This past school year I worked with several amazing families to ensure that their children were receiving appropriate services. Some of these cases were more difficult and required several ARD/IEP meetings but they were worth it. The ultimate goal is for children to receive the necessary and needed services to be successful in school.
I have also had several initial consultations with parents where the issues with the schools were so far gone that the best next step was legal action so they hired attorneys. It is frustrating when parents are dealing with issues that the school could have easily resolved in the beginning.
There are many reasons why parents seek advocates. Usually it’s because they have fought the school for some time and feel like they are not being heard and their child is not making progress. Early implementation of services and supports is crucial when a child has a disability or learning difficulty. For some strange reason, some schools do not understand this and put up every roadblock to provide assistance to students. Not all schools are like this. There are many schools that have staff that understand the process and procedures for identifying struggling students and implement effective interventions in the early stages.
Parents don’t have to wait until there are major problems to seek an advocate. Advocates can be helpful in the beginning of the process when students are just being identified/evaluated as well as throughout the process to ensure that progress is being made and supports/services are appropriate. For the most part, parents trust that schools have the child’s best interest and most schools do but when I sit in an ARD/IEP meeting and all the case manager can say is that the child is a great kid that is a red flag. ARD/IEP meetings should be based on data. IEP goals should match the child’s struggling areas. Progress should be measured using data. They should be able to show you the areas your child has made progress in over time. Goals should not be same year after year. Parents should trust their instincts when they have a concern about their child’s education. It is perfectly fine to want someone else to look over an existing ARD/IEP to ensure that it is a quality, data based document. Typically schools that are open and welcoming to advocates are doing a good job of implementing services and have nothing to hide. It can be intimidating to have someone come in to review and scrutinize their work but as an advocate my goal is for the student to be successful in school.
If you have questions or concerns, please contact us at info@ReachingGreaterHeights.com.