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How to Fill Out IEP Forms (forms may slightly vary between SELPAs. Refer to Special Ed Director for any clarification.)
10 STEPS TO COMPLETE AN IEP
- Click on the Choose Student icon to get your student list; click on student name to go to IEP Manager. Let your district special education secretary know if any of your students do not appear or if you see any students on your list that are not yours.
- Go to Student Profile under Student Info menu to check accuracy of information that will go directly onto IEP forms:
• Demographics: ethnicity, race, EL type
• Contacts: must at least have one primary contact
• Providers: must have case manager, all service providers should be listed
• Goals: Complete goals in Goal Developer
• Vision/Hearing results; Medication; Overall health: can enter entire caseload under Student Info/Student Profile/Medical tab when you get report from nurse. Lists/reports can be created once this information is in SIRAS.
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Select Meeting Purpose on IEP Manager to get all forms associated with that meeting type. The definition of each Purpose will appear, or refer to the handout ‘Selecting a Meeting Purpose’.
- Enter meeting date, time, and location, if known. You may enter this information at any time. Enter the Plan Effective date - review the definition of this field in the tooltip.
- Browse the available forms by selecting IEP Manager Tabs: Basic forms (IEP forms); Pre-Meeting forms; ISP Forms*; Assmt Report*; Other forms and Upload Documents. * not available in all SELPAs.
• Pre-Meeting tab contains the forms used prior to the meeting such as the Meeting Notice and the Assessment Plan.
• Basic Forms tab opens as the default and contains all the forms that are used at the time of the actual meeting. Once all the required forms have been submitted click the ‘Preview/Print’ link to assemble the IEP.
• Assmt. Reports tab (not available for all SELPAs) contain the narrative assessment reports. Once all the required forms have been submitted click the ‘Preview/Print’ link to assemble the IEP.
• ISP Forms tab is used to develop the ISP forms. Once the first ISP form is submitted the student’s plan type will change to ISP and ‘ISP Forms’ will be the default tab instead of the Basic Forms tab.
• Other forms tab contains other forms that may be necessary for the IEP meeting but is not a numbered page in the IEP such as the Health History or Parent Interview forms.
• Uploaded Documents tab is used to upload any document associated with the meeting such as doctor’s notes or an evaluation from an outside source, etc. If the form is uploaded as a PDF document it can be appended as a numbered form with the IEP. If you designate it as a copy of the signed signature page under ‘Category’ SIRAS will replace the uploaded signature page with the blank one. Click the blue question mark button located in the lower left corner for more details. DO NOT enter periods in the file name of an uploaded form.
• Links / Requests manage the form links sent to parents/guardian; General Ed; or Other Participant for form completion outside of a SIRAS user and eSignature requests.
• Review Pending Changes tab will allow the user to any the pending updates which will be only applied to the MIS Summary once the Meeting has been Held and if the Parent Accepts the Plan.
• Change Log presents a timeline of changes to the IEP before and after consent has been received.
Meeting Participation form: The Participation form is to be signed at the beginning of the IEP meeting to record the attendance. The Parents/Guardians and all IEP Team Members present at the IEP meeting will sign the Meeting Participation form. This form does have the ability to track participation for multiple continuation meetings if necessary.
a. In Preparation for the IEP meeting the Meeting Participation form is to be printed out and then presented to the Parent and IEP Team at the start of the meeting to be signed.
b. If you are holding a remote meeting, the Meeting Participation form can be sent out electronically by email to the Parent and IEP Team just prior to the meeting by creating a Manage Link request.
c. You do not have to check meeting held to send Manage Link request for the Meeting Participation form.
Consent form: The Consent form is to be signed only by the Parents/Guardians when the IEP has come to Consent, Partial Consent, or Disagreement. The appropriate Parent Response will be selected, and the meeting can them be Finalized.
a. Check Meeting Held once the meeting is completely finished.
b. Choose the appropriate Parent Response.
c. If the parent attended the meeting in person and agrees to the IEP, present the Consent for Placement form to the parent for them to sign.
d. Once the parent signs the Consent for Placement form in agreement, you may select the Parent Response: Accepts the Plan and then Finalize the meeting.
e. If you are waiting on signatures choose Awaiting Consent (Meeting Held must be checked to send the Consent form electronically).
