Transitioning into the school system.
You are entering a period of growth and change for both you and your child.
For many parents the first major transition will be from Early Intervention services, which are home-based and family-centered, to an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for your child provided in a classroom environment.
It is critical to work with educators and and service providers to set measurable goals and objectives for your child. Integrated public schools and some private schools will support your child's IEP by building time for specialists into your child's school day.
The importance of gaining the knowledge and skills needed to understand your role and rights in the process and to most effectively advocate for your child cannot be overstated.
Jake's family
When Jake was 3 1/2 years old, he attended a preschool program. We were still unclear about his disability, but he had limited interest in verbal communication, and he made little eye contact with his peers and with us. The school program was providing him with only one communication activity per week through a speech therapy session. We talked to the special education coordinator, but she stated that only the director of special education can make a change, and that we had to have the change written into Jake’s education plan.
After 6 months of going back and forth with no results, we decided to contact the social worker at the EI program that Jake had attended for 1 year. She agreed to meet with us and brought in an educator for part of the meeting. The two of them helped us identify missing elements in Jake’s present school program. The social worker also connected us with a parent who was involved in educational advocacy in the same school system as Jake.
After meeting with the parent advocate, we decided to hire her to assist us at the team meeting, which would be to review Jake’s current educational plan. At that meeting, the director offered us a compromise for Jake’s communication goal, which we accepted pending a 3-month review. We also stated that if progress was unsatisfactory by that time, we would then ask for a mediation session with the school district on Jake’s plan and push for the activities that we felt would be optimal for him. We were successful.
If it were not for the assistance of this parent advocate, we would not have accomplished so much on Jake’s behalf. There are so many factors that have to be considered, and we are still new to this. Her involvement made such a difference for all of us.
