Sep 12, 2013 | Disability, Emotion, IEPs, Least Restrictive Environment, Parent Involvement, Procedural Safeguards, Special Education |
I have had many opportunities to meet with others and participate on state and national levels as an advocate, but there are two opportunities that I hold as real honors. Two of those were invitations to participate in summits held by the National Council on...
Sep 4, 2013 | Advocacy, Disability, IEPs, Parent Involvement, Public School, Special Education, Vocational Rehab |
We had survived middle school relatively unscathed. He had those fresh out of college teachers who were excited about their profession and so eager to teach. My son really benefited from being there. He entered high school continuing on with advanced placement and...
Aug 21, 2013 | Advocacy, Deafness, Disability, IEPs, Least Restrictive Environment, Parent Involvement, Public School, Special Education |
After my sons’ return to his neighborhood school and being provided the supports he needed in the regular education environment, (Supplementary Aids and Services) he flourished. He was excelling academically and socially. He was nominated by his school principal for...
Aug 15, 2013 | Advocacy, Case Law, Disability, IEPs, IFSP, Inclusion, Least Restrictive Environment, Parent Involvement, Public School, Special Education |
I became involved in this grassroots parent civil rights movement, as most do, because of my own immediate needs for my son. I was able to resolve his issues within the first year. Subsequent IEP meetings were never an issue once I acquired the knowledge to be an...
Aug 13, 2013 | Advocacy, Charter School, Disability, IEPs, Parent Involvement, Procedural Safeguards, Public School, Special Education |
I was beginning to become recognized as a resource for all parents of children with disabilities. In my interactions with parents I learned about a wide variety of disabilities and how they impacted children’s access to an education. ( Specific Disabilities ) The...
Jul 19, 2013 | Advocacy, Behavior Plan, Disability, Emotion, IEPs, Parent Involvement, Public School, Special Education |
I had made some changes in policy and services in my community applying things I had read and learned from others. My son had settled in and all the other children with hearing impairments had been placed in age and grade appropriate settings. All but one … His...
Jul 12, 2013 | Advocacy, Disability, Emotion, Evaluation, Least Restrictive Environment, OCR Complaint, Parent Involvement, Procedural Safeguards, Public School, Special Education |
I soon realized that we as parents had no established vehicle to participate in the decision making process on a district t or even site based level. I read about the passage of Goals 2000. (GOALS 2000 – Educate America) It was an approach to site based...
Jul 8, 2013 | Advocacy, Disability, Emotion, IEPs, OCR Complaint, Parent Involvement, Public School |
The day finally arrived when I went to the mailbox and peered inside to find a fat letter with a return address from the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in Atlanta, Georgia. I opened it and began to read. OCR had found in their investigation that our school district...
Jul 1, 2013 | Advocacy, Disability, IEPs, OCR Complaint, Parent Involvement, Public School, Special Education |
I returned home with renewed purpose empowered with all this new information and now a job to provide it to other parents. I also had the new tools of the computer and internet and email. I surfed the web reading and learning more. I understood that this was about...
Jun 28, 2013 | Advocacy, Disability, Emotion, IEPs, OCR Complaint, Parent Involvement, Public School, Special Education |
Still no word from OCR and the school year had come to a close. My son returned home and went off to summer school but with an extra five hours a day minus bus time to spend and was back in his own neighborhood. I signed him up for the local sports programs like...