Please note: Verbal agreement is not enough to check Accepts the Plan, you must have a parent signature to choose Accepts the Plan
6. Once you receive signed Consent of the IEP from the Parent, change the Parent Response from 'Awaiting Consent' to the appropriate Parent Response and Finalize the meeting.
7. Use the ‘Print/Preview/Option’ button on the IEP Manager to preview the paginated IEP for the meeting. It is recommended that if there are errors, go back to the IEP Manager, and click on the page, make the correction, and save; then do ‘Print/Preview/Options’ again. It is highly recommended that a complete draft of the IEP is developed prior to the meeting.
• If you will be using a computer during the meeting, you may wish to bring drafts for team members to look at unless you will be projecting the IEP pages onto a screen. In either case, you can make any corrections or changes directly onto the forms. At the close of the meeting, use ‘Print/Preview’ to print out a paginated copy for the team to sign. This is the official copy of the IEP.
• If you will not have access to a computer during the IEP meeting to make changes, print out the forms to present at the IEP. Make copies of the forms for IEP team members to refer to during the meeting and mark “Draft” on those copies, but not on the original document. A “Draft” watermark can be placed on the IEP by clicking the little triangle to the right of the ‘Preview/Print/Options’ link and then select ‘Add draft watermark’. If the IEP have not been checked "Held" the 'Draft' watermark will appear as a default.
• Any changes or corrections made at the meeting will need to be made in handwriting on the original. Once signed, this becomes the official copy of the IEP. Destroy all draft copies.
8. After the meeting
• Click on “Meeting Held” checkbox. SIRAS will apply ‘Awaiting Consent’. Once consent has been acquired, change the Parent Response to ‘Accepts the plan’. That will push all the critical data for the completed IEP over onto the MIS Summary page, for reporting to CALPADS. If you made any handwritten changes on the printed copy during the meeting, go back into the forms on the computer and enter the information so the electronic and printed copies of the IEP are the exactly same.
Clicking on ‘Does not accept the plan/Stay-put’ or ‘Meeting to be continued’ will only insert the dates into the MIS Summary page. All other options will insert all CALPADS updates to the MIS Summary page.
• Use the ‘Print/Preview/Options’ feature to compile the final IEP for proofreading located above. Use Draft Watermark to indicate that the IEP is still a draft.
9. Proofread the IEP carefully to be sure all corrections were made.
• If anything was missed, you can still make changes on the form and reprint that page if needed.
10. Final steps (IEP Manager):
• Check “Translation Needed” where appropriate. If the Agreement and Attendance page indicates oral translation only, do not check the Translation needed box. Translations can be done any time even after the IEP has been ‘Finalized’. It is preferable not to begin the translation before finalizing the IEP to ensure all changes have been made to the IEP before translating.
• Fill in information on drop down menu regarding Parent Participation & Response.
• Check any notes you have put in the Scheduling Notes box on the IEP Manager to be sure they reflect the comments you want to remain in the record after the meeting has been finalized. Delete any working notes or resolved issues. Enter any other information pertinent to the meeting outcome (e.g. "Meeting finalized even though parents did not sign; additional assessment to be conducted before scheduling another meeting.")
• Click on ‘Finalize’ to lock the IEP so no further changes can be made.
• Finalizing the IEP Meeting automatically creates an Archived record in Siras to be reported to CALPADS.
• Send signed original paper copy to the office and click "Sent to district office" from the menu in the Forms Status box under ‘Follow-up’.
• The signature page can be scanned and uploaded as a PDF file into the Upload Documents tab or under Student Info / Student Profile / Upload Documents tab if the meeting had already been Finalized.
• Depending on your district’s policy, normally Admin staff will do a final review of the paper and electronic copies to be sure they are the same and validate the data. General Users will only see ‘Sent to District Office’ checkbox while the Admin users will see both ‘Sent to District Office’ checkbox ‘Form status’ which contains the options:
• Refer to the handout “Issues Related To Finalizing and Reactivating IEPs” for guidelines on when to re-activate a meeting, or when to do an Amendment, versus an Addendum.
