How much did your Ed advocate cost?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need an advocate, a lawyer, and a goal writer to get best results. If you’re missing any of those at the meeting it won’t be ideal.

I've never heard of a dedicated goal writer. Am advocate (and most sped lawyers) can write goals.

Some places I’ve lived these were more of a thing, especially popular for those first IEP meetings at age 3. I’ve almost always seen this in the context of a home based provider being the intended goal writer. They aren’t usually presented that way to the team, but that’s essentially why they’re there. They bring a knowledge of the child’s abilities to the table that an advocate and a lawyer just won’t have.

Sure, if an outside provider has helpful input into appropriate goals, that's great. But it's not true, as the pp suggested, that families have to hire a dedicated "goal writer," along with advocate and lawyer.

[Anonymous]

any ideas for a low income family to get help where MCPS is not following a 504 (and then penalizing the student with a poor grade)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:any ideas for a low income family to get help where MCPS is not following a 504 (and then penalizing the student with a poor grade)?

WEG's pro bono program: https://www.wegadvocacy.com/seeus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:any ideas for a low income family to get help where MCPS is not following a 504 (and then penalizing the student with a poor grade)?

MCIE

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:any ideas for a low income family to get help where MCPS is not following a 504 (and then penalizing the student with a poor grade)?

WEG's pro bono program: https://www.wegadvocacy.com/seeus

This is good to know about, but not a Black family so not eligible

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here the goals are written by the case carrier or the related services providers, depending on who will be implementing them.

How do they establish present levels when some of these people haven’t even met the child?

Exactly. I hear parents saying they want an ATTORNEY or an ADVOCATE to write IEP goals and I am just floored. It is so appalling to the professionals who should actually be doing this. These attorneys and advocates are not qualified to write goals (an advocate MAY have a special education background so its possible) but they are NOT qualified and do NOT know the child. They do not work with the child. They did not assess the child. Many of them have never even MET the child. Could they given input on a goal- like is this measurable? Is this achievable? is thi what we should be working on? Is this goal clear? But...as I see in my meetings...the advocates typically just did a records review, met the child once, but have no clue what the actual needs are....and often forget all that information which is clear in repeated meetings with the advocate. Because usually one meeting is not enough to cover everything...so be prepared to pay for multiple meetings with the "adovcate." I see advocates as helpful if the school team is incompetent. However, I would hope families could reach out to other supervisors in the school system to help incompetent school staff draft an appropropriate, well-written IEP. Those professional and resources do exist! Call your due process for your county!!! The info is on every procedural safeguards, school website, and IEP document!!Most advocates I have worked with have a political agenda and hate the school system. Very few are actually there to help the child. Very few want to work with the school system for positive results, which should be the goal of the meeting. The advocates I've worked are either 1)extremely aggressive and nasty and the meeting goes nowhere because they just rant the entire time or 2) they don't know the child and are just trying to make parents happy to get paid and get a good review, even if it is not best for the student or appropriate or possible! They are there for a profit and to make a name for themselves. I see attorneys as being experts at law, but not experts at all in education, special educating testing/results, related services (roles, strengths, needs), child development, etc and do not see them being much help unless the school system is MAJORLY screwing up. The school and staff would have to be seriously screwed up to not follow laws. That is pretty rare (thank God). I personally have never worked on a school team not following laws.

Many families are asking for services or things that are way beyond FAPE or not appropriate for the child, and no matter how much you spend on an advocate or an attorney...that can't happen. Email your special education department chair or contact your countys due process for information if you feel you have an incompetent school staff or feel that your child's rights are being violated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here the goals are written by the case carrier or the related services providers, depending on who will be implementing them.

How do they establish present levels when some of these people haven’t even met the child?

Exactly. I hear parents saying they want an ATTORNEY or an ADVOCATE to write IEP goals and I am just floored. It is so appalling to the professionals who should actually be doing this. These attorneys and advocates are not qualified to write goals (an advocate MAY have a special education background so its possible) but they are NOT qualified and do NOT know the child. They do not work with the child. They did not assess the child. Many of them have never even MET the child. Could they given input on a goal- like is this measurable? Is this achievable? is thi what we should be working on? Is this goal clear? But...as I see in my meetings...the advocates typically just did a records review, met the child once, but have no clue what the actual needs are....and often forget all that information which is clear in repeated meetings with the advocate. Because usually one meeting is not enough to cover everything...so be prepared to pay for multiple meetings with the "adovcate." I see advocates as helpful if the school team is incompetent. However, I would hope families could reach out to other supervisors in the school system to help incompetent school staff draft an appropropriate, well-written IEP. Those professional and resources do exist! Call your due process for your county!!! The info is on every procedural safeguards, school website, and IEP document!!Most advocates I have worked with have a political agenda and hate the school system. Very few are actually there to help the child. Very few want to work with the school system for positive results, which should be the goal of the meeting. The advocates I've worked are either 1)extremely aggressive and nasty and the meeting goes nowhere because they just rant the entire time or 2) they don't know the child and are just trying to make parents happy to get paid and get a good review, even if it is not best for the student or appropriate or possible! They are there for a profit and to make a name for themselves. I see attorneys as being experts at law, but not experts at all in education, special educating testing/results, related services (roles, strengths, needs), child development, etc and do not see them being much help unless the school system is MAJORLY screwing up. The school and staff would have to be seriously screwed up to not follow laws. That is pretty rare (thank God). I personally have never worked on a school team not following laws.

Many families are asking for services or things that are way beyond FAPE or not appropriate for the child, and no matter how much you spend on an advocate or an attorney...that can't happen. Email your special education department chair or contact your countys due process for information if you feel you have an incompetent school staff or feel that your child's rights are being violated.

