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Many parents have questions about what to do when they are presented with an IEP that is not appropriate for their child. You should advise the IEP team that you don’t think the IEP is appropriate, that it does not provide your child with enough help or the right kind of help. You should use facts to support your position (i.e., facts from an evaluation of your child from a private sector evaluator, graphs of your child's test scores). Be polite but firm.

You write letters to request information, request action, provide information or describe an event, decline a request, and express appreciation. In this article, you will learn about two approaches to letter writing, the Blame Approach and the Story-Telling Approach. You will learn the difference between business letters and therapeutic letters - and why you should never send therapeutic letters to the school.

In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.

Self-Advocacy is learning how to speak up for yourself, making your own decisions about your own life, learning how to get information so that you can understand things that are of interest to you, finding out who will support you in your journey, knowing your rights and responsibilities, problem solving, listening and learning, reaching out to others when you need help and friendship, and learning about self-determination.

According to ASAP: A School-based Anti-Violence Program, victims tend to be "loners who tend to cry easily, lack self-defense skills, aren't able to use humor in conflict situations or who don't think quickly on their feet. Children who have few friends are always easy prey for bullies. It's easier to pick on a lone child without witnesses. Children who have special needs are also common victims for bullies."

Decide early in the process what type of program you want for your child. Camp should be fun, relaxing, and healthy. Camp should offer positive and rewarding experiences that foster independence and self-esteem. Some camps are for military children. Some camps are free. Some camps offer scholarships. Some camps are specifically for children with special needs.

As we enter the second half of the school year, many parents hear the clock ticking louder and louder as graduation nears. We hope you have been working closely with your child’s IEP team through high school to ensure that appropriate transition goals have been established and your child's progress toward these goals has been measured and documented.

You and your husband are the people primarily responsible for your son's health care and education, so do not ever feel that you must turn this decision making process over to someone else. This may be a source of your confusion and anger. If things feel out of control, then take your control back.

I worry that the people in the system who are helping me and our kids will get burned out and quit - which is the last thing we want to see! So, having discovered how much it cheers and reinvigorates me when I get thank you notes from clients or others I've helped, I've started a campaign to spread the cheer. It takes just a few minutes of time, and can be done by email or snail mail.

My daughter has a language impairment and has been on an IEP since last year. She has had a rough year and was just suspended from school for pushing another student into a locker. This is her second suspension this year for fighting. I think she's getting into these fights because she has so much trouble understanding how to use words in tense social situations. Does the school have to provide her any educational services while she is suspended? The Vice Principal told us he's considering expelling my daughter. Can the school system do that?

We get hundreds of emails about retention every year. I don’t recall one in which the school proposed to provide more intensive services.

How can parents prevail at due process? You must learn how to use letters, documents, and independent witnesses to prove your case.

Taxpayers with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities may qualify for a number of IRS tax credits and benefits. Listed below are seven tax credits and other benefits which are available if you or someone else listed on your federal tax return is disabled.

A parent had a question. She said she did not agree with the school's proposed IEP, the school refused to change the IEP, so she needed to file for due process. Her advocate advised that she could not file for due process until after the school provided Prior Written Notice (PWN).

She was right. She could have requested the due process hearing when the dispute arose, without waiting months for the school to respond.

Our 5th grade son, Alex, has high-functioning autism and average cognitive abilities. He has not met his IEP reading goal in over 2 years. The school does not use standardized measures to track his progress and has been giving him average grades. He reads 2 years or more below grade level, yet the school gives him average grades. We were clueless and didn't notice.

How do you move across the country when you have a child with a disability? As a military family, this is not an idle question, but a real issue that we must confront every two to four years. So, when we received the call to move this summer, we knew we had to be pro-active.

Schools are required to locate, identify and evaluate all children with disabilities from birth through age 21. The Child Find mandate applies to all children who reside within a State, including children who attend private schools and public schools, highly mobile children, migrant children, homeless children, and children who are wards of the state.

The concerns I hear from parents are mostly about placement, goals, and least restrictive environment (LRE). Yet, when I review a child's most recent Individualized Education Plan (IEP), there is little helpful information under the Present Levels of Academic Performance and Functional Performance section. The few lines that are written in the Present Levels are not helpful to the IEP Team. Often, I can find no relationship at all between the "present levels" and the "needs" and the "goals." Mark Kamleiter, Florida parent attorney (St. Petersburg) says that parents and advocates often focus only on the "last pages" of the IEP. That is what I see, too. Most of the IEPs I review have, at most, three to four lines of Present Levels. (Rarely, do they have Functional Performance levels). Remember, schools still tell parents, "We do not have to do that because it is not related to academics." Parents have to learn now to design accurate and up-to-date present levels. Advocates have to learn how to do this to and teach parents how to do this. It is one of the easiest things for parents to do because they know their child best. Until the Present Levels are accurate, parents will never be able to get the program, placement, or education their child needs.