October 2026: 

The MLO Minute: “It’s Early in the School Year and I Have Concerns — Now What?”

By Michael Connolly, Esq., CEO and Supervising Partner of Special Education — 

It is about two months into the school year, you are approaching the middle of the first marking period, and you are starting to have concerns about your child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP), or worse yet, you’re not really sure if you should be concerned.  What should you do?  Regardless of whether you have concerns or you’re not sure yet, you definitely should not wait to take some next steps.

Initially, you should gather whatever data about how your child is doing is available, particularly if you think you may have concerns but aren’t sure yet. That data should include information on grades and assignment completion which is often available through school district online portals that you and your child have access to; emails that you may have received from teachers or other staff about your child; daily, weekly, or monthly data sheets or progress monitoring that may be sent home; and any information your child may have shared with you about school or how things are going.  You can also reach out to your teachers or IEP case manager and ask how they’re doing.  You may be surprised by the response.

Once you have gathered and reviewed the available data about your child, don’t wait to raise concerns that you may have.  The sooner those concerns are raised and addressed, the better.  You can start with an email raining your concerns to your child’s teacher, case manager, special education supervisor, or other appropriate administrator, and assess the response.  If new supports or services or major programming changes were made at the start of the year, it may be appropriate to give it a bit more time to see if the changes are working, but raising those concerns puts the team on notice to closely monitor your child’s progress and response to the changes.  If the concerns have been building since the previous year, or are significant concerns, don’t be afraid to ask for an IEP team meeting to review and address those concerns.

If you have any questions or concerns about your child’s education, please feel free to contact our office. Our initial consultation is free, and these matters are often handled on a contingency basis without hourly fees charged to families.