A conference is fifteen or twenty minutes, and the format pulls hard toward the data. You are the person in the room who can widen the lens without adding a single minute. Open with a verb, before the folder opens: "this fall he's been building entire cities out of cardboard." Ask the question that changes the meeting: "What do you see in my child that no assessment measures?" and write the answer down in front of them. Trade what only each of you can know: offer the home view in two lines, ask for the room view. Receive hard news as information, not indictment, then ask the only question that moves things: "What would help, at school and at home?" Close with one next step each. You are not attending a performance review of your child; you are one of two experts comparing notes, and yours is the longer record.