How to be a Special Ed. Advocate for your Child

If your child struggles in school, you will need to be a strong advocate to get them the help they need.    When I began to suspect that my pre-school child had special education needs, I went straight to the school.  They did a screening on my child and told me everything is fine.  But I knew it wasn’t.  I am also a special education teacher, but my mom intuition was what was telling me to pursue this further.  I had to push for an evaluation to be done on my child.  When he did qualify for special education, then the real fight began.    I had to learn how to advocate for my child so that I could get him what he was going to need to achieve.  My son is now entering 3rd grade. He has been placed in a wonderful program for children with language-based learning disabilities.  He is happy because his needs are being met.  He continually makes progress and feels proud of himself. One of my happiest moments each day is seeing his happy-go-lucky face skipping out of school.  It is what I always wanted for him.  I made many errors trying to advocate for my son and from those errors, I learned a great deal.

Here is my list of Do’s and Don’t while trying to advocate for your child:

Don’t Do These Things 

• Get overly emotional or argumentative
• Make quick decisions
• Knock it until you try it
• Make something more intense than it is
• Trust that you have all the information
• Make verbal agreements
• Make threats you won’t follow through on
• Allow your child to be given anything less than what they deserve
• Agree to your child having lower expectations placed on them
• Let things that make you uncomfortable slide by without discussing them
• Do anything for the sake of being nice or agreeable

Do These Things

• Research your child’s disability and treatment options
• Find out what resources are available to your child
• Ask lots of questions to many people
• Put things (requests, disagreements, agreements, conversations) in writing
• Ask for verbal agreements to be put in writing
• Think before you make a decision
• Consider all alternatives
• Remain calm, respectful, and mature
• Look through all documents, reports, updates, etc.
• What you feel is the right thing for your child
• Follow through with ultimatums, threats, or agreements made
• Ask for help if you need it
• Talk to other experts or experienced people
• Give the school a chance to correct mistakes or try something new
• Attend all meetings
• Get to know the school staff
• Make your opinion heard
• Consider yourself an equal member of the special education team
• Remain positive, hopeful, and strong

Advocating for your child is not easy, but it very rewarding.  You may not always make the right decisions, but if you are making your decisions with the right priorities in mind (your child’s needs) even your mistakes will be okay.

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