Families must must must get on the same page for the sake of their child/ren. Parents and child being advocated for must talk in advance and agree on what goals they are working toward.
Schools may leverage any potential disagreements between family members to use a "divide and conquer" strategy.
In every family, the division of labor and tasks each person performs may be different. If one spouse has researched IDEA and gifted education, the other may need to be brought up to speed. For example:
- One might send the other links to information and help connect the dots.
- One might encourage the other to sign up on the forum and learn from myriad uninvolved parents.
- Having a third party (advocate) may help the family members communicate on this topic with each other.
Every family is different... whatever approach works for your family, the two parents must be on the same page to successfully advocate to the school on your child's behalf. The child ought to also have some understanding and say in the matter, appropriate to their overall development, age, maturity, etc.
Last edited by indigo; 08/01/16 05:40 AM. Reason: edited to speak in generalities
