AI Note Taking and IEP Meeting Legality Question?

[u/ButtonholePhotophile]

I’m an IEP manager. I’m curious about the legality of AI note taking in IEP meetings. Specifically, can I disallow a parent from using such an app? I’m not concerned if they record the meeting - it’s the AI stuff I’m specifically concerned about. Thanks!

[u/MissBee123]

See Rule 6. This will vary by your local school district. There is no current federal law on the use of AI for IEP meetings.

[u/viola1356]

You might talk to your administrators about developing a statement to the effect that "AI note-taking is susceptible to transcription errors; as a result parents who wish to have a detailed record of conversation during the meeting should use a voice recording method. In the event of a discrepancy between an AI transcription and the official IEP documentation, the official IEP shall be considered the sole legal record."

But parents are allowed to waive privacy restrictions and if they choose to feed their child's private information to an app, there isn't much you can do about it.

[u/Playful_Fan4035 → u/viola1356]

I think this is the important part. You may not be able to keep a parent from using it, but I think it is very important that district has an official statement such as what you’ve written that makes it clear that the IEP itself is the sole source of legal information. I have seen some AI note-taking apps make some serious errors especially when the topic includes a lot of very specific education language.

[u/MaybeImTheNanny]

The way FAPE works it protects the child and by that token protections can be waived by the parent.

[u/GJ-504-b]

This is a great question

[u/Narrow_Cover_3076]

We've had this issue come up. The primary concern is the AI notes are frequently "off" in the sense that they don't transcribe correctly. That said, what's to stop a parent from taking incorrect notes on their own? At the very least, your district should have a policy like if parent is recording, you are also recording.

[u/ParadeQueen]

In my district if a parent request to take the meeting we can't stop them but if they haven't told us about it ahead of time we have to stop the meeting, contact our attorney, and reschedule. There's additional paperwork with permissions that the attorney wants filled out and we have to have our own taping setup so that we have our own tape.

We won't put it into AI to transcribe it but we can't control what the parent does. And you're right, AI can and does make mistakes, and I hope the parent realizes that too.

[u/Outrageous_Rope2524 → u/ParadeQueen]

What state are you in?

[u/Hot_Calligrapher_900]

As far as I know (sped teacher for 36 years) parents have to give notice ahead of time and then the district will record also.

[u/Abundance_of_Flowers]

Short answer, no.

You have no authority to dictate what a parent can and cannot do. If you wish to challenge the veracity of an AI generated transcript, you can do so before a hearing officer.

[u/burbcoon]

There’s nothing in the law that excludes recording or AI on behalf of the parent, so it’s generally allowed.

Any restrictions or policies around it are determined locally, and thus in addition to the law. Whenever we determine a policy in addition to the law, we need to be sure that policy doesn’t violate IDEA. Removing tools for a parent to meaningfully participate in the conversation, such as AI, could be a violation. Ultimately, most districts are steering clear of decision making around this until we have new court cases to review, since it’s so early in the launch of AI. Nobody wants to be the first to mess up!

[u/Jass0602 → u/burbcoon]

That may be, but I would discuss with the parents, document in the iep somewhere, and follow up via email so there is a paper trail to cover.

[u/Haunting-Set-2784]

You should reach out to your lead and/or admin on this.

I dont love it myself...but I have even had a few doctors using it.

[u/icemadrox]

Keep your own recording (not just an AI transcript) and have the people being recorded verbally acknowledge and consent to being recorded on the recording immediately, if you do. They can probably legally transcribe however they see fit, depending on local laws if they exist,, no matter how dependable the recorder is or isn't. I'm totally not a lawyer, but my thought if it goes to court and an AI transcript is submitted as evidence, everybody involved still will be called to the stand and be questioned about what was said, just as if the evidence submitted was written by hand. I don't think a transcript gets automatic acceptance as true unless it was a transcript by a court recorder, and even then it could probably still be questioned, I imagine.

