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Push for as much as you can get! As a parent you have the right to argue for what you want. the frequency makes a huge difference. My son gets speech 3x a week for 30 minutes. We also do private once a week. We have a preschool special education program in our district/city so he is also in a small class with a trained special education teacher with the services on site. The other public preK would’ve been too overwhelming for him.
. I have a few books I want to recommend to you also but I have to look them up as they are at work right now

Agree with above push if needed. It seems like it all takes way too long to get everything in place. DD qualified for weekly speech services as well as full time preschool. She was in school from 730 til 2 with typical speaking kids and some kids who were behind. It was the best thing ever for her. She had previously been at an in home center but the larger classroom with all the kids and an ese teacher in her classroom really helped so so much. She got 1 hr of speech a week split into 2 30 minute sessions in group setting with up to 3 other kids. I wasn't very pleased with the set up and actually called a meeting about it again it took awhile to get set up. Our county is limited as I am sure a lot of places are with the budget they have and how to provide the services. As much as we were so happy for all of it, it was still hard to deal with at times. I continued to look for more help and found a place that gave discounted speech services finally! We are still with the private therapist over 2 years later and still have our iep in kindergarten. Good luck! Sometimes it felt like such a fight but it gets better!! Before you know it their speech does change and you can't believe where you started.

Hello! I am not a special educator but I am a public school teacher. Knowing what I know from the inside, I would definitely get my daughter private services if needed. I encourage you to find a therapist who will give you tips on how to become your child's therapist meaning teach you how to teach your child everyday. I would def get the IEP in place as soon as possible but also seek out more supports though your heath insurance.

@codeitall: we always had a point of contact, we still have the same lady. Even though they are limited on time they can give they are all very nice and understanding. I found the speech and language pathologist that we have very helpful in giving us information and ways to help DD.
I tried to go thru the normal speech services with our insurance and they cover Nothing. We paid almost $800 a month for our insurance and speech would have been 100% out of pocket. So I had to search for help that was aforable for us.

I don't have experience with an IEP specifically but the publically funded program where I am used the Hanen programs. We did both It Takes Two to Talk and Target Word. The guidebooks are available to buy on their website. http://www.hanen.org/Programs/For-Parents.aspx

I'll also mention a plug for getting hearing checked if you haven't. I would have thought DS could hear fine based on listening to instructions and whatnot but he had goop in his ears that was impacting his hearing and muffling sounds. After he got tubes, speech has been improving quickly with his private SLP.

@codeitall: Sorry I forgot to reply! Our IEP meeting went really well. Thanks for asking! I was really nervous about it because I'm just not ready to think about my 4yo going to Kinder yet! I asked for a few accommodations on top of the speech therapy, which might not be essential for K, but I feel better about having them in place as DS grows.

He's currently getting only one 30 min session per week through the school but will get 2 per week with the possibility of a third session maybe when he goes to K. We're also doing 2 one hour sessions per week at a clinic at our local university through our insurance. It's a teaching clinic. The professor is fantastic and so far we have had excellent student therapists. But it was a year long wait list to get in! I wanted to push the idea that DS might need more therapy at school than he's currently getting, because private therapy might not continue to be feasible: our insurance approves speech six months at a time, what if they don't approve the same frequency of therapy in future? and also time wise he might not be able to handle an hour long speech session twice a week after a full day at kinder. (He's currently in 1/2 day preschool). Anyway sorry for the ramble. I felt like they listened to my concerns and even if they thought my requests for accommodations were overkill for K, they were understanding and happy to write them in!

And definitely like others said above if you haven't yet, get LO's hearing checked. I'd recommend seeing a pediatric ENT and audiologists who specialize in kids if you have those in your area.