It is not at all rare for school staff to not follow laws. I see it all the time. Most of the staff don't understand the laws they are supposed to follow. Maybe they *think* they are following the laws, but the reality is far different.

signed,
special ed attorney

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here the goals are written by the case carrier or the related services providers, depending on who will be implementing them.

How do they establish present levels when some of these people haven’t even met the child?

Exactly. I hear parents saying they want an ATTORNEY or an ADVOCATE to write IEP goals and I am just floored. It is so appalling to the professionals who should actually be doing this. These attorneys and advocates are not qualified to write goals (an advocate MAY have a special education background so its possible) but they are NOT qualified and do NOT know the child. They do not work with the child. They did not assess the child. Many of them have never even MET the child. Could they given input on a goal- like is this measurable? Is this achievable? is thi what we should be working on? Is this goal clear? But...as I see in my meetings...the advocates typically just did a records review, met the child once, but have no clue what the actual needs are....and often forget all that information which is clear in repeated meetings with the advocate. Because usually one meeting is not enough to cover everything...so be prepared to pay for multiple meetings with the "adovcate." I see advocates as helpful if the school team is incompetent. However, I would hope families could reach out to other supervisors in the school system to help incompetent school staff draft an appropropriate, well-written IEP. Those professional and resources do exist! Call your due process for your county!!! The info is on every procedural safeguards, school website, and IEP document!!Most advocates I have worked with have a political agenda and hate the school system. Very few are actually there to help the child. Very few want to work with the school system for positive results, which should be the goal of the meeting. The advocates I've worked are either 1)extremely aggressive and nasty and the meeting goes nowhere because they just rant the entire time or 2) they don't know the child and are just trying to make parents happy to get paid and get a good review, even if it is not best for the student or appropriate or possible! They are there for a profit and to make a name for themselves. I see attorneys as being experts at law, but not experts at all in education, special educating testing/results, related services (roles, strengths, needs), child development, etc and do not see them being much help unless the school system is MAJORLY screwing up. The school and staff would have to be seriously screwed up to not follow laws. That is pretty rare (thank God). I personally have never worked on a school team not following laws.

Many families are asking for services or things that are way beyond FAPE or not appropriate for the child, and no matter how much you spend on an advocate or an attorney...that can't happen. Email your special education department chair or contact your countys due process for information if you feel you have an incompetent school staff or feel that your child's rights are being violated.

I think advocates and attorney’s are both very useful, but not for goal writing. For that you need someone that really knows your child’s abilities and how they learn. This is another reason EIBI programs are so important, as it provides a network of professionals that are familiar with your child. You can then utilize that knowledge for IEP meetings where even the school educators may not be familiar with the child’s abilities or learning style.

This happens much too often with initial IEPs. Establish a good home program (one that utilizes data and graphs and assessments and goals) with qualified professionals before you seek an IEP and you will be better off in that first meeting than if you hadn’t done so. If you don’t start with an accurate assessment of present levels you will never have an effective IEP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here the goals are written by the case carrier or the related services providers, depending on who will be implementing them.

How do they establish present levels when some of these people haven’t even met the child?

Exactly. I hear parents saying they want an ATTORNEY or an ADVOCATE to write IEP goals and I am just floored. It is so appalling to the professionals who should actually be doing this. These attorneys and advocates are not qualified to write goals (an advocate MAY have a special education background so its possible) but they are NOT qualified and do NOT know the child. They do not work with the child. They did not assess the child. Many of them have never even MET the child. Could they given input on a goal- like is this measurable? Is this achievable? is thi what we should be working on? Is this goal clear? But...as I see in my meetings...the advocates typically just did a records review, met the child once, but have no clue what the actual needs are....and often forget all that information which is clear in repeated meetings with the advocate. Because usually one meeting is not enough to cover everything...so be prepared to pay for multiple meetings with the "adovcate." I see advocates as helpful if the school team is incompetent. However, I would hope families could reach out to other supervisors in the school system to help incompetent school staff draft an appropropriate, well-written IEP. Those professional and resources do exist! Call your due process for your county!!! The info is on every procedural safeguards, school website, and IEP document!!Most advocates I have worked with have a political agenda and hate the school system. Very few are actually there to help the child. Very few want to work with the school system for positive results, which should be the goal of the meeting. The advocates I've worked are either 1)extremely aggressive and nasty and the meeting goes nowhere because they just rant the entire time or 2) they don't know the child and are just trying to make parents happy to get paid and get a good review, even if it is not best for the student or appropriate or possible! They are there for a profit and to make a name for themselves. I see attorneys as being experts at law, but not experts at all in education, special educating testing/results, related services (roles, strengths, needs), child development, etc and do not see them being much help unless the school system is MAJORLY screwing up. The school and staff would have to be seriously screwed up to not follow laws. That is pretty rare (thank God). I personally have never worked on a school team not following laws.

Many families are asking for services or things that are way beyond FAPE or not appropriate for the child, and no matter how much you spend on an advocate or an attorney...that can't happen. Email your special education department chair or contact your countys due process for information if you feel you have an incompetent school staff or feel that your child's rights are being violated.

How many mandatory hours of training in "following the law" do teachers recieve each year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We paid $35,000 over 18 months and got no change in placement and nothing positive for our child. Lovely lawyer, but no impact.

I wish we had put that toward private school. Big regrets.

We had a similar experience with the lawyer we hired. The bill increases very quickly. She would have items there such scheduled X meeting - 30 minutes. We would have to pay half of her hourly rate just for meeting scheduling. She was charging for the busy clerical work a lot. Meanwhile, I did not feel that she was able to provide a strategy on how to achieve the placement we wanted. My point is, be careful about selecting your special needs attorney.