Facilitating Participation: Parents' Perceptions of Their Involvement in the IEP/Transition Planning Process

Significance of the Issue Parent participation in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) planning process had its formal inception in 1975 with the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 94-142). The intent of the mandate was to include parents as educational decision-makers in the process of developing, evaluating, and revising individualized educational programs for their sons and daughters with disabilities (Turnbull & Turnbull, 1986). Fifteen years later, the EHA was re-authorized as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and expanded to include transition planning as a required component of the IEP process for students with disabilities 16 years of age and older (P.L. 101-476, 20 U.S.C. 1401 [a] [19] ) . The IDEA emphasizes the importance of parent and student participation in the transition planing process by requiring school personnel to notify parents when transition planning is scheduled to occur as part of a student’s IEP planning process, and invite both students and parents to the IEP/transition planning meeting. Since its introduction through the EHA, parent participation in the IEP

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