From Mom to Special Education Advocate

  Parents are the voices of their children. They know them better than anyone else who is in their lives. Parents understand their child’s feelings, their struggles, and their successes.   Parents are the first ones to make their child feel better when they are hurt, sad and even mad. They understand the volcanic eruption of emotions from children who keep it together all day while they attend school to finally feel safe enough to express their hearts, not always a pretty scene to watch.   But most importantly, parents are the voices for their child’s education when the tables are stacked against them from LEAs whose priorities are backwards in the realm of education.   Parents are the ones who call out the inconsistencies, the lack of accountability, the failures of these schools whose job it is to educate your child.   It is no wonder most parents, especially those with children in special education, are exhausted. Their children are in a world with those th...

I recently had a client I was chatting with, and they were telling me how exhausted they get this time of year especially after the months of advocating for their child’s accommodations only to find out that their child’s goals are not being run. Frustration doesn’t even come close to how this one parent feels.   How many of you have been in this situation or worse?   We send our children to school with the promise of the LEAs that their IEPs and 504s will be followed by the experts that are around our children six hours a day. When situations like this occur, most families become enraged at having been lied to.   Their reaction is to pick up the phone can call their child’s team.   This is where I tell families to stop, take a breath and request the data.   Data?? Yes, this is when you will send an email requesting a mid-semester data review and sample work.   As the parent you can request this at any time throughout the year and do not have to wait unti...

When you are looking at the performance of your child in school, one of the factors that will be used is what is commonly known as RTI, Response to Intervention.   This RTI is aimed to help identify struggling students early in their academic career in hopes that they do not continue to fall behind. The goal is that the school would step in and intervene. These RTIs are not just children with IEPs or 504s either. The teacher can provide targeted “teaching” or interventions to help get these kiddos caught up. A large part of RTI process is to monitor the child’s performance, this can also be an indicator that your child may have some learning disabilities and further evaluations may be needed if the interventions are not supporting the growth of the child. Keep in mind that RTI is not a type of teaching, and schools are not required to give families a written intervention plan. The only information needed to be conveyed to families is that their child is getting extra support and ...