Parents Guide To ARD Meetings
Table of Contents
What Are ARD Meetings?
ARD is an acronym for admission, review, dismissal and is in reference to special education services. If your child is under the special education umbrella, ARD meetings are required to happen every year
Who Participates?
Participants in ARD meetings are called the ARD committee. The ARD committee consists of the following participants
- Parents or guardian of the child
- General education teacher
- Special education teacher
- School administrator
- Related services, if applicable, such as speech therapist
- Person who can interpret the results of the evaluation, such as a diagnostician
What Is The Purpose Of ARD Meetings?
As stated above, ARD meetings discuss the admission, review and dismissal of your child’s status in special education services.
Admission:
An admission ARD is held to determine if your child meets the criteria for special education services. The evaluator will discuss the results of your child’s evaluation and if they are eligible. Eligibility for special education services differs from state to state. If they meet the criteria, your child will receive an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). The special education teacher will walk through proposed goals, accommodations and schedule that will be included in their IEP. The IEP is an important part of the ARD meeting and will be discussed in detail later.
Review:
The review ARD, or annual ARD, brings the committee together to review the progress made from the last IEP as well as revise it for next year. Did your child make progress on their goals? Were the accommodations helpful? Was the schedule of services enough to support your child? The special education teacher will be “driving” this meeting but each person on the committee will speak to their observations. Once the special education teacher addresses the progress from the last IEP, they will propose new goals, accommodations, and a schedule to be worked on. Of course, you have the right to agree or disagree with their proposed revisions.
Dismissal:
A dismissal meeting is held to dismiss your child from services. This could happen because your child is graduating high school or you are requesting their services be terminated. Alternatively, it could be that an assessment was done and determined that your child no longer needs special education services. If dismissal is an option for your child, you should be notified before the ARD meeting.
Parent Expectations For ARD Meetings
Before the meeting:
- Prepare a list of questions you have for the committee. There is a lot of information to digest in ARDs so writing down your questions ahead of time can help you stay on track.
- Become familiar with special education terms you might hear in the meeting. Reviewing this list a great place to start.
- Write down any behaviors that you observe at home that you would like to address with the committee. Think of the ARD committee as part of your team. Maybe they see the same behaviors at school and have found techniques proven to be helpful.
- Collect any medical paperwork on your child that is applicable to their learning.
During the meeting:
- Ask questions. If you don’t understand something, ask for clarification.
- Advocate for your child. If you feel your child needs a different level of support than what the revision suggests, say it. You know your child best and having open, respectful communication is the best way to get them what they need.
- Request for time to think about the IEP before signing the document if needed. Some parents need more time to digest everything in the IEP to ensure it works for their child.
After the meeting:
- Look for progress reports. The IEP will outline how often you should receive them, usually around the time that report cards go out. Progress reports will detail how far along your child is to their specific goals.
The IEP
IEP is an acronym for Individualized Education Plan. It is a legal document that lays out the schedule of support and services that your child will receive under special education services. The goal of an IEP is to meet your child where they are on their education journey, while still giving them access to the general education curriculum. While an IEP can be tens of pages long, there are a few sections that are important for parents to look at:
PLAAFP statements:
A PLAAFP is a summary of a student’s strengths and challenges in a given area. A child will have a PLAAFP for every area they have a goal in. For instance, if your child has a goal for reading and social emotional learning, then they will also have a PLAAFP for each of those areas. The special education teacher writes them with input from other teachers that work with your child, such as the general education teacher. They will change every year at the annual ARD as your child progresses in school.
Goals:
Goals are given in areas related to your child’s learning disability and are intended to be worked on for the year. For instance, if your child has a learning disability in reading comprehension and math calculations, then they would receive goals in those areas. Goals are specific to your child and focus on progress. They will always have access to the general education curriculum, but they will be working on their specific goals to ensure they are progressing within their abilities.
Schedule:
The schedule of services is specific to your child’s needs. There is an option for inclusion support, where a teacher comes into your child’s general education classroom and supports them. There is also an option for pull out support where your child works in a small group setting in a special education classroom for part of the day. The schedule also aligns with their goals and their disabilities. If they have a goal for reading and math, then they will have inclusion, pull out time or both for each subject. For instance, they could have 30 minutes a day pull out for reading and 30 minutes a day of pull out time for math.
Accommodations:
Accommodations are given to students with learning differences to level the playing field. The goal of an accommodation is to give all students access to the same information by removing barriers they face due to learning disabilities. Examples of accommodations could be text to speech, providing math manipulative, small group testing, etc. Visit our guide to accommodations if you would like a more thorough explanation and examples of accommodations.
Do you still have questions about how to best support your child through ARD meetings? Send us a message via our connect page. We would love to help you in any way!
2 Comments
Kirsten
I learned something new today. Great post!
Maureen
These are very helpful tips for parents of students with different abilities. As a teacher who has attended many of these meetings over the years, I can see how parental involvement makes such a difference in a child’s progress. It really helps to attend the meeting in person or through a video Zoom instead of just phoning in, as the educators typically have work samples and test results to show the parents. It definitely is more difficult to absorb all the information over the phone.