IDEA & Advocacy, Protecting the Parent/School Relationship

What makes a parent a successful advocate for the deaf/HOH child? What helps a professional understand what a parent is going through? Legal protection is available for parents of children with disabilities; sadly not all parents are aware of it. This presentation offers both parents and professionals the basics to successfully work with schools for their child’s educational future. Protection of the parent/school relationship is the most important aspect of successfully advocating for a child with disabilities. Professionals can easily educate parents in this model of parent/school relationship building without jeopardizing their position. IDEA protects parents, it’s up to the parents to protect their relationship with school personnel.

DESCRIPTION

? Provides professionals with a trainer who is well versed in IDEA and advocacy but is also a

parent of a child with hearing loss.

? Provides all parents with information on IDEA, advocacy and basic relationship building.

? Both IFSP and IEP are covered in this presentation.

? Presentation covers both IDEA and Advocacy in a whirlwind 1 hour tour.

? Presentation is generally tailored to the audience.

My trainings cover the basic principles of IDEA by providing understandable explanations of this law that
protect children who are Deaf/HOH. It truly hits on protecting the parent school relationship because as
we know once a parent becomes defensive and argumentative the meeting can go bad. My trainings
help parents to understand who the members of an IEP team are and that they deserve to be heard as
the parent does. It strongly focusses on working as a team and leaving demands at home. This also helps professionals get the training from a parent perspective. As I’ve developed my training my skill has become more professional but at the end of the day I’m a parent first who deals with her own difficult district issues.