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Empowering Students Through Student-Led IEPs: Insights with Dr. Daniel Biegun

• Episode 194

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Last week, we kicked off our first theme of the year with a broad look at student-led IEPs. We discussed who student-led IEPs are for and provided a a brief overview of what the process looks like before, during, and after the meeting.

If you missed episode 193, go back and catch up...it’s a great foundation for today’s discussion, so be sure to check it out! 

This week, I’m excited to continue the discussion of student-led IEPs with a conversation with Dr. Daniel Biegun who is here to build relationships and spread the word about engaging and equitable instruction. 

We’re taking a closer look at how student-led IEPs can foster genuine ownership and essential life skills and exploring ways to help students feel like active participants rather than passive attendees.


Highlights:

  • Emphasize “Nothing about me without me”—students should be spoken to directly about their goals and strengths to build trust and confidence
  • All students, regardless of communication style or cognitive ability, can meaningfully participate in their IEP meetings with the right supports in place
  • Support non-verbal students by practicing introductions, offering choice-based questions, or creating visual slide decks to share their input
  • Many students report initially feeling confused about their IEP meetings until they understood that their voices mattered, shifting their perception of the process
  • Starting student-led IEPs early helps develop key life skills such as communication, collaboration, decision-making, and self-advocacy over time

Your challenge:  
Whenever your next scheduled meeting is, turn over a little bit of control to the student.  Then celebrate when it is a success!

About Daniel:

As an educational specialist for the Virginia Department of Education's Training & Technical Assistance Center at Old Dominion University, Daniel’s areas of focus include transition, self-determination, Universal Design for Learning, and content instruction for students with intellectual disabilities. 

In 2020, Daniel founded his company, Visionary Teaching, as a means of offering engaging & innovative professional learning opportunities to practitioners across the country. 

Connect with Daniel:
Website: www.visionaryteaching.com

Email: daniel@visionaryteaching.com

X: https://x.com/daniel_biegun

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielbiegun/


Hey special educator…Do you feel like you're just barely keeping your head above water? Like you're stuck in the same old routines, wondering how to make a bigger impact in your classroom? Well, I’ve got something special just for you. I’m excited to offer a unique opportunity to take your teaching to the next level.  I’m ready to step outside my district to offer individualized coaching calls designed to offer person

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back to Special Education for Beginners. Last week, we kicked off our first theme of the year with a broad look at student-led IEPs. We discussed who student-led IEPs are for and provided a brief overview of what the process looks like before, during and after the meeting. If you missed episode 193, go back and catch up. It's a great foundation for today's discussion, so be sure to check it out. This week, I'm excited to continue the discussion of student-led IEPs with a conversation with Dr Daniel Began. We are taking a closer look at how student-led IEPs can foster genuine ownership and essential life skills. We will explore ways to help students feel like they are active participants rather than passive attendees, and we will discuss some real-world examples of how students of all abilities can take a leading role in their IEP process. So let's get to it.

Speaker 1:

Hey, special educator, are you overwhelmed by the absurd amount of paperwork on your to-do list? Do you wish you had the skills to build a rock solid team with your staff? Do you find yourself scouring the internet for how to meet the needs of each student on your caseload? Well, hey, there. I'm Jennifer Hopperberg, an award-winning veteran special education teacher and current instructional coach, who has walked in your shoes. Through each of these challenges and, yes, I have the metaphorical blisters to prove it I have cried your tears and felt your pain, and now I'm here to support you in the way I wish someone would have been there to support me.

Speaker 1:

Listen in each week as my guests and I dish out practical wisdom to help you handle all the classroom curveballs that are thrown at you and learn how to laugh in spite of the chaos, to celebrate those small yet significant victories that only a special educator can understand. So are you ready? Wipe your tears and put on your superhero cape, because together we are going to learn how to survive and thrive in the ever crazy, completely overwhelming laugh so you don't cry. Profession of being a special education teacher. Well, hello, daniel, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2:

Yes, thank you for having me. I'm very excited.

Speaker 1:

Well, before we get started, would you share just a little bit about yourself and your journey within the field of special education?