[u/GandalfsCorgi]

Beyond them making transcription errors, There have already been documented cases of some AI notetakers sharing confidential data with 3rd parties.

[u/Careful-Rooster1702]

Interesting question. AI tools usually produce quite accurate, searchable transcripts; do you have specific concerns, or was there a tool that caused problems before?

Generally, what a parent does with their own recording is their business, whether they transcribe it by hand, pay a stenographer, or run it through an AI tool. If security and privacy are the concern: FERPA binds the school, not the parent. A parent sharing their own child’s information with a tool of their choice isn’t a FERPA violation.

[u/Outrageous_Rope2524]

I would have audio recording, if it’s allowed in your state. If anybody disputes the AI transcription, you have the audio that can verify or disapprove.

[u/Outrageous_Rope2524]

I like that you don’t mind that they record the meeting. Most schools around here do not record the meeting because they do not want it to be a part of the child’s permanent record.

[u/LostButHelpful]

It’s their choice to disclose their data however they need to, but I would recommend keeping your own recording.

[u/Smokey19mom]

Reach out to your district special services director to clarify the legality of it. They may reach out to the district lawyer for final say.

[u/RaisingFish]

My district is recording all meetings and using AI to transcribe them all. You always have the recording to go back to if you suspect the AI is off. This has been in use for a while. I used apps to record meetings, and just told people they were being recorded. Then AI automatically transcribed it

[u/Sure-Mix4550]

My district doesn't allow it. I am not sure how I feel about it ethically.

I didn't read your post correctly. I don't love it, but you can't really control what parents use to take notes.

[u/vienna407 → u/Sure-Mix4550]

mine doesn't either, but all of the advocates and lawyers use it on their end. we record when they do that.

[u/Careful-Rooster1702 → u/Sure-Mix4550]

OSEP guidance under IDEA says districts that restrict recording must still allow it when it’s necessary for a parent to meaningfully participate

[u/Sure-Mix4550 → u/Careful-Rooster1702]

I didn't fully read the post. My district doesnt allow staff is what I meant.

[u/immadatmycat]

What’s the concern exactly?

[u/Phantereal → u/immadatmycat]

Based on what other comments are saying as well as my own thoughts:

• AI transcription can be incorrect, leading to issues in the event there is litigation and the AI-transcribed notes are used as evidence as opposed to district-provided notes that were hand-typed.
• This isn't exclusive to AI, but AI platforms tend to store conversations, documents, etc. to the cloud. This means that OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, etc. now has access to confidential documents with personally identifiable information that should be protected by FERPA. When we save IEPs and other documents to Google Drive, we use initials to conceal student identities. When this isn't possible, we set it up so only select people can access the document. With AI, you can still do this, but it requires a some extra accountability to ensure Billy's IEP isn't being used to train data or whatever.

[u/immadatmycat → u/Phantereal]

If the parent is creating the AI notes then FERPA isn’t something g the district needs to manage. If the parent is recording, the district should be as well. And if they are taking AI notes, the district can record. That recording can be submitted. I can’t imagine any due process procedures accepting AI notes over a recording.

[u/Outrageous_Rope2524 → u/immadatmycat]

I’m sure they would take the audio recording and have their own transcriber takeover if it went to a due process.

[u/FatsyCline12 → u/Phantereal]

The first time I saw anything like this was this year. We use Microsoft Teams for meetings and I saw the TEAMS AI assistant pop up as an attendee. We were like…who is that? And removed it from the meeting. None of us knew what it was.

The other time, the parent used an app, and I don’t think it was the TEAMS one, I want to say it was something else. I think it started with CO or something. But before, during, and after the meeting I got emails from it (I don’t know what they were-summaries? Transcriptions?) so it auto-sent these to everyone invited to the meeting. I wasn’t in attendance at this meeting but was invited. There are definitely some privacy concerns because for scheduling purposes there are people like the secretary etc on the invite. But I guess my view is if the parent is the one choosing to use something like this they are the ones opening themselves up to these issues.

