Elevating IEP Meetings: A Trauma-Informed, Culturally Responsive Approach

Dr. Allegra Johnson

Starrisha Godfrey-Canada

& Becky Weinstein-Sanders

Session Description

In an era of changing support, site administrators play a crucial role in ensuring effective individualized education program (IEP) meetings. IEPs can reinforce inequities that our students and families face without thoughtful planning and participation. This session will equip administrators with tools to adopt a trauma-informed and culturally responsive approach, enhance facilitation and educational partner engagement, and ensure legal compliance. By attending, administrators will gain valuable insights into how to lead more effective IEP meetings, ensuring students receive the appropriate support they need to succeed.

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Agenda

1. Trauma & Inequities Reinforced in IEP meetings (5 minutes)
2. Planning and preparation for trauma-informed IEP meetings (7 minutes)
3. Trauma-informed IEP meeting facilitation strategies (10 minutes)
4. Culturally responsive IEP meeting facilitation strategies (13 minutes)
5. Close-out (5 minutes)

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How Does Trauma Show Up in IEP Meetings?

• While the goal of IEP meetings is to be a data-sharing, collaborative time, they can also trigger trauma for caregivers.
• Retraumatization of their own traumas / traumas of their children directly related to the content or due to power dynamics
• Past experiences in school
• Did the parent have a negative experience with an IEP as a child?
• Overall trust in the educational system and the team at the school
• Mental health and current stress levels
• Physical health
• Racial trauma

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FCPS Family Resource Center

(Some) Inequities To Consider In IEP Meetings

• Consider positional power dynamics:
• Who is leading the meeting and making decisions?
• Racial bias:
• How does the leader’s identity impact the process and family?
• Are families feeling dismissed or overlooked due to racial bias?

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Why a Pre-Team Meeting is Essential

• Builds shared understanding
• Centers student and caregiver well-being
• Strengthens collaboration & fosters trust
• Anticipates challenges

Pre-Meeting with School IEP Team Best Practices

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• Review core principles: safety, trustworthiness, collaboration, empowerment

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• Focus on strengths-based language over deficit-based descriptions

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• Plan supportive meeting environment & clarify team roles

• What strategies could help create a more welcoming atmosphere?

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• Prepare for potential challenges and emotional responses

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Pre-Meeting with Parents/Caregivers Best Practice

• Welcome families and clearly explain the IEP process in accessible language

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• Acknowledge past experiences and validate concerns

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• Emphasize parents as experts on their child

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• Discuss communication preferences and emotional support needs

Pre-Meeting Non-Negotiable:

Proposing Significant IEP Changes

• Introduce proposed changes gradually and clearly
• Allow time for processing and questions
• Foster collaborative problem-solving
• Focus on maintaining open dialogue throughout the process

Trauma Informed IEP Facilitation Strategy

Rebuilding Trust While Proposing Significant Changes

Your team is preparing for an IEP meeting with a family who has a history of negative experiences in the special education process. Specifically, the family feels unheard and that their child’s needs are misunderstood. The team wants to propose a more restrictive environment and worries the family will not trust the recommendation and internalize it as a rejection of their child.

What steps would you direct your team to take during your pre-meeting, and what role as the admin designee would you you plan to ensure this meeting is sensitive to the families feelings and past negative experiences?

Trauma Informed IEP Facilitation Strategy

Holding Intentional Space for Emotions

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Holding space for emotions means creating a safe and supportive environment where emotions are openly invited, acknowledged and validated.

Key aspects of holding space for emotions in an IEP meeting:

• Active listening (verbal/nonverbal cues)
• Acknowledging feelings using validating language
• Non-judgmental approach
• Taking breaks if needed

Trauma Informed IEP Facilitation Strategy

Holding Intentional Space for Emotions

Why is holding space for emotions important in IEP meetings?

Better communication�When parents feel heard and validated, they are more likely to openly share their concerns and collaborate effectively with the IEP team.

Positive advocacy�Allows parents to advocate for their child's needs more effectively without feeling pressured to suppress their emotions.

Building trust�Demonstrates that the IEP team respects the parent's perspective and is committed to supporting them.

Trauma Informed IEP Facilitation Strategy

Holding Intentional Space for Emotions

You are serving as the admin designee for an IEP meeting that you are not responsible for facilitating. You observe that the parent is beginning to tear up while the teachers are sharing present levels. Each teacher is piling on the challenges and gaps the child. By the end of the present levels portion, the parent is visibly crying and the Ed Specialist starts transitioning into the next part of the IEP agenda. What do you do?

Culturally Responsive Facilitation Strategies

Cultural Reciprocity

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How can we best ensure culturally responsive interactions with our families?

Culturally Responsive Facilitation Strategies

Cultural Reciprocity

How can we best ensure culturally responsive interactions with our families?

