Stacey Hoaglund
ADVOCATE, LIFE COACH, CONSULTANT, SPEAKER, AUTHOR
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
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
Read MoreI hope that you had a joyous holiday season and did what I did this week, and took some time off to reset, regroup and remind yourself that it’s ok, and very much necessary, to take time away from worrying about the kids, the house and the list that plays over and over in your
Read MoreWell, here we are. The crazy time of the holiday season is upon us! Are you ready?? I know I’m not 😮 Sensory overload during the holidays can occur quickly, and sometimes silently. When my son was little and we’d have a house full of people, I could often find him hunkered down in his bedroom
Read MoreImagine being a kid with a disability in school today. How could the very nature of the environment not stress you out? In fact, I know many families who saw such a marked improvement in their child’s stress and anxiety during school shut-downs that they didn’t send them back to school. They claim that their
Read MoreEnsuring that your child with (and without, for that matter) a disability is as prepared as they can be for a school emergency, is essential. When the horrific school shooting happened in Parkland, I was in the gallery of the Florida Capitol for Developmental Disabilities Day. I can recall so vividly a friend showing me
Read MoreFor kids in Florida, age 12 and up, who are in public school and have an IEP, the IEP is referred to as a “Transition IEP.” That’s because its intent is to begin to thoughtfully consider where a student will transition to once they are done with K-12 education. Something that MANY parents, and sometimes
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