I found the advocacy conversations before and after our sons' testing results were available were like night and day. Things that I had said that were ignored before we had the testing were suddenly considered important, and received a response. Before the testing, they didn't believe me. They were polite, but my attempts at advocating were completely shut down.

There was apparently nothing I could say to convince them to do anything when we didn't have "proof," but after the test scores were available their attitudes toward working with us completely changed. I think they literally thought I was either lying or completely misguided before they saw the test results. Once the test results were presented by the school psychologist, we were finally able to begin to effectively advocate.

Just stick to your main message. Think about who will be at the meeting, and see if you can start to build consensus with them before the group meeting.

Last edited by momoftwins; 09/27/13 07:35 AM.