Law Office of Robyn A. Traywick

02/08/2026

IEP Tips and Tricks continued:

7. Limit the length of the IEP meeting-In my experience once the meeting is going on three hours myself and the entire IEP team is worn out and additional time is not beneficial. I ask to continue the meeting to another date at that point. If the school refuses, then I make my request to continue the meeting in writing and ask the school for a PR-01 for its rationale in refusing my request.

8. Request data and information to be discussed at the meeting ahead of time-I do this so I can review and be prepared to go forward at the meeting. If a school does not provide the information to me ahead of time and expects me to review it at the meeting, I give them two options. One they can sit there and wait while I read through everything, and I will make them wait until I have read and understood it, or they can reschedule the meeting to give me time to review it first.
I once had an IEP meeting with 14 school staff present where they failed to give me the ETR ahead of time despite my repeated requests, and the ETR was 47 pages long, and they chose to wait while I reviewed it. After 20 minutes and I was not done reviewing it they decided to reschedule the meeting. Never had a problem after that with the district getting me materials ahead of time.

9. Know that in my experience “special education coordinators” for districts have no direct supervisory role over any of the teachers. These individuals have a job I like to describe as putting square pegs in round holes and are often held accountable for things over which they have no control. Teachers, including special education teachers are supervised by school principals. I hold principals accountable for making sure their staff are following the laws, IEPs, 504 plans and the like. This is one of the systemic issues that allows nonspecial education teachers and staff to feel like children with IEPs are not part of their class or school and needs to stop.

10. If an IEP team is recommending a change in programs or schools or my client would like to visit a placement they found, I always ask that my clients be able to visit the proposed placements and speak with the staff there. You can learn a lot about a teacher just by going in their classroom. Is it warm and inviting, or does it look like a prison cell lacking color and softness? I have a checklist I have developed for parents of things to look for when they do a program visit to help them assess the different programs.

11. Be aware of changes in placement within a school. Example a child with an IEP is routinely in in school suspension, a resource room, sitting in the hall, sitting in the office, when their IEP calls for services in the general education classroom. If these are happening routinely for more than a short period, 2-3 weeks then they may constitute a change in placement. I have had cases where a child was in a school resource room full time, even though their IEP said location of services was in the general education environment. In Ohio presently parents or custodians must give written consent for a change in placement. The school needs to collect data and assess why the child’s needs are not being met in the general education environment and then any change in placement needs to be a team decision, including parents.

12. Learn how to write emails and letters to school and district staff to create a documentation trail. “ Dear Principal Jones, to follow up on our conversation last Friday the following is my understanding of next steps……” Basically, recapping the highlights of the conversation and sending it to them, including a line that if anything is not accurate that they notify you of same. It is also a good way to keep yourself on track when there are numerous tests, evaluations and the like going on at the time.

Stayed tuned for more IEP tips

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01/31/2026

It is IEP season once again. Here are some of the suggestions I give to my clients who have disabled children in the public schools who have IEPs and/or are in the evaluation process for their child to have an IEP.

1. Set priorities and be realistic-I suggest focusing on no more than 3 things at any one meeting and prioritize them by importance. I prioritize my cases by first-physical safety and then emotional safety of the child if those two items are in place then I move on to academic and other issues. It has been my experience that if a parent walks into an IEP meeting with a list of 20 different issues the odds of getting anything done are very low because the meeting will be all over the place.

2. Be on time and prepared for meetings-to me, arriving on time to a meeting is a reflection of respect of the school’s time and it shows them that the meeting is important to me. I suggest wearing business casual or Sunday best to school meetings because appearances do matter. I take something to drink, a pen, notepad, tissues and mints or hard candies to meetings. Depending on the situation sometimes I will bring candy or cookies for everyone to the meeting as an ice breaker.

3. Bring a support person-I suggest to clients that they never go to IEP meetings alone, rather take a family member and/or friend. Typically I ask that the other person take notes and observe the nonverbal communications going on during the meeting. They can also help me debrief after the meeting.

4. Bring my child’s team- I can also bring others to the meeting on behalf of my child-sports coaches, scout leaders, Sunday School leaders, counselors, academic coaches, babysitters, anyone who knows the child and can bring their perspective of the child to the meeting. Having a couple of other people on my child’s team during IEP meetings can make all the difference in the world in the outcome.

5. Hold the school staff accountable for being at the meeting on time and staying for the full meeting, unless I waive their attendance which has to be in writing and obtained by the school. For Jack in the Box meetings, which is what I call it when school staff jump in an IEP meeting for 10 minutes then say they have to go, I pull out my phone and ask to reschedule the meeting for when that staff member can give it their complete attention. Same thing if the school schedules an IEP meeting for a set amount of time-15, 30 minutes and tries to rush everything to meet their preordained time frame.

6. Take breaks-if things get too heated, I get frustrated, tired, upset etc, I will ask to take a 5 minute break to go splash water on my face, walk outside whatever. I will also ask for a break if a teacher/ school staff member is being inappropriate and leave the room to give staff a chance to address the staff member’s behavior in private.

