Cold Reads Don’t Lie: An Epic IEP Story Every Parent Needs to Hear

Today’s episode of The Epic IEP™ is a little bit longer — but you’re going to want to hear this. Karen Mayer Cunningham, The Special Education Boss®, shares a real IEP meeting where the school’s data didn’t match what the student could actually do at home. And the difference wasn’t small.

Karen walks through why she always brings her own data to the table — three cold reads, two cold writes, and a clear picture of the child’s real baseline. When the school claimed the student was reading 80 words correct per minute on a Level Q, the home data told a very different story: repeated errors, constant self-corrections, and a much lower true accuracy rate.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to:
• Use home cold reads to verify (or challenge) school data
• Identify inflated reading levels using clean accuracy percentages
• Share video evidence in the meeting to clarify present levels
• Respond when staff say “we don’t take off for errors”
• Bring the conversation back to needs, baselines, and appropriate goals
• Reset the meeting when the data doesn’t match reality

Karen reminds parents and advocates that a child’s needs don’t disappear when they walk into the school building. If it’s a need on Saturday, it’s a need at school. The goal is always the same: find the real baseline so the team can write IEP goals that enable the student to make progress appropriate in light of their circumstances.

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