When a family is notified that a Manifestation Determination review is going to take place, the notice be done in writing and be accompanied by a description of the family's procedural safeguards.

Do not allow the school to discipline your child or make a change in placement until a manifestation determination is made.

Make a list of all of your concerns and questions and take it to the meeting.

Gather all information relating to your child's diagnoses (evaluations, diagnostic results, observations by parents and teachers, doctors, therapists, etc.) that will show the current behavior is related to the diagnoses.

Take a professional with information about your child's diagnoses if possible. It is a good idea to get supporting letters from people such as your doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, and/or behavior therapist if they can't attend.

Try to take someone to the meeting for support, preferably someone who could help take notes and keep you focused.

Take a copy of the current IEP and BIP. If you feel there needs to be changes made to either plan, take a list of suggestions. If you can talk to an expert on behaviors ahead of time for recommendations, do so.

If the school has not been implementing the IEP or BIP, the team must determine the behaviors were a manifestation of the child's disability and correct the deficiencies in the IEP or placement.

You may want to take information about your child's diagnoses (pamphlets, information from the Internet, current articles, etc.) to the meeting to pass out to the participants.

You may want to tape the meeting but you should tell the other team members and give them an opportunity to tape the meeting as well.

You can call for a break at any time during the meeting if you need to recoup.

If you become unhappy with the way the meeting is progressing, you can ask that it be re-scheduled or you can challenge the determination by requesting a hearing.

Version 10/3/01