I am a Sped teacher in New York and have this issue bothering me all year. My district uses IEP Direct to write student’s IEPs so we have access to our entire SPed populations IEPs. There is a teacher in my building who is constantly reading IEPs of students who she does not teach. I have always been under the impression that we are to only know about our individual students. Am I wrong? I did bring the matter up to my CSE chair but nothing was done. I know as a parent I would not want someone who is not teaching my child to be reading their IEP.
Re: IEP and who is allowed to view
Confidentiality is crucial in the world of special education. The purpose of viewing the Individual Eduaction Program (IEP)is to appropriately provide educational services to that student. Unless the educator you have made mention of is expected to provide some support to the student’s academic or behavioral needs, there is no valid reason to view the records. In my school district, documented IEPs are kept locked in that student’s folder and if an individual needs to implement a component, he or she must sign a permission log and have a valid reason to view the IEP. Do you know why the system in your district allows such easy access?
Re: IEP and who is allowed to view
That is incorrect about everyone has access to a child’s scholastic file inclusive of the IEP. Only those persons who have a legitimate interest may be appropriate into the file. This is not difficult to understand.
IEP and who is allowed to view
Creidinger, your response is incorrect. Only those persons who have a legitimate interest may review the child’s or have access to the child’s IEP. Think about it.
Re: IEP and who is allowed to view
I believe that the only those that only those that have a legitimate need is supposed to access those files, but they are availabe to anyone.
Re: IEP and who is allowed to view
NY Sped Teacher,
Without question, any individual in a school setting who does not have a legitimate interest on behalf of a student does not have a privilege of access to a scholastic record. This is made quite clear in FERPA and is likely included in your state regulations for student record management and your local school board policy for the same issue. A child in 2nd grade would not be a legitimate interest to a 5th grade teacher. Please note that IEPs are part of a child’s scholastic record.
DEW
IEP and who is allowed to view
Only those that have the student in class or is the case manager should be looking at those files as well as administrators.
IEP and who is allowed to view
Only those that are directly involved with the student’s education should be privy to their IEP’s. Although all the IEP’s maybe on one system and able the other special educators are able to access the records, they shouldn’t be because if confidentiality is ever broken they can be called in to court and asked to testify as to what they know about the child and their IEP. This could turn into a bad situation for the educator and the school district.
The information in an IEP can be released to anyone in the school who has a need to have information about the child. The teacher can view the IEP. I do not think it is a responsible decision to view information just because you want to see about other children if you do not have a need for the information. The meetings raise a lot of questions for me. I do not understand how any general education teacher can be present in the meeting as long as general edcation teacher is present. We had a situation this year when our special ed teacher was out on a day she had a meeting for one of our stduents. The school is able to have any special educator sit in on the meeting. I do not think that it is fair to the child to have a teacher present who they have never worked with. This is very similar to your issue. The school administration should address the issue.