Thursday, July 16, 2009

question for you

We're putting together a back-to-school night program for the parents of children who are eligible for special education. We want to make them more comfortable with the process, answer their questions, and help them understand what everything we talk about so fast at the IEP meetings means.

If you were (or are) a parent trying to navigate the world of special education, what would you want to know? What exact terms would you want defined? Would you want a lay out of how your child will receive services? A list of complicated definitions? A list of resources you could go to on your own?

I'd love your thoughts on what we should include!

Thank you :)

2 comments:

Unlimited said...

I would want to know what your services mean for my child, in the classroom. What will it look like for them? Often I hear the terms defined, but parents don't often know how those terms reflect on their student in the classroom.

Alison said...

What a great idea! When I go to IEP meetings I feel like I end up translating a lot of the tests/acronyms to parents and giving a visual/concrete example of what each specialist does with their child. Maybe having a slideshow/powerpoint of what OT vs speech vs partner teaching vs pull-out can look like??? A website they can refer to or "office hours" when they can come in to ask more questions? You probably need two levels of info: the basic special edu 101 terms (in a list they can take home to refer to later when they sort out which ones are important to their child) and then the more refined "this is how we deliver services so your child feels comfortable and isn't singled out."