Advocating for Your Child’s Special Education Needs

Being a parent of a special needs child is not easy. Working with a new team each year is hard. It’s hard even when the only thing that changes is your general education teacher.

As a special education teacher, parents, you play a critical role part in your child’s education. Advocating is empowering and HARD. By actively participating in your child’s education and collaborating with educators and professionals, you can ensure that your child receives the support and resources they require to thrive. In this blog post, I will share 8 valuable insights and practical tips to help you become a strong advocate for your child and their needs.

Educate Yourself

Knowledge is power! Take the time to familiarize yourself with special education laws and regulations in your country or state. Understand key terms and acronyms commonly used in special education, such as Individualized Education Program (IEP), 504 Plan, and Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). Learn about different disabilities, accommodations, and instructional approaches that can support your child’s learning. Understanding these concepts will help you to communicate and collaborate with teachers and school administrators. (I’ll share more on each of these soon.)

Build Relationships

Developing strong relationships with your child’s classroom teachers, therapists, and administrators are essential. Attend parent-teacher conferences, IEP meetings, and other school events to establish open lines of communication. By fostering positive relationships, you can create a supportive network that works together to meet your child’s unique needs.

Maintain Communication

Effective communication is the cornerstone of successful advocacy. Regularly communicate with your child’s teachers to stay informed about their progress, challenges, and any emerging concerns. Share your observations, insights, and goals for your child’s education, IEP, and post-high school. Collaboration ensures consistency between home and school.

Document Everything

Maintain a record of all correspondence, meetings, evaluations, and assessments related to your child’s special education. Keep copies of IEPs, progress reports, and any relevant documentation. This documentation can help you track your child’s progress, identify patterns, and support your advocacy efforts.

Be an Active Participant in the IEP Process

The Individualized Education Program (IEP) is a vital tool for ensuring your child’s educational needs are met. Actively participate in the development and review of your child’s IEP. Share your insights, goals, and concerns, and be prepared to negotiate and collaborate with the school team to create an effective plan. Remember, you are your child’s voice during these meetings.

Know Your Child’s Rights

Familiarize yourself with your child’s rights under special education law. Take the time to read them and ask questions if you don’t understand your Parent Rights and Procedural Safeguards. Understand the services and accommodations your child is entitled to and ensure they receive them. If you encounter any challenges or obstacles, advocate for your child’s rights respectfully but assertively, seeking guidance from organizations or parent support groups if necessary. (If you are not sure where your copy is, go to your state department of education, download, and read it.)

Seek Additional Support

Don’t hesitate to seek additional support from professionals, advocacy organizations, or parent support groups. These resources can provide guidance, mentorship, and valuable insights to help you navigate the complex world of special education. Share your experiences and learn from others who have walked a similar path.

Foster a Collaborative Approach

Remember, you and the school team share a common goal—your child’s success. Approach advocacy as a collaborative effort, working together to ensure your child receives the best possible education. Maintain open lines of communication, listen to different perspectives, and find common ground to create a supportive and inclusive learning environment. Explore differentiated instruction techniques, such as varied assignments, flexible grouping, or modified assessments. Collaboratively find ways to adapt the curriculum to meet your child’s individual needs.

Advocating for your child’s special education needs is a powerful way to ensure their educational journey meets their unique abilities and challenges. By educating yourself, building relationships, maintaining communication, and actively participating in the IEP process, you can effectively advocate for your child. Remember, you are your child’s greatest advocate.

Raising an Athlete

Sports!! From fall to winter, spring to summer, I have always loved the cycle of sports. It is extremely exciting to watch a family member play in competitive sports. Being an enthusiastic follower of my daughter as an all-star softball player, I really had to let go of my instinct to be a mom-coach. I quickly learned how to become a silent and compassionate partner when my daughter competed in championship games. I discovered that the stakes were high. And maybe a bit too high for my daughter and her team to relax, focus, and enjoy their sport.

As a typical parent, I initially tried to encourage my child while being positive. This strategy failed, however, when my daughter and her team felt the pressure during the playoffs. Suddenly, the pressure was so great that the joy of the sport was lost. The team froze and became exacerbated. Then our talented team lost their focus. Finally, they lost the win of their championship game.

What I Learned as a Parent

When I reflect back on what happened, this is what I learned about parenting an athlete:

It is my job to stay present and supportive regardless of how my child is responding to the coach and her team.
When the game becomes tense, I must diffuse my energy with a calming smile and be there as a positive force of energy for my child and the team.
I must remember that the most important lesson for my child is not the outcome but the process. She is there as part of a team. My job is to encourage positive teambuilding through support, compassion, and concern for every team member.
When there is tension, it is important to refocus the team with a timeout of support and positive energy. My job is to give my daughter the space she needs to regroup and find her center of focus. Healing happens through individual choice.
After a major game upset, it is important to give my daughter the space she needs to regroup and relax. Some athletes need to vent about what went wrong during the game. Others need the space to self-reflect. That is when I need to be quiet and take the cues from my daughter.
Showing up matters!

What I Learned from the Coaches

Once a team member makes an error, it is past history. The coach must restore motivational energy among team members.
No good is ever generated from shame discussions.
Players are aware of their limitations. Each needs their own reinforced coping skills when they fail.
Players rebuild their skills and potential through acknowledged growth and full potential of the team.
An effective coach is a reservoir of inspirational strength and skill development strategies for every team member.

