Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:OP, I think you need to be realistic and any advocate who is telling you you'll be able to get funding for private placement without ever having an IEP or being in DCPS first also has a bridge to sell you... somewhere.
There are a number of "prominent" advocates who are scammers. We've worked with three of them and 2/3 were awful and did not know what they were talking about and we felt they were taking advantage of desperate parents. The third was nice and honest, a special needs parent, just not worth the money and could barely be bothered to know our child's name. She sat through the IEP meeting with no comments at all. Again, she was nice though and didn't try to sell me any bridges.
To add, educational advocacy isn't a regulated industry with standards or officially recognized training. It's hard to find a "good" one.