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Your child can run their own IEP meeting — here's why that matters
💡 Involving your child in their own IEP — even a little — builds the self-advocacy skills they'll need long after school support ends.
Most IEP meetings happen about a child while the child sits silently — or isn't in the room at all. But a growing practice called the student-led IEP flips that: the young person helps present their own strengths, challenges, goals, and the supports that actually work for them. It can start small — a fourth-grader sharing a slide about what helps them focus — and grow into a teen leading much of the conversation.
The point isn't to put a child on the spot. It's to build self-advocacy: the ability to understand your own needs and ask for what helps. These are the exact skills that don't come with a diploma but decide whether a young adult can request accommodations in college or on the job, where no IEP team is waiting to do it for them.
You can scaffold this at any age. Let your child pick one thing to say, help them practice it beforehand, and give the team a heads-up so they invite genuine input. Even choosing a personal goal — 'I want to read a whole chapter book' — teaches that the plan belongs to them, not just to the adults. Follow your child's comfort level; a nervous kid contributing one sentence is a real win.