gets in trouble about something) so sometimes the copy you can get tomorrow is not the copy they would have given you in December 2007 and maybe, just maybe, it didn't include a safeguard or had wrong information, that has since been corrected. And you never know if that could be helpful.