IEP renewal time, re-diagnosis, insurance, medicare applications, and more. It puts parents into a bit of a panic. It is stressful…. sooooo stressful. Feeling prepared can help with the anxiety but it does not take it away. As a former teacher, I have experience with IEPs. It is a whole different ball game as a parent. I wanted to be as prepared and ready as possible when filling out all of our paperwork in one place.

If your child is now an adult able to live on their own, it is also important to provide them with all of their own information so they are able to use this as a reference tool and have their own independence.

For Purchase

This binder template is available for purchase. Print the pages, fill in your child’s name on the cover, all contact information on the correct pages, and then the dividers. Dividers can have tabs attached or you can attach them to pre-made tabs.

To prepare:

• Collect all the contact information for all of the providers your child sees.
• Get the care plan from all outside therapies so we don’t “double dip” on goals but work off each other.
• Get medical records of all new test results
• Get start dates of all therapies, supplements, and medications.
• Make a list of services we will be providing/seeking
• Compile into the correct tabs in his binder.

Our Medicare annual renewal (in Wisconsin this is Katie Beckett) is also up for renewal about the same time as our IEP, so we need to collect all of our paperwork “proving Nolan’s disability” at one time.

Contacts

One page I have found to be a dramatic help is the contacts page. Almost every application for every thing you do (including annual renewals) asks for all the people and all their contact info. Having this right as the cover has sped up the process of all the paperwork 10fold. I have covered our peoples contact for confidentiality reasons, but if you are local and want any of it I would be happy to provide that in a message. Putting the diagnosis date/why we see that person also has helped. I also keep past providers on a past contacts page in case someone would happen to need that info as well.

School Info

The next tab is our School Info tab. I keep the school calendar, school policies, etc in this tab. This works for me to remember what the policies are and have a one stop shop for everything school related.

IEP

Next is the IEP tab. In this tab I include the 1) IEP invites, 2) any questionnaires they send to help them fill out the IEP 3) The actual IEP.

School Data/Report Cards

Next is school data/report cards. This could also be assessment results. This helps with proving the gap, me to see where we are falling behind and what I want to put on the IEP, as well as provide the information to the state about his “disability” This can be any assessments he gets but at this point, we haven’t done IQ test or anything like this, all testing has been done through the school.

Medical Information

Medical records includes when get a new diagnosis or after visit summary indicating new information (on medication or disorders). This helps me have dates and “diagnosing doctors and dates.” This is more for financial aspect of the reporting, but, again, we want this binder to cover Nolan as a whole.

Outside Therapies

Outside Therapies is where I keep ABA, Speech, and Birth-3 (early intervention) records. This helps us to know Nolan as a whole but also double check that none of his goals cross check and do not double dip.

Financial

The final tab is the Financial Tab. This is where I keep insurance information, the approval or denial forms from the Katie Beckett, and then the big envelope is the application we were just sent. I put the whole envelope in the binder and when we get more evidence I just slide it in so I can pull it all out when our case worker is here.

This binder made the renewal process very efficient this time around. I was not running around looking for papers, data, etc. It took a lot of time to put it all together but I am glad to have a one thing to grab and sit down with applications or bring with me to the IEP. A one stop shop of sorts. I would be happy to do this in more detail or provide a template if you would need it. Please feel free to comment questions!