Bay Area Special Education Advocacy Crumbs

Leigh and Susie get calls daily from frustrated parents. IEP conversations have gotten to the point where the parents are asking for basic services, and Districts are telling them they cannot provide them. Not only does District effectively deny the student FAPE, they often imply or outright state the family’s requests are not reasonable.

99% of the time, this is not true.

Most of us grow up thinking we can trust schools to have our best interests at heart. We then trust them to educate our children. Having an atypical child can profoundly change the paradigm. You ask for what you know your child needs. A team of 4 to 12 people from a trusted agency tells you that you are asking too much. That can daunt even the most fearless parent. Surely the district must know.

Of course the district wants to help my child, don’t they?

We know a family whose child has medical challenges and misses school often.The school is not following through by sending home work, lesson plans, or even basic notes or homework for missed classes. The student has no way to know what he has missed. The school reflexively blocks every parental request for the student’s access to curriculum.

Yes, the school will have to put time and effort into helping make sure this student has access. No, they don’t get to simply say “It’s too much work for us.”

We had another family whose child is a bit behind grade level.  She seemed like an excellent candidate for assistive technology to help her read and to write papers. District kept asking parents why they should evaluate the student for assistive technology. District had the hardware, had the software.

In both of these cases (and many others) the parents are asking for reasonable help for their child. That schools paint the parents as unreasonable and demanding when asking for relative crumbs is outrageous.

Yes, we can help you reframe that conversation, and no, you’re not being unreasonable.

Often what parents are asking for is so modest that we are surprised at the resistance and push-back they are getting.

As parents, we understand,  As experienced and trained advocates, we can help.

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