Questions to Ask the SLP at Your IEP Meeting

You have thirty to forty-five minutes in a room with the school's speech-language pathologist, an administrator or two, and a stack of test data about your child. The questions you ask in that window determine whether your child gets the services they need or walks out with a "Does Not Qualify" stamp and a handshake.

Most parents sit through IEP meetings listening. That's understandable — the jargon is thick, the reports are dense, and everyone else in the room seems to speak the same clinical language. But asking the right questions shifts the entire dynamic.

Ask About Subtest Scores, Not Just the Composite

The single most important question in any speech-language IEP meeting:

"Can you walk me through each individual subtest score, not just the Core Language composite?"

Here's why this matters. The CELF-5 Core Language Score is derived from four age-dependent core subtests. A child can score in the 2nd percentile on Recalling Sentences (scaled score of 4) while scoring average on Word Classes — and the composite still lands in the "average range." A broad composite can obscure a specific low score.

Follow up with: "Are there any subtests where my child scored more than two scaled-score points below the subtest mean of 10?" A scaled score of 7 or below flags a meaningful weakness even when the composite looks fine.

Ask How Testing Conditions Compare to the Classroom

Standardized speech tests happen in a quiet room, one-on-one, with clear instructions and no time pressure. That's nothing like a third-grade classroom with twenty-five students, background noise, and a teacher delivering multi-step directions while writing on the board.

Ask: "How does my child's performance in the structured testing environment compare to what teachers observe in the classroom?"

And: "Were classroom observations conducted as part of this evaluation? What did they show?"

If the SLP says your child performed within the average range on testing but the classroom teacher reports the child can't follow multi-step directions, that disconnect is diagnostic data. Federal regulations under IDEA require that evaluations consider information from multiple sources — not just test scores.

Ask About the Eligibility Cutoff Being Used

School districts set their own eligibility thresholds, and these vary dramatically. Some districts use -1.0 standard deviation (standard score of 85, 16th percentile). Others use -1.5 SD (standard score of 77) or even -2.0 SD (standard score of 70, 2nd percentile).

Ask: "What standard score cutoff is the district using to determine speech-language eligibility, and what's the clinical sensitivity of the CELF-5 at that threshold?"

This question matters because the CELF-5's diagnostic sensitivity drops sharply at stricter cutoffs. At -1.33 SD (standard score of 80), sensitivity is 97% — the test catches nearly every child with a true language disorder. At -2.0 SD (standard score of 70), sensitivity plummets to approximately 57%. At that threshold, the test misses nearly half of children with genuine Developmental Language Disorder.

If your district uses the -2.0 SD cutoff, ask how the team accounts for the test's lower sensitivity at that threshold and weighs the other assessment evidence.

Ask What Happens When Scores Conflict with Functional Performance

"My child's composite score is in the average range, but they cannot follow three-step directions at home or formulate complete sentences in conversation. How does the team reconcile those findings?"

Under IDEA, eligibility doesn't rest on a single test score. The law requires the team to consider whether the impairment adversely affects educational performance — which includes academic achievement, classroom participation, and social-emotional functioning. A child who scores 86 on a composite but melts down when asked to retell a story in class may show educational impact that the team should consider.

Ask the team to document the discrepancy between standardized scores and functional performance in writing.

Ask About Additional Testing and Next Steps

If you disagree with the results:

"I'd like to understand the process for requesting an Independent Educational Evaluation. Can you confirm the district's timeline for responding to that request?"

Under 34 CFR §300.502, when a parent requests an IEE, the district must either fund the independent evaluation or file for a due process hearing to defend its own evaluation — without unnecessary delay. Asking this question in the meeting creates a documented record.

Also ask: "Were any dynamic assessments, language sample analyses, or criterion-referenced measures used alongside the standardized battery?" If the evaluation relied solely on standardized testing, ask how the team considered other relevant measures and functional evidence in its comprehensive evaluation.

Putting It All Together

Write your questions down before the meeting. Bring a copy of the evaluation report if you received one in advance — you have the legal right to request it before the meeting under 34 CFR §300.613.

The Speech-Language Evaluation Decoder includes a full meeting question bank organized by scenario — what to ask when the composite is average but subtests are low, when the SLP recommends reducing minutes, or when the school says your child "doesn't qualify." It also breaks down every CELF-5 subtest so you know exactly what each score means before you walk into the room.

Preparation isn't adversarial. It's the difference between hearing "your child is in the average range" and knowing what that actually means for their daily life in a classroom.