Much success as a parent who supports their child athlete and team to their next victory of self-growth as an effective team member.

10 Strategies to Get Your Child Excited About Learning

Each fall most students return to school and are excited about their new grade level and teacher assignments. Some become anxious because school is challenging for them. Others may have a history of struggling to learn or functioning successfully in a classroom setting. These students need added intervention support to ensure that they will succeed in school.

Here are ten proven strategies that parents can reinforce at home:

Identify a response for your child that motivates them to respond positively when encountering a challenging situation or difficult task.
Consistently reinforce each positive behavior with this motivating response.
Many children become overwhelmed when they must rush through life with too many scheduled activities. Pace their lives with balanced times for eating, sleeping, family activities, exercise, chores, and screen time.
Give your child time to chill. Some children need to find a quiet place to decompress when they are overstimulated or agitated about a situation. Give them the space they need away from too much stimulation or annoying situations.
Respect your child’s individual differences. Children need to feel valued and supported by their parents. Encourage them to reflect on the value of their many strengths and how they can effectively overcome various challenges.
Give your child the gift of your personal attention. Today’s parents are busy. Their children are busy. Slow down and find time to talk with your child daily. Hug them and love them for who they are.
Schedule time for your child to socialize with other children. Today’s families are overly scheduled with work, planned activities, and life’s responsibilities. Ensure your child has opportunities to play with other children and make friends. These experiences will help them learn how to plan and work more effectively with classmates and lifelong friends.
Limit screen time. Ongoing research indicates that children are more anxious, depressed, and challenged with too much screen time. Some children stay up late at night monitoring electronic devices. Others become addicted to online games and texting instead of building personal relationships.
Walk your talk. Apply what you say to what you do. For example, do you balance your daily life and allow time for eating, sleeping, family activities, exercise, and limit screen time?
Finally, express gratitude for all that is good in your life, your children’s lives, and in your community

Happy new school year of many successes!

Recycling and Environmental Conservation

I am passionate about conserving resources and mindful recycling (or reducing waste). Each school year I want to help students become aware of what is going on around them in relevant and useful ways. My hope is for each child to connect with something that interests them as they become an advocate or steward for change and making a difference in their community.

Get Kids Excited

Initially, I get the kids excited about their learning environment by adopting a class mascot. Last year our class adopted sea otters. We learned that sea otters are important in managing sea urchins and keeping the ocean’s kelp forests healthy. Students were excited as they learned more about these topics:

Sea otters are aquatic engineers and balance harm to ocean environments.
Kelp feeds sea otters and absorbs carbon in the ocean.
Management of microplastics and single use plastics in the environment can reduce pollution.
Effective conservation strategies in the home, community, and the environment can have a significant impact on waste reduction.
Kids can make a difference in their communities.
Honey bees are important in balancing the ecosystem.

Learn About Recycling

Our end of the year project was to invent and create new objects on collage boards after collecting recycled trash at school and in neighborhoods. The students worked as teams to build a honey bee playground. They used plastic tape, food packaging, bubble wrap, cereal cups, straws, and plastic bags. As students worked on their projects, they learned it takes 20 years for a plastic bag to decompose and 200 years for a plastic straw. Now their next challenge will be to study products that can made from these byproducts. For example, I recently purchased a recycled purse made from cork and gave a friend a recycled cosmetic bag with recycled soaps.

Limit Waste

As we enter our next school year, what can students, parents, and teachers do together to limit the pollution and waste in our communities? Please share your ideas in the comments section below this blog.

Keeping the Peace at Home

School is starting in the next few weeks. I am having various combinations of grandkids spend the final days of summer in my home. As a parent educator and teacher, I have learned a variety of effective classroom management strategies that work well at home as well as at school. Here are my top 10:

Make time for each child every day. Our children need time to talk and feel our affection for each of them. Young children love to talk right before bed and early in the day after they wake up. Teens love to talk at 10 p.m. or later when we are very tired and our listening skills are depleted.
Solve ongoing conflicts by meeting with each child to discuss their feelings and to brainstorm new ways they can relate and communicate with their family and friends.
Help your children live with the consequences of their actions. When they misbehave, have them work with you in identifying an appropriate outcome. Sometimes, children must lose a privilege for a day for acting aggressively toward a sibling. Others may need to pay or fix something they have broken.
Drive the carpools to and from school, for sports teams, and for various after-school activities. It is amazing listening to the conversations of our kids and grandkids at different developmental milestones. The most shocking was when my teenage grandson wanted to discuss his sex education workshop with me and his friends when driving them to a track meet. I was unsure of how to respond so I kept redirecting the conversation back to what they learned and how they felt about the what they learned.
Get to know your kids’ friends and their parents. It takes a village to raise children and my children’s friends spent hours at each home throughout the school year. The parents shared childcare even when the kids gave each other various viruses.
Celebrate life and various milestone events. These memorable occasions will stay with your children for years.
Take family vacations and capture with photos. Once again, these are cherished memories for life.
Engage children in completing chores around the house. Plan for weekly allowances as part of being a member of the family to help children learn how to manage money.
Model kindness in your various actions within the home and while participating in community service activities with your family.
Convene weekly family meetings to plan family outings, vacations, identify chores, and resolve ongoing conflicts.

May the final days of summer be filled with loving memories and preparations for a heathy and restful start of a new school year.