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Legal > Advocacy
Your First Call to a Parent Training and Information Center: What to Have Ready
...call can get you a document review before your next IEP meeting. An unprepared one gets you a mailing list....Pull these into one folder, paper or digital: The IEP or 504 plan currently in effect, including the signature...you ask for next. If your child doesn't have an IEP or...
Therapies > Animal
Therapy Dogs in Schools: How Canine Programs Support Students with Special Needs
...visiting on Thursdays, and there is a box to check if you consent. Most parents check the box, because who says no to a dog. Parents of a child with an IEP tend to read it twice, because they have learned that anything happening to their child during the school day is worth understanding before it starts,...
Global Insights > Advocacy
How to Document Your Disability for IEP Advocacy Without Oversharing
You're sitting at the kitchen table the night before the IEP meeting, and the folder in front of you has grown to include the neuropsych...question isn't whether your child's disability is real enough to justify an IEP. It's how much of your child's medical life needs to be on paper for a team...
Education > Early Intervention
IFSP Explained: The 8 Required Components of Your Child's Individualized Family Service Plan
What an IFSP must legally include, how it differs from an IEP, and how to use it to track your child's progress.
Parenting > Adulthood
Transition from High School: A Year-by-Year Timeline for Planning Adult Life
...planning to begin no later than age 16, but most special education professionals recommend starting at 14. This is the age to add a transition goal to the IEP: a written statement of what your child wants their life to look like after high school, in education, employment, and independent living. Your child...
Legal > Advocacy
Parent Training and Information Centers: Free Advocacy Help in Every State
You get the email about the IEP meeting, and your stomach drops a little. You've...justify, and what's missing. They can review a draft IEP before the meeting and flag goals that are too vague...vague to measure. Many centers will walk you through IEP advocacy step by step: what to bring, what questions...
Education > Special Education
Your Legal Rights When a School Denies Extended School Year Services
...mention of what data they reviewed, just a form denial stapled behind pages of IEP paperwork you've already read a dozen times. A lot of parents read that and...students with the most significant needs. That's not how the law works. The IEP team is required to evaluate ESY based on your child's own regression and...
Education > K-12
What to Cover in Your Child's IEP Review Before Summer Break
The spring IEP review has a way of feeling like paperwork. The teacher is already thinking...to pull the actual progress-monitoring data for every goal on the current IEP, not a paraphrase of it. For an academic goal, that means the number of correct...
Lifestyle > Self-Care
Micro Self-Care: One-Minute Practices for Overwhelmed Caregivers
You don't have time for self-care. That's not judgment, that's reality. Between medication schedules, therapy appointments, IEP meetings, and the daily logistics of raising a child with special needs, the advice to "take an hour for yourself" lands somewhere between unhelpful...
Lifestyle > Self-Care
Recognizing Caregiver Burnout vs Normal Stress
...state that requires clinical intervention. The Clinical Difference Between Stress and Burnout. Stress is situational and responsive. It spikes during an IEP meeting, a medical emergency, or a week of bad sleep. When the immediate pressure eases, stress eases with it. Rest helps. A weekend away makes a difference....
Lifestyle > Self-Care
20-Minute Daily Connection Rituals for Couples Raising Special Needs Children
When you're managing therapies, IEPs, medical appointments, and everything else that comes with raising a child with special needs, your marriage can start to feel like something you used...
Lifestyle > Self-Care
CBT Techniques for Processing Caregiver Guilt
...assume you know what others are thinking about your caregiving decisions. "The therapist thinks I'm not doing enough at home." "Other parents at the IEP meeting think I'm overreacting." You can't know what they're thinking, but the assumption creates guilt based on imagined judgment. Should statements...