Think twice before hiring an advocate…

[Anonymous]

What an idiotic post. Op, it's not the advocates fault your friends quit. Wait until it's your kid needing help

[Anonymous]

I know this doesn't sound nice, but the purpose of special education is to help students with disabilities access the general education curriculum. It isn't to help children reach their highest potential. That sounds rough, but it is the legal truth. It would be great if schools could individually help each child reach their potential, but that isn't special education. A child with a disability who is performing at or near grade level is accessing the curriculum (assuming we're focused on academics in this example, not other areas of need). It is okay (and good!) to want more for your kid if you think they can achieve more than grade-level. But look somewhere other than special ed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's the 2e kids who ARE quite close to grade level but could be doing much more if they weren't managing to create their own supports. Also, they are probably struggling with a lot of issues that are non-academic.

I agree that the public school probably can't offer what is actually needed, and I feel for the teachers who are stuck in the middle. We ended up having to go private to get what we need - to a private SN school, even though our kid would have fallen into the category you describe with being almost at grade level.

On the other hand, of course, I agree you need to assume good intent. We went into our first IEP meeting with an advocate because our neuropsych basically told us we would need one, and I felt like she was way too antogonistic.

You actually found a private that supports 2e kids well? In the DC area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this doesn't sound nice, but the purpose of special education is to help students with disabilities access the general education curriculum. It isn't to help children reach their highest potential. That sounds rough, but it is the legal truth. It would be great if schools could individually help each child reach their potential, but that isn't special education. A child with a disability who is performing at or near grade level is accessing the curriculum (assuming we're focused on academics in this example, not other areas of need). It is okay (and good!) to want more for your kid if you think they can achieve more than grade-level. But look somewhere other than special ed.

A student whose IEP isn't reasonably calculated to enable them to make appropriate progress in their individual circumstances isn't receiving a FAPE. It's not the highest potential, but a student who is at or near grade level isn't automatically receiving a legally adequate education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a special education teacher (I also have a child with an IEP, so I have personal skin in the game). We just got the news that two of our fellow teachers have quit following a prolonged battle with a family and their advocate. This family required at least four IEP meetings to get to an IEP they’d be willing to sign- insulting and demoralizing two excellent teachers in the process who hadn’t even WORKED with the child yet.

Mostly I’m just asking you to assume good will. Stop coming into meetings assuming we want to screw your child’s life up and deny them FAPE. This was a particularly egregious case for me because it’s a child whose academics are so close to grade level!! And we were offering the child a good supportive plan to help them get there.
We are doing the best we can to serve ALL students with needs and come Monday my caseload is about 5 students higher. You don’t need to hire an advocate before you even meet with the team once. We aren’t out to deny your kid what they need to succeed academically.

What supports were they asking for that the teachers didn’t think were necessary?

[Anonymous]

I really hope you're a troll, OP.

My son had an IEP from K to 11th grade and was in the GTLD program of MCPS: gifted, talented and learning disabled. He was way above grade level, but STILL needed his IEP, services and accommodations!

Surely you can understand that being below, at or above grade level has NOTHING TO DO with receiving supports and accommodations. You need to address the actual needs of the student, and this is an ongoing assessment on a case-by-case basis because each student is different.

On a separate note, we never needed to hire anyone to help us get what our son needed in MCPS. His neuropsychs laid it all out, and the IEP teams he had in elementary, middle and high school were all willing to help. There were the inevitable lack of resources to contend with, but we knew his IEP teams tried their best. He's now at a good university, and would never, ever have gotten there without the IEP being followed every year (sometimes imperfectly).

I think that *most of the time*, assuming the best of intentions will set the right tone, as long as you also come armed with unassailable facts and present them clearly. Even if you have OP on the IEP team, who apparently believes that students operating at or above grade level don't deserve accommodations!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I really hope you're a troll, OP.