Step 1 - Personal Reflection

• We must acknowledge that we are mostly incompetent in unfamiliar cultures
• Ask ourselves:
• “How do I feel about this parent?”
• Consider your bias, stereotypes, and preconceived notions
• “What is the basis of my assessment of and recommendation for the child?”
• Consider how much you are valuing the parent’s opinion/knowledge vs what you learned in your credentialing program
• “Have we developed a collaborative partnership?” (Rossetti, et al, 2017)
• Reflect on your relationship with the family thus far

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*”Cultural reciprocity in special education: Building bridges to cross-cultural understanding with parent” by Elizabeth Harry (2018)

Culturally Responsive Facilitation Strategies

Cultural Reciprocity

How can we best ensure culturally responsive interactions with our families?

Step 2 - Invite, Listen to, and Respect the Parent’s Views

• Consider how the disability is viewed in different cultures; different cultures may define disability differently
• i.e. if literacy is not a requirement in the community or family, then a child with challenges with reading may not be considered to have a disability
• Consider the underlying beliefs on which people base their interpretation of disability
• Scientific/biological vs spiritual or social basis
• Professionals may consider a parent in “denial;” however, if the interpretation is based on different understandings, then it is just a disagreement/seeing it another way
• Ensure that families have a consistent and effective way to communicate with the school team

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*”Cultural reciprocity in special education: Building bridges to cross-cultural understanding with parent” by Elizabeth Harry (2018)

Culturally Responsive Facilitation Strategies

Cultural Reciprocity

How can we best ensure culturally responsive interactions with our families?

Step 3 - Engage in Full Reciprocity with Parents by Explaining Professionals’ Assumptions and Beliefs

• Explain to parents which perspective we are coming from
• The goal is not to contradict the parent’s beliefs, but to genuinely explain your way of thinking about it, including research
• The goal is not to convince parents to be “on your side” but to accept additional support for their child while their beliefs and views are respected
• Student-first: the student is our number one concern
• For example, “Being LGBTQ is not a disability” (Human Rights Campaign Foundation, 2020) and the school can continue to advocate for the student by using preferred pronouns/names

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*”Cultural reciprocity in special education: Building bridges to cross-cultural understanding with parent” by Elizabeth Harry (2018)

Culturally Responsive Facilitation Strategies

Cultural Reciprocity

How can we best ensure culturally responsive interactions with our families?

Step 4 - Collaborating Reciprocally

• “…[M]ost of us have been trained to assume that our role is to give information and advice, and that the parents’ role is to listen and follow instructions. Yet, at the same time, we state that parent participation is one of our goals.” (Harry, 2018)
• The goal of the professional is to build a bridge with the parent and truly collaborate
• Focus on mutual goals and then build a plan together of how to get there

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*”Cultural reciprocity in special education: Building bridges to cross-cultural understanding with parent” by Elizabeth Harry (2018)

Culturally Responsive Facilitation Strategies

Cultural Reciprocity

How can we best ensure culturally responsive interactions with our families?

Appropriate and Supportive Communication

• Reduce the use of:
• Professional jargon (i.e. acronyms)
• Abstract terminology (i.e. “manipulatives” vs “small blocks to count with”)
• Medicalized language (i.e. “visual processing disorder” vs “learns best by listening”)
• With written communication, keeping in mind:
• Literacy levels
• Intimidation of receiving impersonal letters without explanation
• Reducing the jargon and keeping it clear

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*”Cultural reciprocity in special education: Building bridges to cross-cultural understanding with parent” by Elizabeth Harry (2018)

Culturally Responsive Facilitation Strategies

Cultural Reciprocity

Your special education teacher/case manager comes to you stating that she has been trying to schedule an IEP meeting for weeks with a parent that is normally quite responsive. Her student has also been absent frequently since January 20th. She has not been answering calls or texts consistently. You advise her to go ahead and hold the meeting at school. When the meeting day comes, parent does not attend.Your teacher/case manager comes to you very frustrated and states, “Clearly this mom doesn’t care about her child’s education. It’s so upsetting.” As the administrator, you have known this parent for four years and she has never missed an IEP meeting before.

• Keeping in mind the steps for cultural reciprocity:
• How would you approach coaching your teacher/case manager through this situation?
• What next steps would you personally take in this situation as the administrator?

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Culturally Responsive Facilitation Strategies

Cultural Reciprocity

Step 1 - Personal Reflection

Step 2 - Invite, Listen to, and Respect the Parent’s Views

Step 3 - Engage in Full Reciprocity with Parents by Explaining Professionals’ Assumptions and Beliefs

Step 4 - Collaborating Reciprocally

Appropriate and Supportive Communication

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References

Guidelines: Human Rights Campaign Foundation and the National Association of School Psychologists. (2020). Advocating For Lgbtq Students With Disabilities A Guide For Educators And Parents/ Guardians On Supporting Lgbtq Students With An Iep Or 504 Plan.

Article: Rossetti, Z., Sauer, J. S., Bui, O., & Ou, S. (2017). Developing Collaborative Partnerships With Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families During the IEP Process. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 49(5), 328–338.URL

Article: Harry, Elizabeth. (2018). Cultural reciprocity in special education: Building bridges to cross-cultural understanding with parent. Journal of Early Childhood Studies, 2(2), 383-396.URL

Video: FCPS Family Resource Center. (2021, April 12). Infusing Trauma Informed Considerations into the IEP Process. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1WfldQdAMo

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