Speaker 2:

Sure, and I know our topic is student-led IEPs, so I'm excited to connect with the audience in several ways that way. So the first part of my career I was a high school special education teacher. Currently I'm a specialist for the Virginia Department of Education's Training and Technical Assistance Center at Old Dominion University. That's a mouthful, but it means that I get to serve 32 school districts and do some coaching, a lot of professional development. I'm on the I'm Determined Project, so that's Virginia's self-determination initiative and I started my own consulting company called Visionary Teaching so that I can connect with and do professional development for folks outside of Virginia. And maybe most importantly, I can connect as a parent, because right now my wife and I are supporting our son through his IEP process.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's how I came across your name was through the Visionary Teaching. But wow, you have a wealth of experience and expertise. But I imagine that experience navigating the IEP process with your son gives you even more of a well-rounded perspective on this topic. So, with that in mind, let's dive into some key questions about how educators can support student-led IEPs and empower their students to take ownership of their learning. So what are some of some ways that we can help students feel a genuine sense of ownership over their IEP, rather than just viewing it as something that the adults do for them? How do you build that confidence without overwhelming them?

Speaker 2:

A great question, so a few things come to mind. First, let's teach our students the phrase nothing about me without me. I love that and it's important so that our students know that the IEP process is all about them and that decisions are made with them and not for them. Something else just to keep in mind when we are meeting and the student is present, we need to make sure that we are talking to the student and not talking about the student when they're sitting right there. Talking to the student and not talking about the student when they're sitting right there. There are some great ways that we can teach our students that we want them to give their opinions and that will value the opinions.

Speaker 2:

And just thinking of the IEP process, we can invite students to add statements about their strengths, preferences, interests and needs to the present level section of the IEP. We can ask students to give their opinions on accommodations. Do they want to keep a particular accommodation? Do they want to add a new one that might help? Are they ready to advocate for removing one? And we can even ask our students to suggest possible goals.

Speaker 2:

Right, how motivating is that when we pick our own goal and then we, as the teachers, can use our special education magic to make sure that we word it properly and it's measurable and all that, but highly motivating. So when our students know that their ideas are valued, their confidence will grow. And then we just we want to make sure that we regularly discuss the purpose of the IEP with our students, teach them the skills that they need to participate actively, and that way they're more likely to find the process meaningful and feel like they can be successful. So I'll just reiterate again it's helpful if we view the IEP process as something that we do with our students and not something that we do to or for them.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that. I was sitting in a meeting just today and the administrator and the parent were talking and the student would roll her eyes and I knew she had something that she wanted to say. So I literally just looked at her and said, can you tell me how you're feeling about what they are saying? And so definitely, I know we have to do better about getting our students involved in their meetings. So, in your opinion, are student-led IEPs recommended only for students at a certain level, whether that's grade-wise or cognition-wise?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely not. So we want to always presume competence in all of our students. We want to avoid predetermining an individual's potential based on a label they might have. And right now this makes me think of the least dangerous assumption. So I'm sure a lot of our special education listeners are familiar, so I'm going to tweak it just a little bit for our purposes with self-student led IEPs.

Speaker 2:

But the least dangerous assumption says that if we assume that a student can take leadership in the IEP process and then we give them every opportunity to do so, then if it turns out that they can't, what have we lost? What harm have we done? Right, none. But if we assume that a student can't take leadership, cannot, and then we don't give them opportunities but later we find out that they could have, we've done harm there. So we just want to remember with all of our students the student-led IEPs means that the student is actively involved in the planning and development of the IEP. But we also know that, depending on factors like age, experience or disability, leadership will look different for different students. But every student should have the opportunity to share ideas and help make decisions.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I feel like there's so much skepticism out there from special education teachers that this student can't participate in this meeting because of how low he is or he doesn't have any communication skills, so he's not able to physically communicate, so how would he participate? So I know that there's skepticism and I know that there's just a lot of unknowns, not a lot of talk, about this issue. So I think that it's important to have conversations like this. So what are some ways that you have seen nonverbal students or students with complex needs participate in their meetings?

Speaker 2:

verbal students or students with complex needs participate in their meetings? Yes, so I do want to agree with you that I do know that there's skepticism out there, and I understand. But here's the good news it's so easy to fix right. It only requires a mindset shift. It doesn't require any fancy training or equipment. We just we need a mindset shift.

