The term ARD stands for Admission, Review, and Dismissal. An ARD is a meeting in which a team of educators, parents, teachers, specialists, and sometimes the student collaborate to form an Individual Education Plan (IEP). Depending on your state/location, this meeting may have a different title. For the sake of this blog we will use “ARD” to refer to these conferences.

Parents should know how to prepare for ARDs because their participation and contribution is very important. These meetings can be overwhelming for parents with limited knowledge about their child’s education needs, options, or rights. Here’s my advice. Become knowledgeable! During these meetings there is terminology, data, evaluations, and documents you will be required to sign. One diagnostician used to say it was like selling a home and I agree with him! The process can feel like this the first few times. 

Tip No. 1: Prepare in Advance-depending on the type of ARD meeting (Annual, Brief, Review, etc) you will want to review and prepare any documents or forms needed by the school. Outside testing or doctor recommendations are helpful to share as applicable to an educational standpoint. Have a good understanding of your child’s current academic/behavior status because it will come up.

Tip No. 2: Show up on Time-these meetings are scheduled around the availability of various committee members. You want to make the best use of the time set aside to discuss your child’s progress. Remember, ARDs are important to the educational success of your child. You want to ensure the information shared by the school is data driven with time for you to ask questions and/or review reports.

Tip No. 3: Take Notes-bring a notepad to jot down key information during the meeting. There will be a lot covered and it’s easy to forget information after leaving. Whatever your style (written/recorded/audio/etc.) make sure not to miss this step. One thing to keep in mind, if you choose to record audio of the meeting, the school will do the same for their record. 

Tip No. 4: Get Copies-some schools will provide parents with a copy of the draft IEP to view during the meeting (I LOVE when they do this). If your child’s campus doesn’t, you can ask the diagnostician for it a few days in advance. Depending on your style, you could request a copy to review at home or to follow along with the day of the ARD. The purpose of this is to allow you time to view proposals being made. Keep in mind these are drafts; the ARD committee must agree on the final plan.

Tip No. 5: Listen to Minutes/Deliberations–at the end of the ARD, a member from the committee will read a summary of what took place during the meeting. These minutes become part of the record and school officials refer to this page as needed. If you are not paying attention, misinterpretations may be recorded that become part of your child’s education plan for that year. You reserve the right to go back to ARD any time however, you should only rely on this for important matters.

These five tips will help you prepare for an ARD and be an active participant in your child’s meeting. Comment on other tips you have to prepare for an ARD. Let me know if this blog was helpful by leaving a comment below.

–Stay Savvy 😉