Seven people at that table, and every one of them is getting paid to be there. They read the file on the clock. I read it at 11pm for free. This week: how to walk into a room full of professionals with a folder instead of a feeling — plus what to say when nobody quite says no.
The prep prompt — after you've attached last year's plan, the evaluation, emails and your own notes:
I've got an IEP meeting coming up. I've been to plenty of these, so I know how they go — that's not what I need. What I need is to walk in as prepared as everyone else in the room, because there are going to be seven of them and one of me, and they've all read the file this week and I haven't. Everything I have is in here: last year's plan, the evaluation, emails, and my own notes. Here's what I'm walking in to get: I want a new evaluation. I think something is being missed, and I don't want another year of decisions made on data that's old. Go through all of it and tell me what in these documents supports asking for a new evaluation, what's the strongest way to say it, and what am I forgetting that I should be asking about?
2. The one-pager prompt — because none of us can hold four things in our head while seven people are talking:
Turn this into one page I can hold in the meeting. My asks in the order I should ask them, the evaluation request first. One line each on what backs up my evaluation request. And the two or three questions I want answered before I sign anything. Nothing longer than a page — I'm going to be reading it under a table.
3. The pushback prompt — the half that changes the meeting:
When I ask for a new evaluation, they might say "let's revisit that at the annual." That's not a no, which is exactly why nobody ever has a response ready for it. Give me something I can say in the moment — not aggressive, not a speech, just the next sentence. And tell me what it costs to wait until the annual, because I want to be able to say that part out loud.
4. Your starter prompt — for whatever room you're dreading:
I have a meeting about [the thing] on [the date]. Everyone else there does this for a living and I don't. Here's everything I have — [paste it in]. Here's what I'm walking in to get: [your ask]. Tell me what supports it, the strongest way to say it, and what I should say when they push back.
