A huge mistake often made in special education is a parent who waits for a school to start to do the right thing. It is less confrontational to hope that a school will finally realize that they have not given a student with special needs the appropriate services. It is optimistic to think that the school will suddenly “see the light” and start working collaboratively to ensure the student’s success. Once the school starts moving slowly to fulfill services or supports, this attitude rarely is resolved without confrontation. If a parent is in a logjam of IEP discussions where nothing is really getting done, it often takes outside influence to help move things along.
It is not a mistake to be kind and collaborative. It IS a huge mistake to not be confrontational when you need to.
Some school districts may try to count on parents not wanting to be “adversarial” so that the school district will not have to pay for the services and supports. District teams can sometimes become unresponsive and slow-moving to delay services. This can very easily add to a parent’s frustration. Often, parents are doing and saying all the correct things, but there is little meaningful change to their child’s IEP. Again, this is part of a strategy employed by some districts. For our children, services delayed are services denied. For less-than-honest school districts, this is an area where they can try to “save” money.
In this scenario, an advocate can really help create change. The advocate can come in, review the document, see where the significant issues are, help parents identify under-addressed areas of concern, and then push for 
change at the next IEP meeting.
When dealing with a purposefully slow district, pushing for the district to move the process along can feel uncomfortable. This fight is about helping your student succeed and it will get uncomfortable.
Talk to an advocate. Learn your rights.
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As parents, we understand, As advocates, we can help.