Individualized Education Program Meetings are vitally important!
They represent the opportunity for educators and the families of children with special needs to collaborate on the development of a customized education plan.
Fortunately, most IEP meetings run smoothly and result in programs that are effective and have the full support of both educators and family members. Sadly, a small percentage of these meetings are challenging.
When challenges occur, IEP meetings can quickly go from being positive and cooperative to being contentious and stressful. That's why there is a need to equip staff with needed facilitation tools and technique.
What's inside?
- an overview of facilitation basics, definitions, the essential core practices, tips about when and how to assume the neutral role
- chapters on decision-making tools and the effective use of questions
- dozens of process tools that bring structure and cohesion to conversations
The core of this book is organized around the specific facilitation tools that have been found to be effective at each of five distinct stages in the development of Individualized Education Programs.
For each stage, there's a short description of the purpose of that stage, the activities conducted and the challenges commonly encountered. For each stage, there's also a list of the most commonly made mistakes, the best practices and the facilitation tools that can be used to achieve optimal results.
Once you start applying these tools, you'll find that you won't want to run your Individualized Education Plan meetings without them!
Author Biography:
Ingrid Bens is the President of Facilitation Tutor, which is a consulting firm created to further the practice of facilitation as a core leadership competency. Ingrid has a Master's Degree in Adult Education and over 25 years of experience as an Organization Development Consultant. Her consulting experience includes the design and facilitation of large-scale, strategic change efforts in a number of Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and nonprofit organizations. Ingrid has consulted on many team implementation projects in banks, hospitals, research firms, educational institutions and manufacturing plants. She has also led many projects to improve employee morale and help management shift to a more inclusive approach to leadership. Ingrid Bens is the well-known author of multiple bestselling books on the topic of facilitation, most notably Facilitating with Ease!, which is in its fourth edition and which has been translated into multiple languages, including Chinese. She is also the author of Advanced Facilitation Strategies and Facilitating to Lead, plus the Memory Joggers entitled Facilitation at a Glance! and The Conflict Handbook. In 2009, Ingrid Bens was asked by Pfeiffer Publishing to create the Facilitation Skills Inventory (FSI). This is currently the only validated instrument available for the assessment of facilitator competency. When she isn't consulting or writing, Ingrid Bens conducts workplace seminars on facilitation skills, team management and conflict management. Her extensive client list includes General Electric, Honeywell, The International Monetary Fund, Merck, CitiGroup, The Department of Veteran's Affairs, Gannett Publishing, Keurig Green Mountain, The National Education Association, The Environmental Protection Agency, AARP, Alcon, The Federal Deposit Insurance Commission, The National Institute for School Leadership, Harley-Davidson, Boeing, KPMG Consulting, The Securities and Exchange Commission, NASA, Philadelphia Children's Hospital, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, Genzyme and US Bank and, of course, Region 4 Education Service Center.
