TPP 318a: What Parents Need to Know about the IEP Process, with Therapist Beth Liesenfeld

Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children

Debbie Reber

Education, Kids & Family, Parenting

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you’re the parent of a differently wired kid with a diagnosed learning disability, you likely have had experience with Individualized Education Plans, otherwise known as IEPs. And if this is you, my hunch is you have some feelings about IEPs and the whole process — the stresses, the unknowns, the fact that it might feel like you have to understand a completely different language just to get the services and supports your child needs and deserves in schools. Occupational therapist Beth Liesenfeld, the woman behind a company, podcast, and resource called The IEP Lab, joins us to answer your questions around how parents can better prepare for an IEP meeting, what makes a good IEP, and how we can go about making changes on an IEP if we realize the accommodations aren’t being effective or if a school isn’t following through in the way the IEP outlines. Beth Liesenfeld, MOT, OTR/L is an occupational therapist passionate about providing “insider” information of the school’s process and culture to parents in order to increase collaboration between parents and school staff! Her company, The IEP Lab, provides online workshops and courses as well as produces The Parent IEP Lab Podcast. Things You'll Learn from This Episode: What parents actually need to know before they go into an IEP meeting The criteria for designing an effective and supportive IEP The intention behind the goals written into any IEP, and how to create goals that lead to hoped-for outcomes What parents can do if their children’s school doesn’t follow through on the accommodations provided in their child’s IEP How to include accommodations for students who are struggling with school refusal and therefore may not be meeting attendance requirements What the IDEA says about seeking an IEP for twice-exceptional children who may be performing “adequately” but aren’t reaching their potential Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If I get my kid a phone, I'll be able to keep in touch with them all the time.
0:02.8	We'll be on it all the time.
0:04.1	He could walk to school by himself. She could see something, she shouldn't. He could chat with grandma. Friends, trolls. They can access anything on the internet. They can access anything on the internet. So, should I give my kid a phone? Growing up with phones isn't always easy. Introducing EEE safer Sims. Sims that help moderate usage and shield harmful content on any smartphone.
0:24.2	Choose EECF. up with phones isn't always easy. Introducing EEE safer Sims. Sims that help moderate usage and shield
0:22.2	harmful content on any smartphone. Choose EEE safer Sims, only on the UK's best network. To verify best
0:28.1	network see EE.e.com. Hey, it's Debbie. All this month I'm sharing some of my most popular school-focused
0:34.5	conversations from the archive. So every Friday and September,
0:37.5	you're going to hear an episode on things like IEPs, starting the school year off on the
0:41.5	right foot, and what to do if school isn't going as planned. I hope these replays give you
0:46.4	some fresh insights and support as you navigate the month. Here's today's show. If you can kind
0:51.7	of stay one step ahead of this process and say, hey, you guys are missing this big emotional regulation piece.
0:57.9	Or even if your child qualified under specific learning disability, but you also suspect that they have anxiety and they're having some behaviors around anxiety, that anxiety needs to be in there, right?
1:09.7	Even if they're like, oh, it doesn't relate
1:11.5	to the specific learning disability. It doesn't matter. They're supposed to be comprehensive.
1:18.0	Welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed in inspiring,
1:23.6	informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I'm your host, Debbie Reber.
1:29.5	If you are a parent of a neurodivergent kid with a diagnosed learning disability,
1:34.6	you likely have had experience with individualized education plans, otherwise known as IEPs.
1:41.3	And if this is you, my hunch is you have some feelings about IEPs in the whole process.
1:47.7	The stresses, the unknowns, the fact that it might feel like you have to understand a completely
1:53.1	different language just to get the support and services your child needs and deserves in school.
1:59.4	So I invited occupational therapist Beth Leisenfeld,
	...

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