Control the Stress of an IEP Meeting

I don't know about most parents, but for me, IEP meetings can be stressful.  In order to advocate my child, I had to learn how to control the anxiety and focus on my child's education.  I had to remove the emotion of the meeting.  This is easier said than done, but by following a structure, I was able to remove the anxiety and feel empowered.

1. Prepare for Meetings

According to a legal source, there should be preparation ahead of time for an IEP meeting.  IEP meetings, regardless of how many a parent has in a single year are not something to walk into without a solid plan.  Depending on the reason for the meeting will determine the amount of planning that may need to be done.  Leslie Seid Margolis, Esq. is a managing attorney with the Maryland Disability Law Center.  She encourages parents to treat the IEP meeting as if it is the first step towards a due process hearing by preparing for the meeting and building a record. If you do this, you make it less likely that you will end up at a due process hearing. If you do end up at a hearing, you will be in a stronger position.

2. Prioritize Your Child's Needs

Since all of what you may want for your child is not equal in importance for their education, make a list of what your child really needs, what you want for your child (but may be willing to compromise on), and what would be nice to have but that you would definitely be willing to give up. Don't show all of your cards, but by having this list, it will be easier for you to determine how much you time and energy you may want to spend on a topic.  Ms. Margolis encourages parents to think about the evidence they have to support each requested item (i.e., reports, assessments, experts, other documents). If you prioritize your issues and have facts and evidence that support what you want, it is more likely that you will be taken seriously. 

3. Build Good Relationships

Develop positive relationships with school personnel, to the greatest extent possible. Ask questions. Ask your child's team to explain things you do not understand. Don't assume you should know something just because it seems everyone else around the table does. 

If a meeting is not productive, ask for it to be rescheduled or take a ten minute break.  If you feel a meeting may be adversarial, you can take an advocate with you to be another set of ears for you.  The main thing is to control your emotions.  In more cases than not, everyone in the meeting wants what is best for the special needs student.  The paths that are taken may be the sticking point. 

4. Document Issues & Concerns

This is an area, in my experience as a principal and parent, people usually neglect.  Documentation is critical for parents.  If you have a concern, don't let it go just because the meeting is over or you feel "outnumbered."  Remember, you are a part of a TEAM of people serving your child.  Ask that items and issues you feel strongly about be documented in the meeting summary or notes. Review the summary before you leave the meeting. Then be sure you see it in the meeting minutes or the IEP final document.  Know your rights about amending your child’s records.

The bottom line is that your child's education and well being are the focus of any IEP meeting.  A parent is a critical member of the IEP team.  As a parent, you may feel you need someone with you to help support you as you advocate for your child.  This is okay.  Seek someone who can be an extra set of ears and eyes for you.  Seek someone you can count on to help you maintain emotional control and help you document the meeting minutes.

Leslie Seid Margolis, Esq. is a managing attorney with the Maryland Disability Law Center (MDLC), a private, non-profit organization staffed by attorneys and paralegals. MDLC is the Protection and Advocacy organization for Maryland. Much of this article was taken from an article of hers found in a Wright's Law bulletin. 

Studying for an Essay Test

Test day is here. You’ve packed your brain full of definitions, dates, and details, preparing for the traditional multiple choice and true & false questions, and now you’re staring at a fairly unexpected essay question.  How did this happen?  You've got a lot to lose if you cannot answer this question...a grade is a pretty steep sacrifice for lack of preparation for an essay test.  As you stare at the blank white paper you pick up your pencil and begin to muddle through a question which you do not know how to answer.  What can you do? Next time, prepare for the test as if you know it will be an essay test.

Essay questions are not meant to be easy.  They are meant to find out a deeper level of knowledge than a traditional "objective" test question.  Essay questions are based on broader ideas from the unit you studied.  Often, these questions are formulated around themes or "big ideas." Teachers like to use essay questions because they give students the opportunity to express everything they’ve learned over the weeks or months, using their own words. Essay test answers are not meant to be a regurgitation of simple facts (or even complicated facts).  They are to be more analytical and need to be organized in a sensible manner.

