The annual IEP review is one of the most consequential events in a student's school year — and one of the most time-intensive parts of an SLP's workload. A well-prepared SLP walks into the meeting with organized data, a clear narrative about the student's progress, proposed goals for the coming year, and the ability to answer parent questions confidently. This guide walks through a timeline-based preparation process, from two months before the meeting to the day itself.
60 Days Before: Audit Your Data
Two months before the review date, pull up your progress monitoring data for the student and conduct an honest audit. For each goal, ask:
- Do I have sufficient data points to describe a trend? (Aim for at least 6–8 data points per goal.)
- Are there any gaps in my data — sessions where I didn't collect probes?
- Is the data I have consistent and comparable, or did my measurement method change mid-year?
- Have I documented observations from classroom settings, not just the therapy room?
If you find data gaps, now is the time to fill them — not the week before the meeting. Schedule structured probe sessions over the next several weeks to ensure you have a complete and defensible picture of the student's performance.
60 Days Before: Check In with the Classroom Teacher
Send a brief email or use your district's IEP platform to request teacher observations on the student's communication in the classroom. Specific questions yield better information than open-ended ones:
- "Have you noticed any change in how often [student] volunteers to speak in class?"
- "Does [student]'s articulation affect how peers respond to them?"
- "Are you seeing any carryover of the fluency strategies we've been working on?"
- "What communication challenges are most affecting [student]'s classroom participation right now?"
Teacher input is valuable both for writing accurate present levels and for identifying new goal areas that may have emerged over the course of the year.
30 Days Before: Write Progress Summaries
With your data in hand, write a progress summary for each goal. A strong progress summary includes:
- The original goal criterion (e.g., "80% accuracy in conversational speech").
- The baseline at the start of the year (e.g., "15% accuracy at initial evaluation").
- Current performance (e.g., "currently averaging 62% accuracy in structured sentence-level tasks; 40% in conversational speech").
- Rate of progress (e.g., "approximately 5% accuracy gain per month over the past 8 weeks").
- Projected status (e.g., "at current rate of progress, student is projected to reach the goal criterion by approximately April 2027").
- Factors affecting progress (e.g., attendance, medical factors, changes in service delivery model).
SLPDesk's progress reports automatically generate goal-by-goal summaries with data visualizations, making it easy to pull professional-quality progress documentation without spending hours in spreadsheets. You can export to PDF for distribution to parents and team members before the meeting.
30 Days Before: Draft New Goals
Based on your data, identify which goals should be:
- Continued: Goal not met; target area still educationally relevant. Update criterion and baseline.
- Advanced: Goal met or nearly met; write a new goal at the next level of complexity or generalization.
- Discontinued: Goal met and skill is stable; this area no longer requires targeted intervention.
- New: A communication need has emerged that wasn't present (or wasn't prioritized) at the last IEP.
Draft 3–5 proposed goals with objectives/benchmarks and bring them to the meeting as a starting point. Be prepared to adjust based on parent and team input.
2 Weeks Before: Send a Parent Pre-Meeting Summary
Families are more engaged and less anxious when they receive information before the meeting rather than for the first time at the table. A pre-meeting summary doesn't need to be formal — even a brief email that says "Here's where [student] is currently with their speech and language goals, and here's what I'm thinking about for next year" goes a long way.
Consider sharing:
- A brief narrative summary of progress toward each goal.
- A draft of proposed new goals (in plain language).
- Questions you'd like their input on (e.g., "Has your child mentioned any speaking situations at home that feel difficult?").
- An invitation to bring questions or concerns to the meeting.
1 Week Before: Data Checklist
Run through this checklist to ensure you're fully prepared:
- Progress data collected for every active IEP goal
- Progress summaries written in parent-accessible language
- Proposed new goals drafted, with baselines and objectives
- Any formal re-evaluation data organized (if this is an annual review + re-eval)
- Teacher input collected and incorporated
- Parent pre-meeting summary sent
- Your section of the updated PLAAFP (present levels of academic achievement and functional performance) written
- Any service delivery changes documented with rationale
Day of the Meeting: What to Bring
- Printed or digital progress reports for each goal
- Data graphs or visual summaries of progress trends
- Proposed goal language for the new IEP year
- Any relevant speech or language samples (audio or written)
- Standardized assessment results (if applicable)
- A copy of the current IEP to reference during the meeting
Communicating Progress Effectively at the Meeting
Lead with what the student can do, then describe what they're still working on. Avoid clinical jargon. Use concrete examples: "Last month, when I played a story game with [student], they were able to tell me what happened and why — that's something they couldn't do at the beginning of the year."
When presenting goals that weren't met, be honest and direct. Explain what progress was made (even partial progress deserves acknowledgment), what factors affected it, and why you believe the goal is still worth pursuing — or why you're proposing to modify it.
Invite parent and teacher input on the proposed goals. Parents often have insight about contexts and priorities that you haven't observed, and shared ownership of the goal-setting process increases everyone's investment in the outcome.