Becoming Better Parent Advocates for Your LD Kids: Part 2
By Gayle Shimoff, MA
Learning Disabilities and Reading Specialist


Educational Advocacy - You can make a difference!

Proactive parents who fine tune their advocacy skills; can effectively help their children have more successful school experiences, despite budget cuts. Here are some strategies which have been helpful to me both as a parent as a professional educational advocate. They can be helpful for any parent, but essential for parents of children “who are falling through the cracks”.

1. Stay Organized!
Keep an organized binder of all documents, in reverse chronological order, so you have easy access to all evaluations, IEPs, letters, report cards etc.. Keep each set of documents in a separate plastic sleeve. Never give out any original documents, even if you have been told that it will be photocopied or returned to you. Always have at least two copies of all official reports and paper work on hand so that they can be submitted without delay. Keep a detailed log/ notebook of all interactions. This should include the date and time of your phone conversation or meeting, with the names and job descriptions of the people you interacted with together with a summary of pertinent information. This is important to prevent a situation of “he said, she said” when negotiating a situation.

1) Be Effective!
Always prepare for meetings before you walk into the school. Think it through carefully. Decide in advance what your main goals are, how you will present them and try to accomplish those goals. Prepare an outline of what information you want to present, questions you want to ask and what you are interested in accomplishing. Review your notes from previous meetings and follow up on goals set then. We all know that most teachers work very hard and have a lot of responsibilities. Take it upon yourself to set up an ongoing, working relationship so that your child is not forgotten and do not leave anything to chance. This can be in the form of prearranged weekly phone calls or monthly team meetings at the school, throughout the entire school year. By taking the time to prepare you will be able to remain level headed and focused during difficult moments.

2) Remain Respectful!
We all like to be appreciated and know that our efforts are being acknowledged. Always make sure to thank each staff member individually for their sensitivity, efforts and professionalism. It is also important to approach the school as a team player, and not as an adversary. Your attitude should be that you are there to help enhance their efforts and not attack them for what you think they are doing wrong. If you want something specific, work it into your conversation in the form of a suggestion and not a demand. This way everyone can take ownership of the idea and be more likely to try to implement it.

Be careful how you write to teachers. A number of years ago I inadvertently insulted my son’s teacher so badly, in a note I had sent her, that she complained to the principal about me who promptly called to discuss the issue. Apparently I had written to her using my very basic Hebrew writing skills and not remembering to use more sophisticated, flowery and polite language I had learned about in ulpan years ago. Consequently she thought that I was being purposefully harsh and critical. While this is a good “aliyah story”, it can be detrimental when a good relationship with a mechanechet is essential.


3) Stay Informed – Know your child’s rights:

a) Eligibility for Services: A child with a specific learning disability, diagnosed by a State licensed didactic (educational) tester, is eligible for remedial help for three years from the date of the evaluation. Eligibility for remedial instruction in grades 1-8 is determined at a Vaadat Zakaut Shiluv. This is a meeting which usually takes in June of the previous school year or in September of the new school year, although a parent can request this meeting at any time. This meeting takes place in the school building and must be attended by the school principal, guidance counselor, madricha Matya (supervisor of LD teachers in the school), the child’s homeroom teacher, and the parents, accompanied by a friend or advocate, should they want one. Children who are approved will receive two hours a week of small group remedial instruction.

Usually these meetings are convened upon the request of the parents. Do not forgo your child’s right to have this meeting, even if the chances of receiving remedial help are minimal. The members of this committee represent all the significant people in your child's school. Just by presenting her situation to them, you will have introduced her and her needs to the school staff. Once they know about your child they may find other ways they can help her that do not require allocation of school funds.

b) Curriculum and Testing Accommodations: When a child is diagnosed with a learning disability, the evaluator usually includes a section at the end of the report about curriculum and testing accommodation which are to be given to the student. According to our special education laws, any student with a learning disability is entitle to curriculum and testing accommodations even if they do not receive Shaot Matya, remedial instruction.

Recently I was told of a local school which recommended that a dyslexic teen listen to books on tapes, so that he can enjoy the stories and ideas of the book and grow intellectually, without being limited by his reading disability. This is an example of how this idea works properly.

Unfortunately most schools only pay lip service to this and it is often not implemented consistently throughout the school year, Lack of ongoing coordination and communication between the many departmental teachers is one of the reasons for this neglect. Understandably so, a high school history teacher, who may have 100 different students a week, may not remember that five students, in three different classes are supposed to read fewer chapters or take a test orally.Moreover, many teachers only give testing accommodations if the students ask for it, which is not the intention of this special education law.

Don’t hesitate to call your child’s teacher or the school guidance counselor to find our specifically how these accommodations will be implemented. If you know your daughter’s test schedule, it might make sense to pick up the phone the night before and remind her teacher about giving her accommodations. Discuss how it will be given, at what time of day and by which staff member.

4) Get Political:
If you are a member of your school’s Vaad Horim, or know some one who is, it would be appropriate to raise specific concerns and questions about how the administration is ensuring appropriate and effective education for students with learning disabilities. With local elections looming in the not so distant future, these might be relevant issues you could raise with council members to brainstorm about how improvements can be made in our local schools.

 

Anyone living in Israel for a while knows that “no” doesn’t really mean “no”, and that sometimes who ever yells the most gets the most. What that means for us as parents of LD kids, is that we shouldn’t remain complacent about our children’s education and then bicker about all that is wrong when they aren’t getting what they need. By being a proactive advocate for them, and interacting with their school in a smart and cooperative manner, we will be able to accomplish a lot.

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