Special Ed Administrators, Do You Want a Less Litigious 2025?

What leads to litigation in special education? One of the most common complaints from parents is the lack of communication between school and home (Sanderson & Goldman). When parents feel that they’re left in the dark either before receiving an IEP or after, that’s when things can escalate. There are steps that special education departments can take that empower both their therapists and the families they serve. One powerful way is to allocate enough time for your therapists to communicate with families, specifically around IEP meetings and with support after the IEP meeting when therapy begins. 

Sufficient Indirect Time

Indirect time constitutes 40% or more of a speech or occupational therapist’s responsibilities, yet it is often overlooked. By ensuring therapists have sufficient indirect time, they can:

- Prepare parents for empowering IEP meetings

- Provide updates on progress and strategies for at-home support (i.e. carryover activities)

- Address parent concerns promptly and effectively.

Having time for parent communication can make a significant different in the relationship between the parents and your district. This consistent communication should not be limited to IEP meetings but should be an ongoing effort to keep parents informed and engaged.

Prepare for Successful IEP Meetings

IEP meetings are an essential tool for ensuring a child’s educational needs are met. However, their success depends heavily on effective collaboration between therapists and parents. 

A well-organized IEP meeting can set the tone for a positive and productive relationship between schools and families. Some things that therapists and the district can do to start off on the right foot can include going over a pre-IEP meeting questionnaire with parents. This can include questions like:

• What are your child’s strengths?

• What hopes do you have for your child’s future?

• What questions or concerns do you have about placement or services

• Address these questions during the meeting to ensure parents feel heard and valued.

For students who do qualify, consider adding in consultation time into the IEP Services. I recommend ten to fifteen minutes monthly, but you have to take each student and their needs into consideration. A child and their parents who are learning to use an AAC device will need more consult time per month. 

Therapists will need indirect time to go over these questions with parents before the IEP meeting and provide parents with an outline of what to expect at an IEP meeting (a simple agenda sent the week before can work magic).

By getting your IEP ducks in a row, a week or two before the meeting, will make a huge impact on how parents view the services you are or are not offering. 

Our Agency, Green Speech Therapy, offers monthly training on topics like holding successful IEP meetings. We also love contracting with districts that support a hybrid model of work so that therapists can do their direct work in person and also have distraction free time to do their indirect work, including creating carryover activities for parents and preparing parents/caregivers for successful IEP meetings. Studies like the Sanderson & Goldman (2022) study highlight that by addressing concerns before they escalate can foster parents’ positive relationships with the schools. 
If your school district needs staffing solutions for special education and you want specialized, professional candidates, reach out to us!