• Address: San Diego, CA 92199 (map)
• Date Posted: 10/29/09

Don't wait until things start to go wrong at school and your child is bored, lost or losing homework! Make this the year when things change!

Phone & Internet Consultation Available Anywhere - Advocate Representation in IEP Meetings, Southern California only
Please email for Telephone or Skype appointment. Urgent Cases Welcome.

If you have a gifted or struggling student, PLEASE READ THIS in its entirety.
Whether you need an advocate for your child or not, you will be glad you did.


Let your child know that you have confidence in them and that you are going to do everything that you can to help them to have a better year in school this year! Then follow up on your promise!

FACTS:
CHILDREN with Special Needs who have advocates are 7 times more likely to attend college.
CHILDREN with Special Needs who have advocates are 5 times more likely to graduate on time or early.
CHILDREN with Special Needs who have advocates are are 3 times less likely to have reported behavioral incidents at school.
TEACHERS are 3 times more likely to hire an advocate when their own children require an IEP.



Have you Tried an Experienced Tutor, or Learning Service, Perfect Parenting, Rewards and Consequences, but nothing seems to Help?

We were on our third retired teacher as tutor and our second learning center, when we found out what neither the school district nor teachers had told us. This is not a made up promotional story. I am a parent of two public school students in the San Diego area and I started out as a volunteer advocate after we could not get an appointment with a single local advocate, for over a year, simply because they were all too busy! I knew better than try on my own without training, so I flew across the country to take a week long in-service class for professionals, and started reading books and talking to attorneys. After two years, one of my sons teachers in one San Diego District, ask me to advocate for a friend of hers in another San Diego District. That was 14 years ago. It is not a game for parents and your school district doesn't want you to know that. Nearly 100% of teachers with special education children insist on using an advocate to deal with the district.

PUBLIC OR PRIVATE, Don't let your child continue suffering through school without Help! There is Help. You are not the only family with difficulties.
A Gifted Child and lacking challenge, or ADHD and can't get homework home, much less turned in, don't spend another year allowing the torture to continue! READ ON..

MAYBE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING SOUND'S LIKE YOUR CHILD:
My ADHD 3rd grader has a 504, but his GRADES and BEHAVIOR remain a problem.

"Our GATE child is no longer ahead of the class and teachers think she would benefit from a regular ed classroom."
"My Middle school daughter is having a tough time in school but says she's trying hard, but just can't get it!"
"Our 6th grader was a Gifted Student in grade school and now he is skipping school and failing. He says he's being bullied, but the school says its not true."
"Our Son is in High school and has had an IEP since elementary school, but complains that his teachers don't care and don't want to help!"


These are all complaints from parents that we've worked with here in the San Diego area.


ADHD? ANXIETY? DYSLEXIA? GIFTED? LOW SELF-ESTEEM, NOT SURE?

The Answer may be a SPECIAL EDUCATION ADVOCATE to request an evaluation to see if your child will qualify for an Individualized Education Plan (legal detailed definition at bottom). If your child is struggling and the school hasn't mentioned an evaluation, you haven't been told the first thing you need to know, to begin turning around your child's educational future.

If he or she does not have an IEP or Individualized Education Plan (legal definition at bottom), I can help you to find out if an IEP could be an answer, and how to make sure that the evaluations are done to you and your child's advantage and not tailored to your schools convenience.


IF YOUR CHILD HAS AN IEP, but is still showing little if any progress, your child's learning style needs to be reconsidered and modifications need to be made to the current accommodations. In most cases your child will begin to turn things around. There is seldom a need for weeks of tutoring, or nightly classes to attend. We change things by working with school on behalf of you and your child.. Progress is turned around by identifying their individual learning style, without making their lives, or yours, miserable! As soon as your child is happy with their lives at school, you have a happy child. They may not like school, but how they do at school has a more powerful effect on their self-confidence than anything, EXCEPT your relationship with them.

