This year, 2015, INCIID is launching a special education project section of our website. Pathways to Proactive Parent Advocacy
This section of the INCIID Website is intended for any parent who has a child with special needs - no matter what that special need is. Here, we will include articles that relate to the IDEA as well as Section 504.
Why is INCIID doing this?
Because couples and individuals who grapple with infertility are successful in building their family through treatment. Some build a family through adoption. And, many couples and individuals are also faced with a bizarre maze called special education.
Regardless of your family structure, regardless of how your child became part of your family, you have one thing in common with a lot of other families ─— you are a parent of a child in need of special education. And that means you are your child’s first and indispensable advocate.
School people come and go. School administrators come and go. Lay advocates and special education lawyers come and go. You and your advocacy are the only everlasting guard who will stand up for your child’s right to a free appropriate public education.
That is why the primary purpose of this section and the articles in it is to pass on credible information about advocacy skills that every parent must know. All of the articles you receive are written by “in the trenches” working advocates who have been there, and are "done that" kind of advocates.
Pathways to Proactive Parent Advocacy include every aspect special education advocacy. The articles are informative and are the "how to" lessons you need to help you survive and keep your sanity intact.
Look for our first article on January 15th, about how, why, and what to do with your child’s student (education) records.
We chose to write about education records as the first series of articles because the foundation for everything that happens in an IEP meeting, 504 meeting, state administrative complaint or due process hearing is your child’s student records. Our first topic in January is How to Analyze and use your child's student records to get appropriate specialized instructions and related services.
If there is a child with special needs in your family or your extended family and you have a topic you want discussed, please send us an email: INCIIDinfo@staging.inciid.org
Each month INCIID will publish two INCIID Insights articles for Proactive Parent Advocacy. In January, 2015, we will also have an interactive live phone call with Brice Palmer.
Email us if you want to be included in alerts, news items, articles or any of our special education advocacy alerts.
Some of the topics include:
- How to analyze your child's special education records
- How to read and use the special education regulations
- How to get education records from the school - and use them
- How to get ready for IEP meetings
- How to get the school IEP team members to talk with you instead of at you
- The IDEA - what does a free appropriate public education really mean?
- Section 504 - what does it protect and what is a free appropriate public education under 504?
- How to communicate effectively with the school district
- How to write an effective state administrative complaint
- How to plan for a due process hearing before writing the request for a hearing
- How to write an effective OCR complaint letter
The 24 article series is published twice a month. :
Select the Special Education Advocacy List.
A phone/chat is offered free of charge following the Wed after each article is published.
For more information (and a list of the current article) click here.
Special Offer
During phone conferences and chats a name will be drawn “out of a hat” for each participant. The “winner” will get an hour of free consult time with Brice Palmer for individual help with your child's special education program.
Brice Palmer is a long-time advocate, publisher and writer who has made it his mission to educate parents on advocacy for their child. Over the last 25 years Brice has committed himself to training, teaching and enlightening parents on how to navigate the special education maze.
Here’s a sample article on mediation Brice wrote for Wrightslaw:
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