This week we had our annual review for our son’s IEP meeting. It was not just any meeting, this meeting was his "articulation" meeting to high school. After 11 years in the special education system, we had reached the milestone of moving to high school and in our case going to a new district.
The theme of the meeting for us was to establish, in an indelible way, that high school is about setting the stage for what comes next, establishing the necessary linkages and natural supports in the community, teaching the skills and self advocacy to go on to college and beyond. It may be a tall order but we have at least 5 years to get there. To make the point I did 2 primary things at the meeting: one, I presented 2 input statements [Download Cole Fox’s input_3607.doc , Download Cole Needs Accommodations.doc ]
and, two, was to present 
an ensemble of my daughter’s doll furniture, showing a boy lying in bed watching television. The narration for this ensemble was that when my son gets out of high school he can not be the boy in the bed with nothing to do day after day but watch television. This unorthodox approach certainly got their attention, made the main point and created a memorable moment that no one in the room will soon forget.
The focus of the two input statements was to introduce a new staff to our son’s history (medically, socially and educationally). It was also important to share his interests, give a personal view of our son, itemize accommodations/modifications and other strategies that have worked, and anticipate problems going into a new building. The input statement provided the new staff with a road map to hopefully give them a running start at the beginning of next year, coupled with a sense of the student who is coming into their school.
Strategically, these input statement were being presented to a friendly high school staff. We did not raise any complaints or criticisms because there are none at this time that are worth making a fuss over. In other situations, input statements may need to strike a decidedly different tone and with a different purpose; to make a record of violations and requests for corrections and remediations. Input statements are critical parts of parental advocacy, but they must be written to meet the needs of the case at any given time.
The day after my son’s meeting I helped prepare an input statement for a client whose son has been in a terrible placement and has a terrible IEP both as written and as implemented. That input statement is decidedly different in tone and focus. That input statement is: [Download SW input_statement.doc]
In the meantime, get your word processors humming with your input statements, and if you would like to share excerpts from effective input statements or strategies for IEPs that have worked please do so.