Speaker 2:

And, to clarify, my teaching career was with students who had labels like intellectual disabilities and multiple disabilities. I taught many, many, many students who did not communicate verbally, but bright, inquisitive students, determined, hardworking students. I hope we can all really agree, though, that verbal ability is not indicative of intelligence and verbal ability is not indicative of a desire to communicate our thoughts and ideas. So, again, we, as educators, we can change our mindsets and instead of focusing on what a student can't do, we can focus on how we can support them so that they can. So you asked me for a few ideas and things I've seen. Sure, in my job I have the luxury of getting to go visit a lot of great teachers in classrooms and collecting their ideas. So we need to ensure that every student has a system of communication. Just because a student does not communicate verbally doesn't mean they don't communicate their communication system to make sure that they have repetitions and they're comfortable with introducing themselves at the meeting or introducing other people, because the student's the one that knows everybody right With asking and answering questions. We can. Also we can offer opportunities for choice making. So some of our students aren't yet at a point where they're generating a lot of complex ideas, so we know that the ideas are in there. So with these students when we teach academics we give a field of options right, so we can do that with a student led IEP. We can give a student options where they can identify some personal strengths and put that in the present level section. We can give student options to suggest accommodations, to choose which goal that they want to work on first. And here's an idea. I love this idea. It's going to sound silly to some folks, but let's give students control and make choices with the seating chart at the meeting. So go with me here.

Speaker 2:

A lot of us have been to wedding receptions and if it's big enough we get assigned a seat right. We know brides and grooms stress over that and I've gotten great feedback when students have been asked to do this and come up with a seating chart and it gives some control. Maybe the student does not want to sit between mom and dad, right. Maybe they want to sit next to their favorite OT or next to their teacher, and so that's just one way, especially with our younger students, to give over, give over some control.

Speaker 2:

And then one that I've seen a lot. I've seen a lot of students who might not be comfortable or able to do a lot of on the spot communicating in the meeting. They will work with somebody, maybe a peer or a teacher, to create a slide deck so that they can share in the meeting their ideas or a video and they can communicate their strengths and their preferences and their interests and they can share photos and work samples with everybody. It's like an all about me and that centers the meeting so that we know why we're there too. It's great. So I would say, no matter how much or how little the student is currently able to lead in the meeting or in the process, rather our goal just should be for them to do a little bit more each year.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that and I can even see envision that slide deck where you know we want them to use assistive technology where it reads stuff to them, so if they weren't verbal, they could have that slide deck read aloud to the group. I think that would be an amazing idea. So you talked about feedback from students. What other feedback have you received, maybe even from your own son, about their experiences leading or participating in their own IEPs and what has surprised you most about what they've said?

Speaker 2:

Okay, so I mentioned earlier that I'm on the I'm Determined Project, which is our self-determination initiative in Virginia, and so on that project I get to collaborate with the most amazing team of advocates and leaders, and many of them also happen to have disabilities. So we have teens and young adults with disabilities on the project. Who they are? Youth leaders. So you know, sometimes when we're talking or we're planning, the topic of IEPs comes up.

Speaker 2:

And I've been on this project for about a dozen years and over all that time I've heard a common story that's almost unanimous, where the youth report that they first started attending their meeting around the age of 14. That's the age in our state and many other states, and when they first attended they had no idea why they were there. Nobody told them why they were there, what was expected of them, and so they just felt like it was a room full of adults talking about boring things. But I hear another common theme when they continue, that once the youth realized that they were not only allowed but they were expected to share their ideas and opinions, the whole process it just went from confusing and boring to important and exciting, and this is where leadership skills start to blossom. So I would just point out with this to our educators out there that that won't happen without educators who are willing to turn over some of the control.

Speaker 1:

Yeah absolutely.

Speaker 1:

I think that's where a lot of the skepticism comes from. They're scared that a child might mess up or that they are going to put the child on the spot, that they are going to put the child on the spot, but I feel like, like you said, it's important to start slow and then let them grow into that and become even more and more in charge of their own meeting as the years go on. So how can educators plan for this long-term growth in the life skills or particularly as they start introducing student-led components early in a student's academic journey?

Speaker 2:

Great question and I love how you mentioned starting early, because you know we mentioned the age of 14 is typical a bit ago. But. But starting participating in your IEPs at the age of 14 is a matter of compliance and we always want to go beyond compliance, right? So why can't students begin participating in elementary school? So I'll give the example.

