Like many other families, when it first came to the public education of my child with special needs years ago, I was incredibly naive.
After a tremendously successful preschool experience, I thought that I would be able to drop Eric off at his neighborhood public school and all involved would be so happy to see him. They would stand ready to do whatever was necessary to help us reach our dreams of successful inclusion, because that's what educators do, right?
Wrong. I quickly learned that the person who would be most responsible for ensuring my son's educational rights and helping him receive the services that could help us reach our educational goals for Eric was me, and my husband. But first, we had to get him in the doors of that neighborhood school. What came next we were totally unprepared for, stubborn resistance at too many turns.
Talk about a rude awakening. My son's educational reality required much more than a crash course in understanding my son's legal rights. It required on-going advocacy at the highest level. Thank goodness for Wrightslaw, the resource that most helped me to become an effective advocate for my son throughout his educational career.
While there are other free resources available on the law, what I like most about this popular special education law resource is the way in which its founders, attorneys and parents, Pete and Pam Wright, share their expertise in books and other resources using family-friendly language. That helps make taking on an incredibly intimidating pursuit, possible. These two professionals have helped many families become more successful advocates for their children with special needs, including mine.
That's why they are my pick for Kudos, Day Nine.
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TWELVE DAYS OF SPECIAL NEEDS KUDOS 2010 DAY NINE -PETE & PAM WRIGHT OF WRIGHTSLAW.
When it comes to special needs parenting, one of the toughest realities is that in order to effectively advocate for educational services for your child, you need to have some knowledge of special education law, which is why today so many parents have special needs experts on their child's IEP teams.
Wrightslaw has helped me, and many other parents and professionals, make sense of complicated law to help their children better achieve educational success. No small feat.
Check out this valuable resource here.
Photo Conductive Learning Center (CLC) student by Judy Winter 2010
Judy Winter
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