Summary Parents, teachers, special education providers, and advocates need to know what the special education laws say about evaluations, reevaluations, independent evaluations, and eligibility decisions. You need to know about IEP requirements, IEP teams, IEP meetings, mainstreaming, inclusion, least restrictive environment, and placement decisions. You need to know about discipline, suspensions and expulsions, mediation, due process hearings, confidentiality, and other hot topics. Summary Managing a child's special education is confusing and frustrating for most parents. Good special education services are individualized, intensive - and expensive.
Schools often balk at providing intensive services.
Parents who use tactics and strategies learn to anticipate problems, manage conflict, and avoid crises. If they have a dispute with the school, tactics and strategy helps them control the outcome. You will learn about obstacles, parent-school conflict, and how to manage a crisis. You will learn advocacy skills - organizing, planning, presentation, and preparation. You learn how to create paper trails, write persuasive letters, and maintain control in school meetings.