Stacey Hoaglund
ADVOCATE, LIFE COACH, CONSULTANT, SPEAKER, AUTHOR
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
Read MoreWhen 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
Read MoreThe 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
Read MoreThe 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
Read MorePROGRESS 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
Read More……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
Read MoreWhile 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
Read MoreAs 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
Read More“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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