Advocacy & IDEA: Protecting the Parent-School Relationship

Abstract:
What makes a parent a successful advocate for the child with a disability? What helps a professional understand what a parent is going through? Legal protection is available for parents of children with disabilities; sadly not all parents are aware of this. This presentation offers both parents and professionals the basics to successfully work with schools for their child’s educational future. Protection of the parent/school relationship is the most important aspect of successfully advocating for a child with disabilities. Professionals can easily educate parents in this model of parent/school relationship building without jeopardizing their position. IDEA protects parents, it’s up to the parents to protect their relationship with school personnel. This training covers the basic principles of IDEA by providing understandable explanations of this law that protect children who have disabilities. It truly hits on protecting the parent school relationship because as we know once a parent becomes defensive and argumentative the meeting can go bad. This training helps parents to understand who the members of an IEP team are and that they deserve to be heard as the parent does. It strongly focuses on working as a team and leaving demands at home. This is an advantage for professionals because they receive the training from a parent perspective. This session does not stop at IDEA, it also covers 2 other laws that protect children with disabilities in the public setting. Both ADA and the Rehabilitation Act will be discussed in this session.