issues... I have some anxiety about him going back to school in the fall because he was so unhappy. I just want to do everything I can to help him feel engaged in learning again.
If not already familiar with the
wrightslaw website and the book
From Emotions to Advocacy, you may wish to study the material which they present.
Parents can sign up to receive e-mail updates from
Understood.org and
ADDitude magazine. These are possible sources of IEP/504 recommendations (as is this forum).
Other recent threads which may be of interest include
What happens to children who are gifted with poor EF and
interesting article.
You may have read this elsewhere on the forums... a brief list of crowd-sourced tips for meeting prep:
- Research state laws and the school or district policies and practices. This information is often found online. You may wish to print and put this in an advocacy ring binder to refer to over the years as the laws and policies/practices may change over time.
- Have any test results and other pertinent facts available to share (milestones, reading lists, other accomplishments/achievements)
- It is good to have them speak first. If asked to speak first, you may simply wish to thank everyone for attending and summarize that you are all here to share information and ideas about how to best meet your child's educational needs... and that you would like to hear from them.
- Agenda
- Know who is in the meeting, and their role(s)
- Stay calm
- Know what you are asking for
- TAKE NOTES including Who-What-Where-When-Why-How of differentiation, so you can summarize in an e-mail afterward [Some families announce they plan to record the meeting and then do so, rather than taking notes.]
- Use active listening (rephrase what has been said, and put it in a question form) to clarify understanding
- Be open to receiving the school's data/observations.
- Listen to any proposals they may make, ask appropriate probing questions, such as how a proposal may work, how the proposal may help your child, the schedule/frequency of service delivery, etc
- Do not be forced to make a decision if you need time
- Summarize next steps & time frames, and/or need for a follow-up meeting
- Thank everyone for their time & interest
- After the meeting, write a summary (points of agreement, etc) and share it, possibly by e-mail
