Full Love Ahead

The Law:

20 USC  §1400(d) To ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasize special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment and independent living. 

Alphabet Soup

Parents of children diagnosed with ASD quickly learn acronyms such as IDEA, FAPE, IEP, LRE, LEA, FERPA  and more.

 It is not uncomon for the students on the autism spectrum to need an IEP.    Asperger's students often perform well academically.   School districts frequently  inform parents that these students do "too well" and can not be identified as special education students.  Not true!

Our children often benefit from occupational therapy, speech therapy, (including social skills classes) and more.  

 Know your child's rights.  Don't let anyone rob your child of his right for a "Free Appropriate Public Education". 

 You're the Expert  on Your Child

In addition to watching your child's grades, watch your child's moods.  Listen if they are able to verbalize what their day was like.   Many of our children have all they can do to hold it together throughout the school day.   If they come home and melt down, chances are something triggered it.  

 The first step is identifying the problem.    Once that's done, work with the school to make an appropriate accomodation or modification to address the problem.   Lastly, continue to monitor the situation. 

 Expect things to change with the child's development, new cirriculums,  and environment.  New challenges present themselves throughout the school year.

You are your child's voice.  Speak up when things go wrong.

OVERWHELMED?  

SPECIAL ED ADVOCATE

SERVICES AVAILABLE 

If you feel like your IEP team is not effective or if your child's educational needs are not being met, it's time to get the answers you need!   Experienced, trained special education advocate services are now available to parents of NH students.    Initial conference is free.   Fees are negotiable, and YES, we can attend IEP meetings with you!  Please go to the contact us tab and submit your request.

What is RTI?    When is it used?

 According to the NH DOE, Response to Intervention (RtI) is the practice of (1) providing high quality instruction/intervention matched to student needs and (2) using learning rate over time and level of performance to (3) make important educational decisions.  

It is our understanding that RTI was developed as an alternative to identifying students with learning disabilities.    This method can be used rather than the traditionally used ability-achievement discrepancy model (where standardized tests determine whether children exhibit a severe discrepancy between their IQ and academic achievement).

504 plans bring civil-rights law into schools.  Mandated accomodations allow children with disabilities to participate fully.  

IEPs - Indivdiualized Education Plans, are legally binding documents that detail what special education services your child will receive and why.   Does your IEP measure up?

Although there is no guarantee as to the outcome of advocacy, my clients have enjoyed a reduction in stress and confusion.   Their children have enjoyed positive results with school related matters.  

If you are in need of assistance in obtaining or keeping school services coming, consider ad advocate.     Click on "contact us" and send us a message.   Messages are checked every day.

The squeaky wheel NEEDS the grease. 

Test your IEP knowledge:

True or False-

If parents make a referral informing the school district that their child might need special education, the IEP team has 15 days to give the parents notice of disposition of referral whether or not to conduct further evaluations.  

TRUE - 15 calendar days.

Parents have the legal right to review the IEP for up to 14 days before signing it.

TRUE - 14 calendar days

The New Hampshire Rules give specialists who conduct evaluations the sole right to determine the disability classification for that student.

FALSE - it is a team decision

 If it isn't in writing....

      it didn't happen. 

Take time to read the minutes of your IEP meeting.   If they don't  include all the information about items that were discussed and  you want on the record, ask to have them amended. 

Circle the wagons when your child needs help.

It's IEP season.    It's time to review your child's goals and give thoughtful consideration to what benchmarks would be meaningful on the way to mastering those goals.    Parents often leave this up to the schools.     We strongly encourage you to learn how to write benchmarks.    It can start with a setence as simple as,  "STUDENT will count and compute units of money ."  Then you add details on how this will be done, how it will be measured and what level of accuracy your child should be expected to achieve before you consider it mastered.  Remember to make the goals realistic, measurable and specific.