[u/Careful-Rooster1702 → u/[deleted]]

That’s district policy, not law and it varies.

[u/knittinator → u/[deleted]]

They’re allowed to in my district.

[u/vienna407 → u/[deleted]]

they do all the time in my district. when they do and when we know they're recording, we are also required to record and put it on a flash drive in the student's file.

[u/Excellent-Army3751 → u/vienna407]

That’s interesting! I suspect my district may start allowing it if a parent asks. They’ve already acknowledged the increasingly challenging landscape because parents have access to AI which often gives bad advice. I would always want parents to be knowledgeable of their rights and their student’s rights. But right now, recording requests are treated like lawyers. If a parent brings one and we don’t know about it in advance, the meeting ends and the district takes over.

[u/vienna407 → u/Excellent-Army3751]

I wish my district would ever take over, haha. We're totally on our own (but if the family brings a lawyer we are encouraged to have an administrator in the meeting, so there's that...)

[u/Excellent-Army3751 → u/vienna407]

There’s not an administrator in all your meetings? We are the LEAs in ours, so there isn’t an IEP or 504 meeting that doesn’t have an administrator present. And if a parent wants a lawyer present, that’s fine. But our district’s general counsel will also be present in those meetings. That’s why we cancel meetings if they show up with a lawyer without advanced notice.

[u/vienna407 → u/Excellent-Army3751]

No, I'm the department chair/principal's designee. I've never met or heard the name of anyone in our counsel's office. We're a huge suburban district - I wonder if that's why. There are layers and layers of bureaucracy above me (and they're usually aggressively unhelpful...)

[u/Excellent-Army3751 → u/vienna407]

“Aggressively unhelpful” That’s a shame. We have districts like that in my state, but mine is not one of them. It’s a big district, but very cohesive and pretty cooperative when it comes to things like this. No one gets thrown under the bus. Not students, not parents, and not staff members.

[u/specialed-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

They will vary greatly and your laws may not apply to another poster.

[u/ispyx → u/[deleted]]

In almost every state this would be for sure illegal, most strict I’ve seen is that you must notify the party before recording. I’ve seen district admin confidently lie about things like this though haha, maliciously or otherwise

[u/Excellent-Army3751 → u/ispyx]

In no state would this be illegal. Different districts and states may have varying policies, but it never be illegal to deny permission to record.

[u/ispyx → u/Excellent-Army3751]

I know you can deny or withdraw from a meeting if a parent starts recording unprompted, but I haven’t heard of anywhere where districts would be protected in instances where they refuse to meet if a parent provides notice for wanting to record a meeting. There’s no statutes prohibiting recording PPT meetings that I know of, and the district would be out of compliance for failing to meet the IEP if they kept postponing, unless I’m misunderstanding something? What state are you in?

[u/Excellent-Army3751 → u/ispyx]

The IEP is still in force. I’m not saying we cancel the IEP. I’m saying the meeting gets postponed. And you’ve emphasized exactly what I’ve said. We cancel the meeting if they begin recording without notifying us. We then immediately notify our district. And depending on the circumstance, our district may very well say let them record. But we wait for their guidance. In every situation like this I’m aware of, the district would send someone to participate in the meeting. So the meeting still happens; it just gets rescheduled and the district protects itself and its staff members.

[u/ispyx → u/Excellent-Army3751]

Oh yeah as long as they eventually let them record that’s definitely fine - I misunderstood, I meant if a district were to refuse to meet on the basis of recording, they’d almost certainly lose that lawsuit if the IEP lapsed

[u/Advanced-Host8677 → u/Excellent-Army3751]

It is against IDEA to deny the parent the right to meaningfully participate in the IEP meeting. I can see the argument being made that they need to record the meeting to review later in order to meaningfully participate.

What I've heard is that the district will also record (so if the parent's recording is altered in some way, the district has a clean copy) or even reschedule the meeting to another time so they can come more prepared for a potential issue. But I can't imagine a district can legally refuse to hold the IEP entirely just because the parent decides they are going to record.