Review chapter titles. Textbook chapters often refer to themes. Look at each relevant title and think of smaller ideas, chains of events, and relevant terms that fit within that theme. Use the titles to help you.  They are there for a purpose.

As you take notes, look for code words. If you hear your teacher use words like “once again we see” or “another similar event occurred,” make note of it. Anything that indicates a pattern or chain of events is key. LISTEN for such clues.

Use your notes to outline some possible essay questions.  Try to formulate your own essay questions or have a study partner ask you broader questions using the chapter section headings to guide him/her.  If your teacher is kind enough to give you the essay questions ahead of time, make yourself an outline of what you want to cover in the essay.  Going into an essay unprepared is sure to lead to efforts to persuade your teacher you know about what you clearly don't (in other words, "bs your way through") or an effort that stops after about 2 sentences.

Practice your essay questions. Don't try to answer an essay question exactly like you think the teacher wants.  Part of the challenge of an essay question is putting the concepts and knowledge gained into your own words. Your overall evaluation should be based on how you express your knowledge in your own ideas that show your teacher he/she did the job of helping you learn.

**Ask your teacher for a copy of the rubric that he/she will use to evaluate your essay response.  While objective tests are much easier to evaluate (usually a right or wrong answer) essay tests are much more subjective in nature.  Teachers who use a rubric make the challenge of evaluating work much more objective.  Lack of a rubric means the teacher is left open for more inconsistencies between papers. 

Successful Schools and Students with ADD

The schools that are most successful in helping students with ADD make certain that individual student differences are reflected in the design of their education plans. The teachers and administrators demonstrate a common commitment to working with students with ADD, understand the complexity of the disorder, and believe strongly in the services they are providing to all children. Such schools work as a team to deal effectively with students with ADD by matching techniques and modifications to students' individual potential and methods of learning. Since students with ADD often are rejected by their fellow students, successful schools train students with ADD in social skills and pair them with non-ADD peers. These schools serve as partners for parents and develop a common understanding of goals and objectives, as well as a common plan to carry out those objectives and communicate any progress or problems.

Responsive schools organize their programs and instruction to meet the special needs of all students, including those with ADD. In redesigned programs, the entire class participates in a management system that does not separate the child with ADD from the rest of the group. Programs range from a simple "target behavior of the day" with an immediate reward system to an elaborate system of "levels," in which each level has specific rules and privileges. Schools vary their activities, use cooperative learning and games as part of their strategy, and provide additional training for teachers who need it.

Many schools use a checklist to help classroom teachers, special education teachers, and parents communicate. One school developed a system in which parents reward at home their child's behavior in school. Parents in that school meet with teachers and come to a mutual agreement about targeting certain specific behaviors. During class, the teacher monitors and evaluates students' behavior. The children are given feedback and notes on their behavior, and they gain or lose privileges at home based on their behavior at school.

Successful schools realize that students with ADD are not "problem children," but children with a problem. They encourage the school, parents, and teachers to work together with the child with ADD in order to help that child develop skills and work habits that he or she will need to be successful in school and in life.

Primary Reference Source= Wright's Law website

Being an Effective Advocate

As a parent, your role in advocating for your child is second to none.  You are the only person who knows your child as intimately as is needed to retain the educational services that will most benefit your child.  As the parent of a special needs child, I know how challenging advocating for your child can be.  There are legal challenges, emotional challenges, and mental challenges that usually manifest themselves in understanding the disability itself.  You need a foundation of knowledge from which your advocacy can extend.

Your primary goal in the advocacy process is to obtain quality special education services for your child.  In striving to reach this goal, negotiating skills and maintaining a healthy relationship with your child's school are required (Wright's Law, All About IEPs, 2009).

Obstacles that often preclude progress toward the goal are common mistakes that must be recognized and avoided.  The first mistake I have observed is the lack of control a parent can experience regarding their emotions when it comes to the IEP process, a disagreement of services, a lack of understanding of legal issues, or a multitude of other things.  This is a mistake because it can cause issues with trust or out-of-control emotions can lead to a disrespect between service providers and parents which can then be transferred to the student.  Out of control emotions simply do not help you help your child. 

