Are You ARD Ready?

Maybe it’s all new and confusing. Maybe it’s something you’ve done for years. But if you have a child with special needs, you know the ARD meeting is a key in your child’s education. This annual meeting can feel stressful for even the most seasoned parents of kids with unique needs. But you can go into it prepared and ready to talk through your child’s diagnosis, education and accommodations if you do a little work in advance. Here’s how. 

RELATED: Read more from our 2025 issue of Thinking and Learning Differently here.

Brush Up on ARD Basics  

ARD stands for Admission, Review and Dismissal, a meeting to review your child’s eligibility for special education and related services. Once your child is determined eligible, you’ll work with a team of general and special education teachers, service providers and administrators to review your student’s current level of academic functioning and performance and create an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). 

The IEP will identify your child’s academic goals and objectives for the school year, what related services they will need and where those services will be implemented, says Sharon Ramage, J.D., who practices special education law with The Ramage Law Group in McKinney. 

While ARDs are required to be held annually, you can call additional meetings if you think they’re necessary (like if your child isn’t showing progress or there are any issues with the current IEP), says Melissa Griffiths, advocate, speaker, trainer and owner of DFW Advocacy. But she cautions that they shouldn’t be called excessively. If you do want to request an additional meeting, it must be done in writing, and “the rules say the school shall promptly convene the ARD meeting,” Ramage says.

What to Know and Bring  

Once you have an ARD meeting scheduled, it’s normal to feel anxious but there are things you can do ahead of time to reduce some of those unsettling feelings. 

It’s a good idea to get a list of acronyms that are commonly used during ARDs, so you know what exactly is being discussed. Texas Education Agency’s spedtex.org is a good resource for this. And if you need clarification once you’re in the meeting, don’t hesitate to ask.

If your child already has an existing IEP, read it through and make sure you understand everything. Jot down any new skills your child has developed, any areas they’re struggling in, if anything could be done better or differently, what you liked about the previous school year and any questions you may have. 

Ramage also recommends reviewing your child’s progress reports and evaluations, so you can go into the meeting with a prioritized list of what you want for your child. She cautions that you likely won’t get everything on your list, so come prepared with data and documentation for what you feel is most important.    

In addition to progress reports, experts suggest getting records of the services your child has been receiving in school. This way, you can see documentation of their work and progress. 

There are a few other things you should review and bring with you to the meeting, including independent evaluations (if you have them), progress reports from outside therapy providers and/or tutors and information about how your child is at home. Griffiths also suggests writing an “about me” page for your child and updating it annually to include things like your child’s likes and dislikes, how to best interact or not interact with your child and a photo to give the school a more holistic picture of your child. 

And don’t forget a notebook to jot down notes, questions or ideas during the meeting. 

Channel Emotions into Advocacy 

ARD meetings can be very emotional for parents for many reasons. They can last anywhere from 1 to 3 hours. You might feel outnumbered with how many people from the school are in the meeting. And you’re discussing areas in which your child is struggling compared to their peers.   

Griffiths and Ramage suggest the following tactics to keep the emotions at bay and be the best advocate for your child: 

• Stay focused on your child and their needs.  
• Bring support if you think you’ll need it. 
• Be knowledgeable and firm about what your child’s needs are. 
• Speak in a clear, calm voice. In Ramage’s experience, when a parent gets emotional in a meeting, the school can become defensive.  

Above all, Griffiths recommends you “try really hard to take it from that perspective of, this information sounds difficult, but it doesn’t mean that [your] child is not important or is not going to progress or is not going to be successful in life,” she says. “It’s just this is, at this point in time, where they’re struggling, and these are the things that we can work on.” 

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Know Your Rights 

In ARD meetings, as a parent of a child with special needs, you have the right to: 

• Be a meaningful participant in the development of the program 
• Ask questions if you don’t understand something 
• Request an independent educational evaluation (at the school’s expense) if you disagree with the school’s evaluation 
• Ask for the meeting to be recorded 
• Sign the IEP in disagreement 
• At least five days’ notice before an ARD meeting 
• Ask for a break or to reconvene the meeting at a later date if everyone can’t come to agreement 
• Bring someone with you to the ARD (an advocate, attorney or anyone with specific knowledge of the child) 
• Request for due process with the TEA if you don’t agree that the school district is giving your child an appropriate education or if you don’t agree with your child’s evaluation, educational placement or the services they need. 

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ARD Accommodations vs. Modifications

As you discuss your child’s individualized education program, you may hear references to accommodations or modifications, two educational strategies that help students with learning differences learn by tailoring them to their specific needs. Here’s how these differ, according to the Texas Education Agency:

Accommodations: These change how your child learns or demonstrates knowledge. Accommodations are intended to reduce or eliminate the effects of student’s disability on academic tasks but do not change learning expectations. Accommodations are not one-size-fits-all; rather, the impact of a child’s learning disability determines the necessary accommodations.

Modifications: These change what your child is expected to master. Modifications typically reduce the requirements for state standards for what students should know and be able to do. With modifications, students access grade level curriculum through prerequisite skills.

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ARD Terminology: A Quick Reference Guide to Common Acronyms

ARD: Admission, Review and Dismissal
BIP: Behavior Intervention Plan
ECI: Early Childhood Intervention
ESY: Extended School Year
FAPE: Free Appropriate Public Education
FERPA: Family Educational Rights and Privacy
FIE: Full and Individual Evaluation
IEP: Individualized Education Program
MD: Multiple Disabilities
PLAAFP: Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance
SLD: Specific Learning Disability
SI: Speech Impairment
SLP: Speech Language Pathologist
TEKS: Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills

This article was originally published in August 2023 with additional reporting in May 2025.

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