I call it “relentless optimism.”  It is an attitude that serves me well in IEP meeting after IEP meeting. In today's episode I will share with you how this one simple mindset shift can make a huge difference in your advocacy. This tip has never been as important with teachers completely exhausted and overworked. You must BELIEVE that everyone on the table wants to help. You must BELIEVE that solutions exist and that people want to find them.  You must BELIEVE that there’s a better way.  You must BELIEVE that you’ll reach an agreement.  We’re talking Ted Lasso stuff!  Too good to be try?  Give a listen, and I’ll convince you it’s not.  

We talk about community a lot over here at ABCo.  In this bonus episode, I chat with Angela Tyszka, advocate and speaker at this year’s SEA Conference.  Angela has worked in universities, elementary, middle, and high schools; and she has extensive experience in participating in and organizing parent support organizations.  We chat about the importance of this groups, as well as how to get involved and even start them.  Plus, you’ll get a preview of Angela’s presentation for the Conference.  

I’ve seen this a million times.  A student’s evaluation report shows average scores - maybe with a few relative weaknesses- but the student’s performance in school is mediocre or worse.  Missing assignments, disciplinary actions, and bad grades demonstrate that the student isn’t meeting his or her apparent potential in school.  Confidence wanes as the student becomes frustrated.  Why does this happen?  April Rehrig, advocate and licensed school psychologist, walks us through the reason this happens.  More importantly, April spends lots of time helping us navigate what to do about it!  How can we better assess students to make sure we understand how their disability will affect their school performance?  What tests should you request, and more!!!  you won’t want to miss this super important episode!    

What do you want from me?!!!!  That’s what my clients sometimes want to ask of their child’s teachers.  Parents struggle with special education communication.  What do I say?  When do I communicate?  Why does the teacher need some information and not need others?  And do the school people talk themselves?!  In today’s conversation I sit down with my friend, Rebecca Scheerer, a special education teacher who also occupies the role of parents on an IEP team.  Becca answers all of our questions and gives us such important insight into a special education classroom.  Becca is presenting at our 2nd Annual Virtual Special Education & Advocacy Conference on January 22, 2022, and she’ll also give you a preview of her presentation in this episode!

Stars: They’re just like us.  Special Education: It’s just like your every day life. For many reasons, advocating for a child with in special education is intimidating, but in today’s episode, I’m making a real life analogy for you.  I started running in April 2020, and over the past few months, I’d had a lot of time to think about how my improvement in running- and the tracking of it-  parallels special education, advocacy, and so many of the emotions associated with both.  Not a runner?  No worries- neither am I!!!  But I bet you’ll connect to today’s episode!  

Now that we got your all organized last week, it's time to dive into your child's profile. Remember that the "I" in "IEP" is "individualized." I see so many IEPs that do not address the specific needs and strengths of the child. What's more - the meat of the IEP is "specially designed instruction." That's right, the IEP has to be specially tailored to meet the unique needs of the child. In this week’s episode we'll focus on empowering you with information about your child specifically and then about programming that may benefit your child--- tracking their goals and their performance on evaluations.  It sure isn’t glamorous, but this activity can be super powerful! 

The first step to effective advocacy is organization. You have to know a child - both objectively and subjectively- in order to develop a good plan for him or her. Parents are usually experts on subjective information - how they feel about a child's diagnosis and the impact of the diagnosis on learning, how a child is doing in school, generally speaking. However, when parents share those feelings, they are often undervalued by schools. That could be because the IEP must be developed to address objective areas of need. Objective information about the profile can be found in the paperwork, so in today’s episode, I get you organized so you can amp up your advocacy game!!!  

Today’s episode has nothing and everything to do with special education advocacy.  I’m sharing a few tips that I have learned the hard way on how to be efficient- how to manage the chaos in your household so you can be more present for advocacy, work, and fun!!!  I run two businesses, manage the schedules of two busy boys, volunteer at school and elsewhere, and carve out time for myself.  How?  Efficiency is the name of the game! 

You’ve probably attend a zillion and one seminars about writing IEP goals.  Don’t get me wrong… I do think those are helpful.  IEP goals are very important, but the goals have to be written with specific purposes.  That’s why it’s so important to have very specific information before you even write the goals.  In today’s episode, I’ll give you a list of 6 things I think you must have BEFORE you write IEP goals.  These are likely things you already have or things you can review in an hour or so, and they’ll provide such better outcomes once the IEP gets implemented.  

We’re talking gratitude on the podcast today. When I taught, I found the job to be somewhat thankless. I’ll explore why I think gratitude should play a role in every IEP team and how you can take the lead.