Another mistake that parents can make is not having a solid grasp on the child's disability.  You must be educated about the special need of your child.  A lack of understanding means you must give the school authority to make decisions regarding your child's education.  While I do not believe schools purposefully keep parents out of the loop when it comes to serving special needs children, I also do not believe total authority for making decisions for your child should be left to the school.  Assuming the school's decisions are always best or right is very shortsighted and naive.

A third mistake parents can make is often regarding the organization of paperwork that is a part of having a child with special needs.  There is just so much to document.  The key is having one place where all information is kept.  Keep it organized by school year or a method which allows quick retrieval of information.  Keep communications, written or notes regarding verbals, in this record.  Always take notes at meetings.  It is best to write down things when they happen.  The basic premise I've read and been told over and over is that if it is not written down it didn't happen.

Finally, remember to focus on your child's needs in the present time but don't neglect to have a long term plan.  As painful as it may be to consider the options, looking ahead to young adult or adult life is critical.  It is the long term plan that can help guide services in the PK-12 setting. 

Wright's Law.is a legal corporation specializing in information regarding special needs children.  They have numerous publications that are helpful in guiding parents through the advocacy process.  While this article is a reflection of my own experience and education over the past 12 years, the content focus of this article was obtained after reading the first chapter of their book All About IEPs.  If you have a special needs child, I strongly encourage you to become familiar with this organization.  You can visit them at www.wrightslaw.com.

Tips for Fill in the Blank Tests

Tips for Fill in the Blank Tests

Of all the test questions types, fill-in questions may cause the most anxiety in students. This is because they require more detailed recall or application answers than standard multiple choice or true/false tests.

In most cases, the best tool for test preparation is great class notes. When you take good notes from your teacher's lecture, you usually have the vast majority of the material you'll need to prepare at your fingertips.  Most teachers create tests straight from their lecture notes.

When preparing for a fill-in test, your class notes are even more important than ever. If you have been able to record your teacher's notes word for word, you may have some fill-in phrases for the test right in front of you already.

So what do you do with this knowledge? Follow these steps:

1.    Read over your class notes and highlight new terms, important dates, noteworthy phrases, and the names of key people.  Use different colors to help you remember.

2.    Highlight the sentence that contains your key word or phrase.

3.    Copy each sentence onto a separate sheet of paper, omitting the key word or phrase. The act of writing the information again reinforces learning and you create another study help by leaving out the key word or phrase.

4.    Read over your sentences and attempt to fill in the blanks with correct answers. Look at your notes when needed.

5.    Repeat this process until you can fill in the blanks without consulting your notes.

6.  Read through the relevant chapters in your text to locate information that your teacher may have discussed but that you don't have in your notes.  This also reinforces learning as you review the material one more time, even if you simply peruse it.

This method is also a good way to prepare for short answer essay questions as well. 

Test Taking Tips-Mulitple Choice

At some point in time, we all struggle with the best way to study for and actually take a test.  In order to reduce as much anxiety as you can before a test, try the following.

Multiple Choice Test Taking Tips

1.    Ask the teacher ahead of time if there is a penalty for guessing. It is uncommon for a penalty to be given on a classroom test.  This means that you should guess if you absolutely don't know the answer as you could get it correct.

2.    Read the question completely and carefully and think of an answer before you see your choices. If you see your answer, you are most likely correct in your choice.

3.    If your answer is not one of the choices,  read all the choices carefully and start to eliminate choices. The process of elimination is an incredibly viable method to reach an answer on a test.

4.    Cross out any answers that are obviously wrong. Be especially aware of words such as "always" and "never" as these usually are answers that can be eliminated.

5.    When you narrow your choices to two, try each answer with the question to see if they both make sense. You may find a clue when you input a response into the test question.

6.    If you are confused by "all of the above" and "none of the above" questions and they tend to take up too much time, leave all of those blank and go back to them. These often take longer to answer as they usually require problem solving.

