Increasing student participation in IEP meetings: Establishing the self-directed IEP as an evidenced-based practice

This study examined the effectiveness of the Self-Directed IEP to teach individualized education program (IEP) meeting skills. One hundred and thirty secondary students were randomly assigned to the treatment or control group. Observations of 130 meetings and 764 IEP team members were performed using 10-s momentary time sampling to determine the percentage of intervals team members talked and the percentage of time they discussed transition. Special education teachers completed a pre/post ChoiceMaker self-determination student skill and opportunity assessment, and meeting participants answered postmeeting surveys. The Self-Directed IEP had a strong effect on increasing the percentage of time students talked, started, and led the meetings. This was verified by survey results. These findings add to the growing literature demonstrating the effectiveness of the Self-Directed IEP.