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Things Parents of Special Needs Children Should Know....

© Mary Pantazis

Does your child have a disability? Do you find yourself attending a ton of meetings at schools to discuss your child's progress?

I have attended hundreds of these meetings. I have seen many parents at these meetings and one thing I have seen a lot of is tired overwhelmed and frustrated parents. Parents who are frustrated with the system. Parents who are tired of fighting for their child. Parents who feel intimidated by people who act like they have more knowledge about the child than the parent.

Each time I attended one of those meetings I always tried to work with the parents. To make the parents feel comfortable enough to ask questions and to state how they were feeling.

I have some points I would like to make to parents of children with disabilities.

1. REMEMBER most of ALL...YOU ARE THE PARENT AND YOU alone are the child's advocate. There is not a person in that meeting that knows your child like you do. When his school years are over the child will still be yours. If you are hearing things about your child that does not sound quite right, do not accept it. Ask questions.

2. If you feel intimidated by these meetings, then before the next meeting you should call the Parent Information Center for your state and find yourself an advocate that will attend the meetings with you. These people are volunteers and offer free help to you. When a parent has an advocate attend meetings with him or her the meetings take on a whole new feeling. The people at the meeting become quite fearful of advocates.

3. Prior to the meeting go over your child's IEP, highlighting the points that you do not understand. Ask at the meeting that everything in the IEP be clarified, and written in terms that make sense to you. The IEP is a legal document. It is also a working Document that should include YOU. YOU NEED TO HOLD THE TEACHERS TO THAT IEP. But you cannot hold them to it if you have not memorized it inside and out.

4. You should have a copy of your parent rights. Read it and make sure you understand it. If necessary call a lawyer to have it explained. Ask questions about it at the meeting.

5. And never should your child be tested without your signed permission.

6. Does your child require speech and language services? Physical Therapy Services? Occupational Therapy Services? If so then in the summer time you should start calling the schools requesting that these be in place. I will tell you why, school begins in September. The month of September the therapists spend getting their schedule together. In October they fix all the glitches. In November they will start seeing your children. In December the schedule changes because of the holidays. In January the terms end and a new schedule starts, in February there is a school vacation, in March all is normal, in April and May they are preparing for the end of the school year and doing testing on the progress your child has made. Your child will not get services as regularly as you think if you are not RIGHT on these people. Trust me on this I have seen the way this works and I know the game. Make sure that you have it documented with progress noted every single time that a therapist sees your child.

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