7.    Mark any questions that you leave blank so you don't forget them completely.  Go back and answer them.

8.    If you are stumped about a word, dissect it for clues. Think about the meanings of the prefix or suffix.  For example, the prefix "epi" is found in the word epidermis, which refers to the top layer of the skin.  The suffix "ology" is found in many words such as "biology," and means "the study of."

9.    Unless you are 100% sure your first answer is incorrect, don't change it.  Rarely are first instincts incorrect, especially if the first answer was not just a random guess.

10.  Be sure you watch your time so you an finish any questions you may have left blank.  If you run out of time, and guessing is not penalized, by all means go back and fill in the ovals randomnly.  You don't want to leave anything blank and automatically get it wrong.  Take a chance.

11.  As an extra tip, note that most teacher constructed tests use the letter B or C more than other letters.  If you are totally unsure or out of time, guess B or C.

Knowing FAPE

School districts are responsible for providing a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) to all qualified persons within the jurisdiction of the district.  Having a child with special needs means you need to be as familiar with FAPE as any school district administrator to ensure services to your child.  One way a person can qualify for services under FAPE is via a 504 Regulation:  any person with a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more life activities, has a record of such an impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment.  Life activities includes caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working.  Examples of impairments include any student with ADD/ADHD, asthma, allergies, chronic illnesses, obesity, vision or hearing loss, dyslexia, kidney disease, traumatic brain injury, HIV, cancer, or any number of other possibilities.  The key is that the impairment, even if it is temporary (a surgery that keeps someone out of school for a several weeks), impacts a life activity.  In this regard, the district is responsible for collaborating with the parent to develop and implement a 504 plan to serve that child.  The 504 plan is a legal document so it protects the child if the district does not meet the child's needs.

School districts are focused on serving students.  Sometimes even they need help in doing so.  However, before a district can serve a student with an impairment, they must know what the student's needs are, and sometimes needs are not immediately or obviously observed.  Help the district serve your child by identifying any special need as soon as possible.  Once the need is identified, services can begin to support your child.

Another way to qualify for services under FAPE is for a learning disability.  Your local public school district must provide a free evaluation of your child if there is reason to suspect a learning disability. In many cases the evaluation will be initiated at the request of a teacher or school administrator familiar with your child.  The law requires the school to complete an evaluation of your child within a reasonable time after you make the request. Unfortunately, federal law does not specify exactly how much time that is; the time frame may be set by regulations in your state. If not, it is generally assumed that sixty days would be considered reasonable.  If the evaluation shows that your child has a disability, the law requires that the school provide whatever special education services are needed because of the learning disability. You are legally entitled to inspect and review all educational records that the school relies on in making its determination, so you will be able to see the specific results of whatever diagnostic testing is completed by the school. Typically, students are identified for special needs services at a young age (lower elementary school), but it is not out of the question for identification to be made in middle school.  The key is to hold discussions with those who serve your child about concerns they note (even in daycare or preschool).

Why and How to Take Notes

Taking notes is a great way of helping you identify important concepts in class. Even if you have a great memory, creating a permanent record of what the teacher says is a way of taking charge of your own education.  The purposeof a lecture is to impart important information about something that is being studies in a class.  Content from a lecture has a way of showing up on a quiz or test or an in class assignment.  Typically, you will be  asked to draw from your  knowledge that was gained from the lecture in some fashion.  In order to draw from the lecture, it is best to have a written record of what was covered in a respective class because no one can remember everything a teacher says, and, quite honestly, not everything is critical for you to remember.  Some basic points to remember as you prepare to take notes are the following: 1.  Make sure you have done the assigned reading and that you understand the reading.  Notes are hard to take, let alone decipher, if you don't follow the reading material that the lecture will be based upon.
2.  Use the questions about the reading, given to you by the teacher or at the end of the section you read, to help you grasp the basic information in the reading.
3.  Be prepared to take notes when you enter class.  Have writing materials and paper with you. 
4.  Listen carefully to what the teacher says during the lecture.  This is, at times, difficult, as many people "space out."  Taking notes should help you stay engaged.
5.  Pay special attention to "signal" words.  These are words that help you identify something you need to write down.  Such words or phrases may include:  "as an example," "remember that,"  "the important idea here is," "a major development is,"  but there are a number of key phrases that are dependent on the subject area in which you are taking notes.  The main idea is to LISTEN to hints the teacher may give during the lecture that you need to jot something down. 
6.  Ask you teacher if you can record the lecture so you can go back at a later date and listen to the lecture at your leisure and take notes from that.  This is good because you listen to the lecture a second time and also take notes.
7.  Take you time.  Use a highlighter that makes "really" important information stand out for you.  Underline vocabulary terms.  Draw pictures when you can as these often help us "see" concepts we are expected to learn. Review your notes.  Date your notes, and put them in a format that is "user friendly."  You may find rewriting them helps or making flash cards is helpful.  You may discover that you are more inclined to remember and understand material if you type your notes up after a lecture.
8.  Ask questions!  Don't feel embarrassed or awkward about asking questions.  If you don't feel comfortable asking in front of others, jot down your question and get it to the teacher "on the side."  If you have a question, chances are high that another person has the same question.  ASK!

