Education legislation such as the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA; 1997, 2004) requires that parents be included in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) and transition plan development, and that students be at the center of the planning process. Specifically, students with disabilities and their parents are to be directly involved in all phases of the educational decision-making process and each student should be part of the team that establishes goals and determines the educational support that will be provided. Recent research with national longitudinal data on parent and youth participation in IEP and transition plan meetings suggests that most high school students and their parents do attend IEP meetings (83% and 87%, respectively) but that considerably fewer youth and their parents attend transition plan meetings (68% and 76%, respectively; Wagner, Newman, Cameto, Javitz, & Valdes, 2012). However, despite legislation and policies that encourage parent and youth attendance in IEP meetings, school personnel have not always viewed parents as equal partners (Park, 2008) or facilitated meaningful involvement of students in the decision-making process (Martin, Marshall, & Sale, 2004). Further, the barriers to school support of student involvement include lack of training or preparation for students to practice self-advocacy prior to the IEP or transition meeting (e.g., Wehmeyer et al., 2011). Typical challenges to parent involvement include difficulties related to the scheduling of IEP meeting times and the use of jargon-dense information during the IEP meeting. Thus, the desired partnership between schools, parents, and students outlined in the law has not been consistently realized in practice. Student Involvement in Planning Research on successful IEP transition planning emphasizes students as active agents in the process so they may authentically contribute in IEP meetings (e.g., Meadan, Shelden, Appel, & DeGrazia, 2010). Student involvement in IEP development has been linked to higher levels of goal attainment (Powers et al., 2001) and higher graduation rates (Cavendish, 2013). Teachers, administrators, researchers, and policy makers all agree on the importance of personcentered planning to provide meaningful involvement in IEP and transition planning. For example, research on student involvement in IEP meetings has highlighted the need to instruct students in active IEP participation thereby enabling them to enter into a genuine collaboration that ensures their position at the center of the process (Meadan 4680L DQXXX10.
