Hi everyone so I have an autistic child who is 8 and we have our IEP coming up in about a month and I have been thinking of ways to advocate for him and speak up as that is always hard for me. At one of our last IEP meetings I spoke up because their was an incident where my child’s teacher in the general setting did not know he needed someone to walk with him to being checked out as it’s not on the IEP which I understand she didn’t know but he was standing outside the door for almost 20 minutes before a teacher found him his not able to fully communicate so he could not say he was being checked out. This only happened once I called a meeting and when I said this they were all

Quiet didn’t say anything didn’t even put on his IEP he needs someone that really got to me and I felt overwhelmed I understand they don’t have to answer but how do I deal with a situation like this in the future where everyone is quiet and not saying anything thanks in advance

Regarding the incident of your child being left alone at school- did you officially report/document that? 

For your next IEP meeting, share a letter of parent concerns with your IEP team in advance.

You could also reach out to your state's Parent Training & Info Center to see if they could connect you to a parent mentor in your area. 

I look at special ed (IEPs & 504s) as a contract that the school makes with a student & their family to provide more than what they provide in general education.  Anything your child needs beyond what his classmates get should be spelled out in the IEP or 504.  It's up to you to figure out what your child needs & bring it to the team so it can be added to the 'contract'.  Having data to support the need is key to the school adding it to the IEP.

What could I bring as data to support this?