My son had an IEP from K to 11th grade and was in the GTLD program of MCPS: gifted, talented and learning disabled. He was way above grade level, but STILL needed his IEP, services and accommodations!

Surely you can understand that being below, at or above grade level has NOTHING TO DO with receiving supports and accommodations. You need to address the actual needs of the student, and this is an ongoing assessment on a case-by-case basis because each student is different.

On a separate note, we never needed to hire anyone to help us get what our son needed in MCPS. His neuropsychs laid it all out, and the IEP teams he had in elementary, middle and high school were all willing to help. There were the inevitable lack of resources to contend with, but we knew his IEP teams tried their best. He's now at a good university, and would never, ever have gotten there without the IEP being followed every year (sometimes imperfectly).

I think that *most of the time*, assuming the best of intentions will set the right tone, as long as you also come armed with unassailable facts and present them clearly. Even if you have OP on the IEP team, who apparently believes that students operating at or above grade level don't deserve accommodations!

You did not need an advocate because you had a robust neuropsych.
The school developed psych-ed reports that I have seen (2 DCPS and 1 DCPCS) do not have this roadmap.

[Anonymous]

I have a kid with special needs and I work for our school district - and one of my biggest regrets is not starting out with an advocate for our child. Even after many years of working in our district, there is so much I don't know - and having someone to help us make sense of things is so valuable. Having an advocate does not guarantee a particular outcome, but it does help wade through which things are fact and which things are not.

[Anonymous]

We all need to advocate for more special ed funding.

Bashing parents or school staff does nothing. Of course parents are going to advocate for our kids. It is not our job to self ration legally required services.

Hopefully parents can advocate in respectful ways, and hopefully staff can treat families respectfully. Obviously this does not always happen, which is unfortunate.

[Anonymous]

I really want to believe you are well-intentioned but I find your post revolting. I had faith in the system for child #1 and got burned. Thank goodness it was an issue we could address mostly on the outside. Child #2 had more serious issues and again I gave the team the benefit of the doubt. He did have an IEP in 1st but it didn’t cover his greatest area of need. I played nice until 3rd grade when I wised up and hired an advocate thanks to prodding by the neuropsych. She was so stunned by the response of the team previously that she offered to attend the meeting herself. Thanks to having both experts, we finally got the IEP he deserved. You can bet that by #3 we came to the table with an advocate. Individually, most of the school staff are warm and kind. I know many are overworked and burned out. But put them at the table together and you have a system designed to intimidate parents.

[Anonymous]

Shit. This thread is making me feel like I should have hired an advocate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents can hire advocates if they want to.

Maybe the key is to hire an advocate who isn’t adversarial. The advocate gets paid either way, but the family and team have to work with each other the rest of the year.

[Anonymous]

I think that I will also be quitting after this thread

[Anonymous]

Maybe instead of shaming the parents who GAF about their kid enough to hire the advocate, you should focus on “shaming” (as you say you’re doing) the parents who don’t GAF, or finding resources to help the parents who can’t hire advocates. GTF away from the parents here who care more than you’ll ever know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a special education teacher (I also have a child with an IEP, so I have personal skin in the game). We just got the news that two of our fellow teachers have quit following a prolonged battle with a family and their advocate. This family required at least four IEP meetings to get to an IEP they’d be willing to sign- insulting and demoralizing two excellent teachers in the process who hadn’t even WORKED with the child yet.

Mostly I’m just asking you to assume good will. Stop coming into meetings assuming we want to screw your child’s life up and deny them FAPE. This was a particularly egregious case for me because it’s a child whose academics are so close to grade level!! And we were offering the child a good supportive plan to help them get there.
We are doing the best we can to serve ALL students with needs and come Monday my caseload is about 5 students higher. You don’t need to hire an advocate before you even meet with the team once. We aren’t out to deny your kid what they need to succeed academically.

What supports were they asking for that the teachers didn’t think were necessary?

I'd like to know this too. Why was it a battle?