Public School or Private, there is help available and Federal Law to make sure those who qualify, get help. If you spent most of last year worrying about a struggling student, there is a good chance that your child may need some additional help. If your student already has an IEP or 504, it is likely that the accommodations put together by the team were minimal and may be ineffective. Have you noticed that while the grades are still low, the IEP goals continue to be checked completed? The school needs to show they have done their job, regardless of whether your students grades and performance have improved or not. If behavior is the major topic in the IEP meeting, they are subtly blaming your child for his or her difficulties!

If behavior is not the problem, hints of more family reading time, working with them on their homework, and other home remedies direct the blame away from the school. This will continue as long as you allow it. The remedy can be applied politely, professionally, and under federal law, so that you will get the parental respect that you deserve, and your child will get the help he (or she) deserves.

The bottom line is this; if your student has not improved and gained confidence, either a complete change in current accommodations needs to be made, or the current accommodations are not being followed as agreed. When it comes to special help, IEP teams sometimes put much of the accommodation effort on the student and parents, rather than addressing the difficulty in the classroom. This inevitably causes a family disruption, making the child feel guilty and compounding the problem. There are many interventions that can be very successful, without causing a family breakdown at home over homework. You need to spend quality time with your child, not time arguing and fighting over homework. There are great formulas for special education success, but your school staff needs to follow through for them to be successful. There are NO GOOD REASONS why your child should not succeed in school. None. I will fight for the rights for you and your child as outlined in Federal Law, until you and your child are happy with the results you are getting from school.

You might be shocked to hear that in 8 out of 10 IEP meetings: a teacher can't remember more than 1 accommodation without looking at the IEP. The one most remembered is "seating in the front of the classroom".

As your advocate; I can verify that your child has been properly evaluated, help you understand the results, listen to you and your student's issues, assist the school district in establishing an educational plan that works, and confirm that the plan is being implemented effectively. We make sure that your child's individual education plan is right for them, and see that each teacher has been well informed so that all goals and accommodations have the best chance of being addressed. No longer will your child, or your family, feel to blame in the eyes of the teachers and team. Meetings with teachers and district administrators will no longer need to be an intimidating process for you, your family or your student.

Every child has a right to thrive in school, build academic self confidence and love for learning that can take them through college and into lifetime of learning. Too often, it is lost.


Depending on your situation and schedule, I can walk you through the process, be at your side through the process, or conduct the entire process on your family's behalf.

Bachelors of Science in Psychology
Special Education Advocacy In-service Training
14 years as a Special Education Advocate
Worked with Parents of more than 30 children in 14 years
16 years Legal Research and Case Investigations
Single Dad of 2 Successful IEP/SE Kids
- Experienced Attorney's co-consult on each case as needed -

Cost: Most cases, a minimal fee
Much of the process is free.
I was a volunteer for single parent children until my kids began college.
If you would like to learn to advocate for your own child or others, I will be happy to help.

Please, contact by email to schedule call or appointment.
LDAdvocateLaw@gmail.com

www.theparentsadvocate.info


Definition:
INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION PLAN - This is a legally binding document that spells out exactly what special education http://www.olx.com/q/services/c-207 your child will receive and why. It will include your child's classification, placement, services such as a one-on-one aide and therapies, academic and behavioral goals, a behavior plan if needed, percentage of time in regular education, and progress reports from teachers and therapists. The IEP is planned at an IEP meeting.

The individualized part of IEP means that the plan has to be tailored specifically to your child's special needs -- not to the needs of the teacher, or the school, or the district. Goals, modifications, accommodations, personnel, placement, all should be selected, enforced and maintained with the particular needs of your child in mind. "We don't do that," for example, is not an individualized response. If your school has never had a child like yours (and since your child is an individual, they haven't), and now they do, and a service is appropriate to his or her needs, then they do do that now.

LDAdvocateLaw@gmail.com

www.theparentsadvocate.info

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