Parents often ask me how to prepare for IEP meetings. One way is to send your child's case manager a list of questions you need answered. Let the case manager know that you need the answers to effectively contribute to the development an appropriate IEP — one likely to produce important progress in important areas. Send the list at least six weeks before any scheduled IEP meeting.

When writing the questions, make sure they're important, specific and answerable. Below are sample questions from the parents of Lucas Enigma, a mythical child with reading and other learning disabilities.

Although the list is incomplete, it should give parents an idea of what the questions should look like.

Looking at this list may cause you to think, "This will take more than one meeting." That's OK. If you need more than one meeting, schedule a second and perhaps a third. Two or more meetings may be justified — but only if they're needed to develop an IEP with an excellent chance of effectively meeting the child's needs.

You should preface your list with a paragraph like this, which includes all the italicized words:

We, Lucas' parents, developed the questions below. For us to participate in an informed way at Lucas' upcoming IEP meeting, we need his IEP team to send us answers to these questions at least two weeks before the meeting. We request that the team send us the answers so we can work with you to develop an IEP that is "reasonably calculated" to ensure that Lucas makes meaningful progress. In addition, we hope that these questions will help you to understand our thinking and concerns. As always, thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Enigma.

Preliminary questions for IEP meeting

1. Progress 2014-15 school year: For each goal and objective (required by some states) in Lucas' current IEP, what objective data did the school use to assess his progress? To what extent does the data indicate that he made enough progress to achieve each goal and objective in his IEP? Please send us copies of the objective data, in list, graph or whatever form you use to record the data. And please summarize the information.

2. Social-emotional learning assessment: Lucas' social-emotional difficulties impede his learning. What will the school do to identify his exact social-emotional difficulties? Psychological Assessment, Dr. Jones, 3/15: "Observation, interviews and testing suggests a poor self-concept." Social Work Report, 3/15: Lucas needs a "social-emotional support system [to] develop his confidence."

3. Social-emotional learning intervention: What will the school systematically do to improve Lucas' social-emotional learning? What scientifically validated methods will it use? What evidence supports these methods? If you have such evidence, please send us copies or the references. How and how frequently will the school objectively measure and report his social-emotional learning progress to us (his parents)? How will the school teach him to generalize his social-emotional learning to life outside of school?

4. Word identification assessment: Exactly what word recognition difficulties impede Lucas' progress? In other words, what does he have to learn to quickly and accurately recognize or decode words? How and when will the school assess this? Reading Specialist, 3/15: WXYZ Test of Letter-Word ID = 9th percentile. Reading Specialist, 3/15: Rangers Reading Inventory, words in isolation = frustrated at third-grade level, instructional at second grade.

5. Word identification intervention: What will the school do to improve Lucas' word identification so he can quickly and accurately recognize words and comprehend at grade level? What scientifically validated methods will the school use? If you have such scientific studies, please send us copies or the references. How and how frequently will his progress be objectively and meaningfully measured? How and how frequently will the school report Lucas' progress to us, his parents, so we can coordinate our in-home assistance?

6. Reading comprehension assessment: How will the school assess Lucas' ability to comfortably understand lengthy passages from the third-grade books that will be used in his classes? Reading Specialist Report, 3/15: Gray Passage Comprehension (short passages) = 8th percentile. Reading Specialist Report, 2/15: "Lucas' language arts teacher reports ... he comfortably reads short passages at a mid-second-grade level, though he sometimes struggles at this level because of word recognition difficulties."

7. Reading comprehension intervention: What will the school systematically do to improve Lucas' reading comprehension so he can read typical third-grade-level passages without difficulty? What scientifically validated methods will the school use? If you have such scientific studies, please send us copies or the references. How and how frequently will the school objectively and meaningfully measure his progress? How will the school report Lucas' progress to us, his parents, so we can coordinate our in-home assistance?

8. Writing assessment: Other than by standardized tests, how will the school assess Lucas' ability to write coherent essays typical of third-graders with his verbal abilities? How will the school identify instructional barriers that might interfere with his progress? Reading Specialist Report, 3/15: "Lucas did poorly on all standardized tests of writing ability. He writes far below his cognitive abilities and his grade. He says he hates writing."

9. Writing intervention: What will the school systematically do to improve Lucas' writing achievement and ability to write coherent paragraphs and compositions at his grade level? What will the school do to improve his attitude toward writing? What scientifically validated methods will the school use? If you have such scientific studies, please send us copies or the references. How and how frequently will the school objectively and meaningfully measure his progress? How will the school report his progress to us, his parents, so we can coordinate in-home assistance?

10. Memory assessment: Lucas' records show and we, his parents, believe that his memory is a major problem that blocks his academic and social progress. How will the school identify, teach and assess the effectiveness of memory strategies he needs to master? Speech and Language Evaluation, 3/15: "Lucas' memory ... is weak." WXYZ Memory Test, Dr. Jones, 3/15: Working Memory Index 5th percentile. Classroom teacher, Estella McCormick, 3/15: "Lucas struggles to remember what he apparently knows."

11. Homework assessment: Lucas often finds homework frustrating and overwhelming, which causes him to resist it. How will the school determine the kinds of homework he's likely to succeed on — with moderate effort — and the kinds likely to frustrate him and thus should be avoided?

12. Homework intervention: How will the school modify Lucas' homework so it does not overwhelm or frustrate him, tax his self-regulatory abilities or take him excessive time? How will the school modify homework so he's not stigmatized and he's likely to succeed if he makes a moderate effort?

13. Scheduling of progress meetings: Does the school prefer to meet with us, Lucas' parents, to discuss his progress, figure out how to remove any roadblocks and update his program once every 6 or 8 school weeks? If you have other suggestions, please let us know what they are.

14. Parent training: To improve Lucas' social-emotional well-being, academics and memory, and to improve his attitude toward writing and homework, we've attached a list of parent-training topics that will help us help Lucas. What is the process for scheduling the training sessions?

Cautions

Although many case managers and other IEP team members will try to answer all these questions, some will not. Asking questions like these is unusual, and for many case managers and other IEP team members, may be shocking.

But parents are legal members of the IEP team, and if they're going to help their child, they need to have answers to certain questions. If you don't ask the questions, you're unlikely to get the answers.

If the case manager or other team members don't answer the questions, or give vague and incomplete answers, you've probably gained an excellent understanding of one or more of these: their willingness to help, ability to help, interest in your child's progress, and knowledge of their fields and your child.

Moreover, you've alerted the case manager and other members of the team to your concerns. This may well shape any draft IEP.

In the unfortunate circumstance that parents consider formal legal action, the nature of the response, or lack of response, may strongly support the case as they requested knowledge they need to effectively participate in the development of their child's IEP.

But like the questions posed above, make the questions important, specific and answerable. If they're not important or clearly related to the child's education, don't ask them, as they'll waste school personnel's valuable time.