The Search Continues...

Scholarships are gifts of money often awarded on merit:  academic achievement, artistic talent, athletic ability, or intended career field.  As a senior you, if you are intending on continuing your education, the search should have begun already.  It is not too late, though, to begin now.  Sites that are viable for college scholarship searches include the following:
http://www.collegeboard.com/
http://www.fastweb.com/
http://www.finaid.org/
http://www.scholarships.com/
http://www.scholarshipexpert.com/

Google searches may be productive as well, however, be specific regarding the type of scholarship ("music scholarship").  Other possible scholarships may come from local organizations, such as Lion's, Rotary, Chamber, local religious groups, and volunteer or service groups (4H for example).  Also, don't forget to ask your parent if his or her employer sponsors any scholarships.

Be sure to protect yourself from scams.  This cannot be emphasized enough as there are many scams to which a person could fall prey.  Don't ever pay for scholarship information.  Any legitimate scholarship will have clear contact information.  Be sure to review any website, however.  Be wary of any scholarship offer that uses a PO Box, does not include a phone number or contact information, lacks professionalism (maybe has errors in spelling or grammar on their materials), or asks for your bank account information, credit card number, or copies of any tax returns.  Be cautious about giving out a social security number.  If it is a legitimate organization it will allow you to apply  without the SSN.  Thoroughly investigate a scholarship even if it claims to be associated with a governmental or official organization. 

There are scholarships available for nearly anyone who wishes to go through the process of locating one.  College is expensive.  The more you search, the more you may find, the less you may have to pay for college, and the happier you (and your parents) will be.

Special Education Support

As a parent of a child with an IEP (individual education plan) I know, first hand, how important it is to be informed about how your child's school district (working through the teachers) will serve your child's individual needs.  As I have participated in special education meetings and worn the hat of the major players (parent, teacher, and administrator) I have seen, first hand, how important a level of trust is between the parent and the school in serving the child with special needs. It is my passion to help educate parents about their rights and how to work with the school district in serving their child.  I have found that most teachers are not purposeful when they fall short of meeting the needs of the child.  What I have experienced is an inability to consider serving a child in a manner that is a bit "outside the box."  What I have experienced is a "us verses them" atmosphere.  Parents are often made to feel they are being "told" how the school can serve their child rather than being seen as an equal member of the IEP team.  The bottom line is that parents know their children better than anyone in the school; therefore, parents should be considered a highly educated resource.  What parents may lack in legal jargon, they more than make up on personal experiences and insights. 
As a parent advocate, I am available to help you as you advocate for your child with special needs.  I am available to assist in any capacity in which you want or need me involved:
* attending IEP meetings
* helping you draft measurable goals that are appropriate and challenging for your child
*drafting appropriate accommodations, helping you understand assessment of goals
*supporting the school in meeting the needs of your child
* looking at the ways to help improve communication between you and your child's teachers
*helping you understand the IEP process and what your rights are as a parent

You can reach me at timmonica.rouse@rocketmail.com