Attending a meeting whether in person or virtually can be anxiety provoking enough but there are some pros and cons to both. Prior to COVID, in person meetings were the standard way in which IEPs/504s Meetings were conducted. At these in person meetings, typically, parents are surrounded by sometimes upwards of 10 staff members and are handed a draft IEP/504 that is gone through at this meeting. With the amount of detail included in an IEP/504, many changes are discussed and agreed to but have you ever noticed that something you thought the school team included couldn’t be found in the finalized copy? In my experience, this isn’t done intentionally but with how fast paced meetings can take place and the limited time school teams typically provide to IEP meetings, items tend to be missed. You aren’t able to see the school-district employee’s computer while they are making the changes so you are relying on verbal confirmation. Even with these cons, some parents prefer to be face-to-face with school teams for the human interaction piece and to be able to look at staff members in the IEP meeting when discussing educational planning decisions for their child. This, of course, is understandable and there is a lot to be said for face-to-face interactions.
