For parents and teachers, it can be difficult to identify a child who needs an alternative learning environment. Here are a few ways you can handle the gap between getting a diagnosis for your child and getting the support they need at school. The path to diagnosis...
We meet the lifetime legal needs of children and adults with disabilities, the elderly, and their families.
Special Education
The Family Story Process
Before Sharing Your Concerns with the School District, Create a Non-Emotional Timeline Different family members have different versions of the same story. Grandma may tell avery different tale from Mom or Dad. My job is to listen for the underlying thread, and pinpoint the base of the concern, helping them to see things through each other’s perspective. Then, I give…
Preparing for Planning/ETR/IEP Meetings
For any meeting on a child’s education to be successful, parents must be prepared. The first step is to understand both the basic terminology and process of how documents such as IEPs are created. The following are some suggested steps to help you be prepared for these meetings. In Special Education, there are 13 categories of eligibility. The categories are…
Organizing and Planning in the Summer
It’s summer – finally! The stress of driving the kids to school, preparing their lunches, helping them with homework, and getting them out of bed in the morning is behind you, at least for this year. Summer is a great time to get organized, analyze your child’s progress and develop a plan for the upcoming school year. First, gather all…
Advocating for your Child in the School System
As the school year is starting to wrap up, we know you super planners are already thinking ahead to next year and making sure that things get off to a good start for your child. Summer is a great time to sit back and review your documents, get organized, ask questions, do your research, make your plan, and gear up…
Special Education Advocate Mary Jo O’Neill Writes Chapter in Carolee Dean’s New Book
Special Education Advocate Mary Jo O’Neill and young adult author Carolee Dean discuss Carolee’s new book; Story Frames for Teaching Literacy: Enhancing Student Learning Through the Power of Storytelling. Mary Jo wrote the chapter on “Advocating for Students: The Family Story”.
Parent-Teacher Conferences: GO!
Many of you are probably getting notices about parent-teacher conferences approaching. We know it’s yet another thing to add to your already busy schedule, but we highly encourage you to participate! Even if the parent-teacher conference is a virtual planform it still can be productive. Conferences are your opportunity to gather data and feedback in between progress reports, which typically…
$1,500 Grants for Tutoring from Learning Ohio
If you listened to the Governor’s broadcast on Thursday, you heard him mention a new grant program offering $1,500 in free tutoring support for students with disabilities. I did a little digging into the website, and here is what I found… This program is called Learning Aid Ohio – a group created by the Ohio Governor’s office, Ohio Department of…
New Special Education Term: Recovery Services, What Is It? Is Your Child Eligible?
The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) has latched on to a new term: “recovery services.” This term is being used to describe services they’re giving students to help bridge educational gaps in learning caused by COVID-related school closures. How is this different from compensatory services? I was quite confused by ODE’s explanation, but I think this is what they’re trying…
Special Education Advocate Mary Jo O’Neill Guest on Tests and the Rest Podcast
Special Education Advocate Mary Jo O’Neill was a special guest on the Tests and the Rest podcast where she discussed navigating an IEP or 504 Plan.