Speaker 2:

My son and granted, he is the child of two educators, but he started attending his meetings in first grade. Now, my wife and I got some strange looks over the years from school staff, but we insisted that he'd be there and it did two things. One, it helped him learn what the IEP process was all about and that way, by the time he was transition age, he was able to actively participate like more robustly Right transition age he was able to actively participate like more robustly Right. But it also made sure that for the adults, his presence made sure for the adults that we were focused on the individual and that, remember, in IEP the I is for individual and that just you know. And when students can't attend, I've heard of the parents bringing in a photo of this and that's great too, but it's never too young, never too young, never too young to start. And you mentioned earlier about people being afraid, and I would argue that there's probably no safer space if a student were to make a mistake or mess up. In theory, everyone around that table loves that student and is working for it, so so I would say that. But anyway, you oh, oh. By the way, so my son, he's a senior this year and finally we got a case manager who prepped him and allowed my son to run the whole meeting. So you know, I had some. I was choked up a little bit. I was super proud. So shout out to Mr Walls for letting his students fully experience and prepare them for a student-led IEP.

Speaker 2:

But you asked about life skills, and this is cool because I would say that the student-led IEP is the ultimate teaching tool. It's a teaching tool. So think of all the skills that a student can learn and practice, not just during an IEP meeting but in the planning process leading up. So on my site I have a new blog post that goes into much more detail about these. But think of these. We can practice communication skills, self-advocacy, collaboration. That's cool because the student is learning to work on a team. They're part of the team there Choice making, decision making, answering questions, asking questions, and we can practice almost every social skill that we would ever want to. So there's so much that we can teach through the actual IEP process.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I agree, all of those things are important for future lives. But when you're intentional about it and you are making sure that this is happening for the kids, I think that's so much more beneficial for them. So in my weekly email that I sent out last week, I challenged the readers to slowly begin to implement this. It's not something that you just have to do all at once. You know, just buy in and yes, I'm going to do this and I'm going to start my students off in first grade and we're going to go. You don't have to do that, just start slowly. So what is your suggestion for where they should begin?

Speaker 2:

Yes, I love this question and I'm going to start off. I'm going to use a sports analogy. So successful athletes don't just show up for the game and win and be successful. And it's the same with our students. We wouldn't ask them to just show up cold in the conference room for the meeting, with no preparation, and be prepared. We all prepare and we're the adults on the team. So I would tell listeners to start with instruction. I'm not even in the meeting.

Speaker 2:

So are we teaching our students about IEPs and why the student's active participation is so important? Are we teaching our students some of the terminology and the acronyms they're going to hear? Here's the thing. All of us, as special educators, have had an administrator tell us or a college professor remind us not to overuse jargon because the parents might not follow. But the students should not have all the jargon either. They should be able to understand. It's almost like a foreign language. It makes me think I live in a Navy town and the military might be the only agency in the universe with more acronyms than special education, right?

Speaker 2:

So are we teaching our students what an IEP means, what least restrictive environment actually means, what accommodation means, so that when they show up to the meeting it's not a foreign language. And then, for those that are able, I highly recommend simulations or practice rounds. So we do those things with social skills and that's great, but can we not simulate what it feels like to be in a meeting and introduce ourselves and maybe be prepared to answer a question that we weren't prepared for? Things we can simulate in a safe environment? And then the last thing that I would offer is for all of the teachers out there go look at your calendars, see when your next IEP meeting is for your students, and then just get in the mindset that you are prepared to turn over a little bit more control to the student and then, when it works, I want you and the student and everyone on that IEP team to celebrate.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a good tip. When you were talking, it made me think of a quote from Henry Ford that says nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs, and I fully believe that if we're just going to take baby steps, that's at least going to get us in progress, and so moving forward is really the only way that we can go for the benefit of our kids. Well, daniel, thank you so much for sharing your insights and your practical strategies and the story about your son. I know our listeners will be inspired to take some baby steps towards implementing student-led IEPs in their classrooms. So where can we find you if we want to learn more about student-led IEPs or anything else that you have to share with us?

Speaker 2:

Okay, so you can go to my blog, which is visionaryteachingcom. There is a section on special education, but there are a lot of sections on there on student engagement and instructional strategies. I love universal design for learning and multisensory instruction, so you can find all kinds of posts and information and materials there, and please include my email in the show notes in case anybody has any questions. I would love to meet new friends from other states.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I will definitely put that in the show notes. Well, thank you again. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, it was a pleasure.