Stayed tuned for more tips on surviving IEP meetings

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10/18/2022

IEP Goals-Creating the Perfect Victims
One of the things I routinely see on the IEPS of disabled children, are goals along these lines:

"John will follow adult directions the first time given within 30 seconds, 95% of the time"

Goals like this focus on getting the child to blindly follow directions of adults around them, making them the perfect victims for predators. The statistics on the abuse of disabled individuals show that they are much more likely to be the victims of abuse then non-disabled individuals. See the article below. Let's not add to the problem.

Then this goal is setting the behavioral expectations for a disabled student higher than a non-disabled student, again something I routinely see.

As for the "30 seconds" criteria in the goal, that is how we train dogs, not children. How is it going to be measured? Is the teacher going to be walking around all day with a stop watch?
A better goal is to focus on teaching children how to ask for help, clarification of directions, or negotiate as to the conditions of the directions. These are valuable, transferrable skill which they can use for the rest of their lives.

09/02/2022

Education Question of The Day

Question: My son is being targeted at school by bullies and he used to love school but now hates it. He has come home with bruises from being body checked into lockers, tripped and hit by these other students. It is really impacting his mental health. What can I do to protect him?

Answer: Research has proven that bullying has a negative lasting impact on students and the law is catching up with these findings. Students now have legal protection from bullying, however some school districts are slow to adopt and/or implement these protections. I have had students receive physical injuries as severe as concussions, broken bones and stitches as well as either su***de or attempt su***de, and still had the school try to dismiss the behaviors of the bully and/or blame the victim.

The first thing I tell my clients to do is to put the school on notice of the issue. This means sending the school the notice in writing, either hard copy paper and keep a copy with an acknowledgement from the school on the date it was delivered or sending the notice in an email. The notice should include a request for a safety planning meeting, and a date by which I want a response. If a child is actively in harms way I might ask for a response in 24 hours, if it has been ongoing with no escalation I might ask for a response in 7 days. Below are two websites which list out the necessary elements in the notice.

A safety planning meeting is where the school administrators, teachers, counselors, parents and if appropriate the student who has been harmed. Note I personally do not have the student attend until I have a grasp of the school response as I have had situations where the child attended and was then verbally attacked by the school staff.

The safety plan should have a concrete method for keeping the victim and the bully apart at all times. Example: Ms.P will monitor Student A in the hallway when he is changing classes between first and second period. Mr. M will monitor student A in the lunch room between 12:00 and 12:20. Student B will move from first period algebra to fourth period algebra so they are not in the same class etc. The plan should be in writing and provided to Student A's teachers, aids, specials teachers and any other adults who will be providing the additional supervision or who need to know about it.

One point I would like to make to parents of the victims is that in my years of experience I have yet to deal with a bullying situation where the bully does not have major home life issues such as physical/emotional abuse, adult drug usage, and the like. This is not meant to excuse the bully's behavior but rather to identify that the bully is often a victim too and needs support and services.

Parents can learn more about their and their students' rights at the two websites below.

Ohio Bar Association.

https://www.ohiobar.org/public-resources/commonly-asked-law-questions-results/education/ohio-law-prohibits-bullying-in-public-schools/

Ohio Department of Education

https://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Student-Supports/Anti-Harassment-Intimidation-and-Bullying-Resource/Anti-Bullying-Resources-for-Parents

Stay tuned for more education/special education tips.

This information is for educational purposes only and is not legal advice for individual situations. Education law has a wide array of exceptions and exclusions which may impact your particular situation differently than the above. If you need legal advice for your situation, please contact an attorney.

09/01/2022

While there are many websites and resources out there for parents of disabled children, the two I use routinely are https://www.disabilityrightsohio.org and www.wrightslaw.org Both websites have step by step directions as well as sample letters and forms.

09/01/2022

Education/Special Education
Question of the Day: The school keeps calling me in the middle of the school day and telling me I have to pick up my son because they were acting out otherwise they would suspend them, what should I do?

Answer: Under Ohio law schools may only send children home early if they are suspended or removed pursuant to an emergency removal. (The obvious exception to this is if the child is sick) Both of these options require the school to provide the parent with paperwork outlining the reason for the removal. For suspensions/expulsions the paperwork must include how the parent can appeal the decision. Appeals must be in writing and the turn around time frames to appeal are extremely short. I will get into the appeal process in a later post.

In my experience teachers and schools send children home for behaviors because they do not want to deal with the behaviors and/or they do not have the resources for the child. The child misses an excessive amount of school, and sending them home reinforces the negative behaviors-ie if I act up I get to go home and play games. Additionally I have seen this happen in cases where the child missed 30-50 days of school because of being sent home early, and then the school district turns around and files truancy charges against the parents. The parents have no paper work to show that it was the school who sent the child home early, not the parent.

When the school calls to tell the parent to pick up the child or face suspension, I tell my clients to choose having the child suspended and/or ask if it is an emergency removal. Then to ask for the required paperwork for either method, and to make the request in writing, usually via email. This way there is a documentation trail to show that the school is not meeting the child's needs and the school cannot come after the parent for truancy.

I also tell my clients that if this is happening routinely to request a meeting with the school to either do a special education evaluation, or if the child already has an individualized educational program (IEP) to develop a behavior modification plan (BMP). Again these requests to the school need to be in writing.

Stay tuned for more education/special education tips.

This information is for educational purposes only and is not legal advice for individual situations. Education law has a wide array of exceptions and exclusions which may impact your particular situation differently than the above. If you need legal advice for your situation, please contact an attorney.

Send a message to learn more