Guest Blog: 10 Things I Wish I Knew About Special Education as a Parent
By Hilary Laxson
Early Intervention is KEY! Don’t wait, it is possible to identify dyslexia and many other learning disabilities as early as 4 years old. The longer you wait, the longer it will take to help your child. If we identify someone with dyslexia in Kindergarten it takes 30 mins a day to remediate by fourth grade it takes 4 times longer.
PUT IT IN WRITING. If it is not in writing it does not exist. If you have a concern about your child, document it in a parent concern letter in writing to your local school district Special Education Director. Oral conversations are not discoverable. If you ever end up in court for Due Process oral conversations aren’t going to help your case of lack of FAPE (Free and Appropriate Education). Here is a great blog by A Day in Our Shoes about Parent Concern Letters.
Get the Data. Progress Monitoring is required under the IDEA Act. Is your child meeting their IEP Goals? What does the data show about your child making progress or lack of progress? Do you have the work samples, data, testing, reports and attendance records to prove the IEP goals. What does IDEA say about Progress Monitoring? Read the Dear Colleague “Letter to Pugh” from US Department of Education. The frequency of progress monitoring is left to state to determine.
IDEA states that each child’s IEP must contain:
“(3) A description of—
(i) How the child’s progress toward meeting the annual goals described in paragraph (2) of this section will be measured; and
(ii) When periodic reports on the progress the child is making toward meeting the annual goals (such as through the use of quarterly or other periodic reports, concurrent with the issuance of report cards) will be provided…[§300.320(a)(3)]”
4. Make SMART IEP GOALS IEP Goals help measure if your child is making progress in an area of deficit or need using services . Make your goal have a baseline and a goal value. Your goals should be:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Results-oriented
Time-bound
5. Find your TRIBE. Join your local base moms group. Join any related moms groups on Dyslexia or Special Education. Check out these groups:
DODEA Parents Supporting Parents with Dyslexia
Your state specific Decoding Dyslexia group
Military Special Education Alliance
6. Keep your Emotions in Check. It’s okay to get overwhelmed and upset, but don’t lose control of your emotions in an IEP meeting. If you become the parent who screams and cries in a meeting you won’t get the same results as someone who knows what they want and does not lose their cool.
7. Get frequent testing from a licensed professional aka Medical Doctor, Speech-Language Pathologist, Child Psychologist, Neuropsychologist, etc-Update your professional testing(Audiology Testing, Autism,
Child Psychology Testing, Neuropsychology Testing, Speech Language Pathology Testing, etc). Just because you got a diagnosis does not mean you never need to go back to the provider for more testing.
It is recommended every 2-3 years from “identification to completion” of education degrees.
8. Retention of a child to repeat a grade does not work. If your child has an IEP and they are failing or not making progress repeating the grade with the same IEP, same teachers and same IEP Goals and Services will not work the second time. Your child needs change of intervention and change of services. The American Psychology Association does not recommend retention, read their position statement.
9. Learning Disabilities are common in families. They are hereditary and genetic. If you have a parent with dyslexia or ADHD there is a 50 percent chance your child also has dyslexia and ADHD. If you have more than one kid it would not be unusual for all your kids to have various learning disabilities.
10. You can diagnose dyslexia as early as 4 with a properly trained child psychologist, neuropsychologist, or developmental pediatrician. You can potentially use your insurance to get a referral to a specialist. 1 in 5 people have dyslexia. There’s a myth that you can’t diagnose dyslexia til 8. This is a myth. Testing used by a psychologist works for kids as early as 4. They might not meet the parameters til later but 8 is late to be identified.
Helpful Forms
CLICK HERE for US Department of Education form on Prior Written Notice.
CLICK HERE for Request for Evaluation for Special Education
CLICK HERE for a sample Parent Concern letter
Hilary Laxson was a Coast Guard spouse for 12 years and has been in the military community since 2000. She graduated from the University of Denver in 1999 with a BSBA in Finance and obtained a graduate-level paralegal degree in 2000 from the University of San Diego.
She spent time in California, Georgia, and Hawaii as a Coast Guard Family member. She has a child with severe dyslexia and other learning disabilities in high school. She’s the parent volunteer for Decoding Dyslexia Military for Georgia and is actively involved in advocacy for active-duty families in the State of Georgia. Since 2019, she has attended “Say Dyslexia” Day to help bring more attention to dyslexia in the State of Georgia. Georgia passed SB48 “the Dyslexia Law” in 2019. She runs a parent support page on Facebook called The Dyslexia Life for parents all over the USA who need help navigating the world of dyslexia.