Legally Required Participants
MMSD Policy on regular education teacher participation on the IEP Team - IDEA and State law states that a regular education teacher must be present if the child is, or may be, participating in the regular education environment during the timeframe of the IEP. MMSD policy also requires a regular education teacher to be part of the team unless the student is not currently and has no future plans to be included in the general education environment. If discussion about the student being involved in the general education environment is a part of the student's programming, a regular education teacher must be included. In addition, failure to include a regular education teacher may indicate that the District is refusing to consider placement in a regular education environment. This may result in allegations that the District pre-determined, outside of the IEP team, the student's placement. For these reasons, MMSD policy only allows exclusion of the regular education teacher from an IEP team in rare and unique circumstances in which the student participates in programming completely outside of the general education environment with no plans to return to the general education environment.
Excusing a required IEP Team member from an IEP meeting - See MMSD Guidance Document - Participant Attendance at an IEP Meeting. A required IEP team member may be excused from the meeting if the parent and district agree in writing prior to the meeting (I-2 Agreement on IEP Team Participant Attendance at IEP Meeting) and the IEP team member submits written input into the development of the IEP prior to the meeting if his/her/their area of curriculum or related service will be discussed. Only required IEP team members, not additional IEP team members need to be excused in writing. (see IDEA Complaint Decision 12-059, WI DPI ) Also see IDEA complaint decision 16-080. If the parent is not present at the meeting, or unable to be reached for consent to excuse the team member, a meeting should be scheduled in which all team members can attend.
From IDEA - Sec. 300.321 IEP Team. See Ed.gov - IEP Team
(a) General. The public agency must ensure that the IEP Team for each child with a disability includes--
(1) The parents of the child;
(2) Not less than one regular education teacher of the child (if the child is, or may be, participating in the regular education environment);
(3) Not less than one special education teacher of the child, or where appropriate, not less then one special education provider of the child;
(4) A representative of the public agency (LEA) who--
i) Is qualified to provide, or supervise the provision of, specially designed instruction to meet the unique needs of children with disabilities;
(ii) Is knowledgeable about the general education curriculum; and
(iii) Is knowledgeable about the availability of resources of the public agency.
(5) An individual who can interpret the instructional implications of evaluation results, who may be a member of the team described in paragraphs (a)(2) through (a)(6) of this section;
(6) At the discretion of the parent or the agency, other individuals who have knowledge or special expertise regarding the child, including related services personnel as appropriate; and
(7) Whenever appropriate, the child with a disability.
(b) Transition services participants.