A Passion for Promise

A passion has evolved in I over the years for helping parents of kid's with disabilities. The ability to have an unbias opinion with experience look at the facts when a child  is not doing well academically and/or socially can make the difference between success or failure. When I say unbiased, I mean not the principle,county, teacher, parent, or even therapist whom all of course should be involved(it takes a village to raise a child). All of the people and more listed are necessary and have their place. The most valuable opinion's and guidance I have ever obtained has been from advocates that I retained for free through family network on disabilities or by hire. I can take the emotion out of advocating for other peoples children but when it comes to my own I find it difficult to do, and taking the emotion out of it is one very important key element along with listening between the lines and doing your homework.

The point is everyone truly has their own agenda, from the  administrators, school autism coaches,teacher assistants,area program specialists, autism family counselors,speech language pathologist ,LEA representatives,  ESE teachers, and  general education teachers you might all see at an IEP meeting you would think "Hey look at all these professionals, they must be making decisions that will enable my child to make the most meaningful progress , provide the proper services under the law, and stay on top of measuring his/or her goals". WRONG! The reality is these people are simply support and you the caretaker will be the constant driving force to ensure all the above is happening .Education is power in this situation, so use all these supports and learn from them. Take the knowledge with you because you will need to use it down the long fruitful road of raising that independent, sweet, focused human that will have many gifts to offer the community.

My first IEP meeting out of the safety net of Baudhuin pre-school was that of the LEA Representative(the person who holds and speaks for the counties money) telling me that she couldn't  tell me my child's placement(meaning if they could provide a supported classroom or not) even though my child's reading comprehension was testing well below pre- primer level. The number one rule always is "If it doesn't make sense, It's not true!). This just didn't match my child needs and I knew better from taking the time out to learn the laws. I thank this LEA Rep today because this experience gave me drive right out of the box, I now knew why the county spends so much money on educating parents because the system is flawed. Only  parents that have truly put the time in and paid attention will see the benefits for their children. My child's situation this time was handled through a letter with specific wording. The question really is what would have happened if I had said o.k. regular class  or not taken seriously the reading comprehension score. The comprehension score was actually corrected by me getting permission to pull her at noon everyday to attend Linda-mood Bell because the services the county could provide was not going to be  nearly enough to catch her up to speed in time. Some situations require intensity, meaning alot of time and sacrifice. Next, I will chat about teacher types and how the speed racer type can threaten to ruin a child's hard earned  academic career in a matter of a month.