Questions to Ask Your Child's Special Education Teacher

Special Education Success Starts With Asking Questions |

Parents of special needs children need to dream big and expect greatness from their children and the special education team. Many students are limited by their parents and or teachers expectations! Parents must ask specific questions about their child's academic potential (strengths and weaknesses) and current academic performance. 

Essential Special Education Questions: 

QUESTION YOU MIGHT ASK BEFORE GOING to your first IEP meeting? 

• Is my child making measurable academic progress? Is my child regressing or stagnating academically? What are the progress monitoring instruments being used to measure, evaluate, and modify the special education programs when progress is not made or goals and objectives not being met? Are they Science-based, Research-based, Evidence-based, and or CBM BEST PRACTICES? What documentation do you have and or use, is the documentation in full compliance with state or federal IDEA requirements. 
• What evaluation tools, diagnostic inventories, and baseline assessments are you using to evaluate my child for the initial IEP and or ongoing progress monitoring? What documentation do you have and or use, is the documentation in full compliance with state and federal IDEA requirements. 
• What documentation do you use to evaluate the effectiveness of your special education programs and the effectiveness of your goals and objectives? 
• Are you using overarching goals with no short-term objectives? Why are short-term objectives optional? Do your IEP goals and objectives match the student's current academic levels? What documentation do you have and or use, is the documentation in full compliance with state and federal IDEA requirements. 
• What ongoing documentation do you use and have that shows what occurs when a student is not making progress on short-term objectives or long-term goals?
• How competent are the progress monitoring tools? What determines what progress monitoring tools are used and how often. What is the frequency of their use, weekly, monthly, annually or semi-annual? What do you measure (evaluative /diagnostic)? What is your interpretation of a comprehensive baseline of current academic skills and or competency levels? What documentation do you have and or use, is the documentation in full compliance with state or federal IDEA requirements. 
• Are the goals and objectives clearly/explicitly based on current comprehensive academic baseline data? What documentation do you have and or use, is the documentation in full compliance with state and federal IDEA requirements. 
• Is progress monitoring being effectively used with my child, is it researched and a scientifically based best practice? What documentation do you have and or use, is the documentation in full compliance with state and federal IDEA requirements. 
• Is the data collected from progress monitoring and the comprehensive academic baselines being used to write new long-term goals and short-term objectives? What documentation do you have and or use, is the documentation in full compliance with state or federal IDEA requirements. 
• Do you write SMART goals and objectives for each academic subdomain (reading: decoding, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension)  and or area of weakness for each academic area on the IEP? What documentation do you have and or use, is the documentation in full compliance with state and federal IDEA requirements. 
• What kinds of data do you use to chart progress monitoring? 
• How often do you collect data from progress monitoring and share that data with teachers and parents? 
• What procedures do you have in place when a student is not meeting short-term objectives? 
• How often is progress monitoring data being presented to me and my child, and the teacher?

Start by developing a comprehensive plan to work with teachers, find ways to create a collaborative learning environment where a happy well-adjusted child is the first goal. Start with an understanding of the social-emotional well-being of your child, the procedures for goal setting (academic and social-emotional), and the procedures for progress monitoring and the process of reporting information to all stakeholders. Parents need to get involved at a deeper level and become experts on their child's strengths and weakness. Parents, teachers, and students must have high expectations! 95% of all labeled special education students are not challenged or pushed to meet their maximum potential! By not challenging and having High Expectations for special needs students, What Do We Risk Losing? Their future to thrive in a complex world! 

Asking your child's special education teachers and classroom teachers proactive questions will help you and your child find success. Many topics need to be discussed yearly and asking discovery questions helps all involved stay informed and engaged. Sean D. Taylor M.Ed Special Education

Questions to Ask Your Child's Special Education Teacher: 

• What are the critical academic benchmarks for my child's grade? 
• How do you track my child's progress, and please be very specific? 
• Are the goals and objectives aligned to the grade level standards? 
• Are the goals and objectives rigorous enough to help my child progress as needed and catch up? 
• What questions should I be asking to ensure my child is successful? 
• What are the critical social-emotional, behavioral, or academic barriers to my child's progress? 
• What do you do when my child makes no progress or regresses? 
• How can I help my child prepare for the next grade? 
• How will you prepare my child for a successful transition into the next grade? 
• How do you determine what are the appropriate goals and objectives for my child's IEP? 
• What can I do at home to support Numeracy and Literacy at home? 

