To promote parents' active involvement at an upcoming ARD meeting for a fifth-grade student with an intellectual disability, which step should the educational diagnostician take first?

• A. assisting the parents in understanding district policy changes
• B. assisting the parents in developing questions to gather information they need to know about how their child's individual needs will be addressed in the continuum of services
• C. providing the parents with the draft IEP to review alone
• D. scheduling the ARD without parent input

Answer: (B)

Promoting parents’ active involvement in an ARD meeting starts with guiding them to ask informed questions about how their child’s individual needs will be addressed across the continuum of services. When the diagnostician helps parents develop these questions, they gain clarity on what supports, placements, and accommodations might be used, how goals will be pursued, and how decisions align with the least restrictive environment. This approach centers the family in the planning process, fosters meaningful participation, and leads to a more responsive and accurate IEP. Scheduling the meeting without parent input or sharing a draft IEP for review without discussion bypasses collaboration, while focusing on district policy changes doesn’t directly address the child’s unique needs in the meeting.