From Mom to Special Education Advocate

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 ...

You sit down to read an email from your child’s school only to discover they are dodging the issue, question, or situation with condescending language when suddenly you feel your own temper start to flare and are flooded with emotions, STOP ! Do not hit the respond button. This rage we feel is our instinct when as parents we are seeing school agencies violating our children’s rights, but this reaction will not get you anywhere.   Unfortunately, emotions will not win the battle, but facts and the law will. Its these types of moments I tell families to take a breath, step away from the laptops and reset. You must let the dust settle before you respond. This is also where knowing the law and your child’s rights are essential. If you “roar” back as the mama or papa bear, most likely your emails will be ignored. You must go back look at the issue or issues at hand and pull out the FACTUAL data not the emotion.   I know this is difficult especially when it comes to our children ...

  If you are like most parents, when the annual IEP meeting rolls around you feel an increase of emotions. The anxiety, the defensiveness, the frustrations. Feelings that only an IEP parent can truly understand as what can be a grueling and adversarial process  sometimes. The key to staying calm and successful is being overly organized and knowing how to present your concerns and requests. I know, easier said than done when it comes to our children.   A great tool to bring to an IEP meeting is your Pre-Meeting Worksheet. A Pre-Meeting Worksheet is an organized way to help stick to the facts of the meeting and leave the emotions at the door. Within this document you will write things such as ·         Purpose of the meeting ·         Who will be attending? ·         What do you want for your child? ·         What are they p...