The IEP Doesn't Take Summer Off: What to Do in the Next Three Weeks

Arizona does back-to-school differently than the rest of the country. While other states are still buying pool floats, our districts start the first week of August. That means the window to get your child's IEP ready for the new year is right now, and it's shorter than you think.

Here's what I walk client families through every July.

Reread the IEP this week

Not the week before school starts. This week. Pull it out and read it like someone who has never met your child, because that's exactly who will be reading it in three weeks.

Check the service minutes. Check the accommodations page. Check the goals and ask yourself whether they still describe your actual child or the child they were nine months ago. Kids change a lot over a summer, and an IEP written last spring can already be out of date.

If something no longer fits, you don't have to wait for the annual review. You can request an IEP meeting at any time, in writing. Do it now and you might get a meeting in the first weeks of school instead of October.

Services start on day one

This is the part schools quietly hope you don't know. The IEP must be in effect at the start of the school year. There is no grace period, no "let us get to know him first," no waiting until the speech therapist's schedule settles. If the IEP says 60 minutes of speech per week, that clock starts the first week of school.

If you hear "we'll start services once things calm down," that is a school being out of compliance while sounding reasonable. Ask, in writing, when services will begin. The answer should be a date in the first week.

Email the new teacher before school starts

Teachers get the IEP. Most of them even read it. But a 25-page legal document is not how anyone learns a child, so I have families send a one-page snapshot instead: what the child's disability actually looks like in a classroom, the three accommodations that matter most, what a hard day looks like and what helps, and how to reach you.

Keep it to one page. A teacher managing 25 students will read one page. Send it about a week before school starts, when they're back in the building but not yet drowning.

This email also does quiet double duty. It creates a paper trail showing the teacher was informed, and it tells the school you're a parent who communicates in writing. That reputation is worth more than you'd expect.

Changing schools? Know the transfer rule

If your child is starting at a new school within the same district, the IEP follows them exactly as written. If you moved to a new Arizona district over the summer, the new district must have an IEP in effect for your child on day one. They can adopt the old IEP as written or convene a meeting to write a new one, but there is no version of this where your child starts the year without one. If you moved from another state, the new district provides services comparable to the old IEP while it decides whether to evaluate and write an Arizona IEP. "Comparable" means similar, not identical, and this is where minutes tend to quietly shrink. Bring the old IEP to enrollment, keep your own copy, and compare the new service grid line by line.

Check for unfinished spring business

A surprising amount of special education paperwork goes into hibernation in May. Before school starts, check whether any of this applies to you:

An evaluation was requested or consented to last spring but never completed. In Arizona, the school has 15 school days to respond to a written evaluation request, and once you sign consent, the evaluation must be done within 60 calendar days. Calendar days, not school days. Summer counts. The only way that clock legally stretches is a 30-day extension you agreed to in writing. If you signed consent in April and nobody has called, follow up now.

Your child's annual IEP review date falls in August or September. Get on the calendar now, because everyone else's does too.

Your child received Extended School Year services. Ask for the data. ESY exists because regression was expected, so someone should be able to tell you whether it happened.

Take your own baseline

In the last two weeks of summer, jot down what your child can do right now. Reading level, math facts, how long they can sit for a task, whatever connects to their goals. If the school later reports mysterious progress, or mysterious lack of it, you'll have your own starting point. Parents who keep their own data are treated differently in IEP meetings. Not because schools are villains, but because everyone is more careful when they know someone is checking the math.

One more thing about this particular August

In June, the federal government announced it is moving day-to-day administration of special education from the Department of Education to Health and Human Services, with civil rights enforcement shifting to the Department of Justice. This transition is still in process as I write this, and the details of how it will work are not settled. You may have seen alarming headlines. Here is what actually matters for your kitchen table: your child's rights have not changed. IDEA is still the law. The IEP is still binding. FAPE is still owed. What is changing is who is watching from Washington, and there will be fewer of them. Which means the parent who documents everything in writing is in a stronger position this year than ever. Assume you are the oversight, because functionally, you are.

The short version

Reread the IEP. Request a meeting if it no longer fits. Confirm services start day one. Send the teacher one page, not twenty-five. Watch the service minutes if you changed schools. Chase down anything the spring left unfinished.

None of this requires an advocate. But if you read your child's IEP this week and something in it makes your stomach drop, that's usually the moment to call one. I offer a free consultation, and August fills up fast for the same reason your pediatrician does.