Year: 2023

Year: 2023

Services for Students Ages 14-21
July 4, 2023 Advocacy stacey

Have you ever heard your school or community support system refer to something as “Pre- ETS”, or pre-employment training services? I am gonna guess your answer is, “No,” unfortunately. Most parents that I talk to have no idea what this is, or have even ever heard of it. Generally speaking, it kicks in when kids

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Summer Road Trippin
June 27, 2023 Advocacy stacey

When I was a kid, all vacations were road trips, when we were lucky enough to have one. While there most certainly was excitement in the air to break out and go someplace I had never been before, one of the things that stands out in my mind is hearing one or both of my

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10 Ways to Have a Blasting Good Time
May 29, 2023 Advocacy stacey

The summer can be a challenge for kids who have grown accustomed to the structure of the school day.  To offset the 10 weeks of less structure, there are a variety of activities that parents can do with their kids that won’t break the bank. 1. Have a Scavenger or Treasure Hunt: Create a list

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Taking the Fright Out of Transitioning to Middle School
May 16, 2023 News stacey

The transition to middle school can be a scary one for any student and parent, let alone for a child with a disability. It’s not too late to tidy up some loose ends to make this transition as smooth as possible: • Find out who will be your child’s support staff and ask them to

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Do You Understand The Importance Of Graphed Data?
May 16, 2023 Advocacy stacey

PROGRESS MONITORING FOR IEP GOALS Here we are in May – one more month to go until the school year is over. Do you know if your child has made progress? How can you tell? Just because someone has told you that they have? Do you have evidence? – as in assessment data? Did you

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4 Special Education Laws Parents Should Know
May 16, 2023 Advocacy stacey

……and teachers should know them too.  Hopefully you know that schools don’t offer services, supports or inclusive education because it’s the right thing to do (although it is). They do those things, or at least are supposed to, because there are laws that require them. HOWEVER, there are PLENTY of advocates, and we advocates have

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5 Signs of a Good IEP
April 25, 2023 Advocacy stacey

While there are most certainly more than 5 things you need to watch for in developing your child’s IEP, I’d have to say that these are my TOP 5 – no matter who the child is or how much special education they’re getting. If you’re not getting a draft of your child’s IEP, that’s the

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You Can’t Be Brave If You’re Too Tired
February 26, 2023 Advocacy stacey

As parents of kids with disabilities, ya know the thing that we forget about the most? Ourselves. As we stay hypervigilant on helping our kids face, and hopefully overcome, some of their biggest obstacles, the one thing that they need more than anything else is us, but some of us do a lousy job making

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Enhancing Your Advocacy Skills
January 9, 2023 Advocacy stacey

“When the System Says “No”… what’s a parent to do?”  So often we’re faced with systems that tell us “no” when we ask for something that we passionately believe that our child needs. It could be the response you get when you ask for inclusion, additional adult support, proper job coaching in order to prepare

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