General Questions to Ask Your Child's Teacher:

• Is My Child Being Challenged?
• Is My Child Gifted? ALL CHILDREN ARE GIFTED, whats theirs?!
• First Things First, What Do We Need to Do Right Now to Help My Child Thrive?
• What Techniques Are Best for Helping My Child Actively Listen? 
• What Techniques Are Best for Helping My Child Actively Ask Questions? 
• What Can We Do to Help My Child Get Organized? 
• What Can We Do to Help My Child With Stress? 
• Do You Have the Highest Expectations for My Child? 
• Please Tell Me About Your Favorite Teaching Methods?
• Is My Child Demonstrating a Strong Work Ethic?
• What Can We Do to Help My Child with Areas of Need?
• What Advice Do You Have To Help Enrich My Child's Education?
• What Academic Goals Should We Set For My Child? 
• What Can I Do to Help You?

Questions to Ask Your Child's Teacher When Problems Arise! 

PLEASE NEVER AMBUSH THE TEACHER UNANNOUNCED! Share your concerns frankly and ask when the teacher has time to talk! Get to the heart of the matter with deep questions about your child's needs and any concerns you have.

• May I Share What's Going on at Home?
• How Can We Make School Fun and Real? 
• How Can We Light a Fire and Motivate My Child?
• How Can I Help My Child When They Get Frustrated with Homework?
• Is My Child Happy? 
• Is My Child Making Friends? 
• How Is My Child Doing Socially and Emotionally?
• How Is My Child's Focus and Concentration?
• What Academic or Social Emotional Areas Does My Child Need to Make Improvements?
• What Can We Do to Help My Child Get Organized? 
• What Can We Do to Help My Child Deal With Stress? 

Parents that ask how they can help the school build a caring community and a culture of high expectations will find success.


Academic Questions For Parents! BE SPECIFIC! 

• How is My Child Progressing in Math, Reading, Writing, and Science? 
• What Is the Best Way to Help My Child Master Their Math Facts? 
• What Is the Best Way to Study For Spelling Test? 
• What Is My Child's Grade Level Reading Comprehension Percentile Score? 
• What Is My Child's Grade Level Reading Fluency Percentile Score? 
• What Are the Math Skills My Child Needs to Master? 

Students Must Do's For Success!

Students must Actively Listen to teachers and fellow students. Active listening is a communication technique used in classrooms which requires the listener to repeat what they hear to the speaker, by way of re-stating or paraphrasing what they have heard in their own words, to confirm what they have learned and to confirm the understanding of ideas.

Students Must Ask Their Teachers Erudite Questions!

Questions to Ask Your Teachers!

• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Repeat The Directions Again? 
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Give Me A Fun or Humorous Way To Remember This? 
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Write The Directions on My Paper? 
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Explain The Vocabulary In A Different Way?
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Me More Time To Think? 
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Give Me An Advanced Example? 
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Help Me Make A Plan For Success? 
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Help Me Set Goals? 
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Reteach the Lesson?
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Help Me Get Organized? 
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Help Me Make a Checklist To Help Me Be More Responsible? 
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Break Down Your Lesson Into Bite-Size Ideas? 
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Write an Example on My Paper?
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Tell Me More About...?
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Show Me Another Way?
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Give Me More Examples? 
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Make or Model a Real World Example? 
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Give Me a Simplified Explanation? 
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, How Do I Connect This Idea To ....? 
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, How Do I Learn This Process Faster? 
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, What questions Should I Be Asking You? 
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Is There a Hands-on Way to Learn This?
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Why Is This Important For Me To Learn?
• Please, Mr./Mrs./Ms, Will You Show Me A Less Confusing Example?