What has helped you and your family understand the complex process of Public Schooling or ultimately, decide that Public Schooling wasn’t a choice for you, but you knew you had the right to choices?
Hello Friends,
Welcome to this week’s #TogetherThursday about showing up together and fighting for what you have a right to, even if you don’t know it yet. You fight for your family everyday friends.. Maybe you feel that. Maybe you don’t yet. However, everyday, your light, your love, your passion for your child is how you show up for yourself and your child and work toward what you and they need to be who they can become. Sometimes in this fight, we find friends and allies especially in those complicated moments through all those systems.
As a professional I participate in a complex world of systems. The Public School System. There are a lot of gifts in the American School System and there are a lot of not so great things. As any system, there are rules, both spoken and unspoken that rule what happens in education. In the United States, Parents have RIGHTS. In California in particular(and in other states too, but California has lots of great things going for it), there are many many opportunities and protections for your Deaf/Hard of Hearing child.
However, also as a Professional, I admit, there are SO many Acronyms, mostly depicting things in English, that complicate and confuse the processes for your child to get what they need to succeed: FAPE? IEP? IFSP? CART? CSD? SELPA? CAC? SKI-HI? MOU? PWN?
Words that are brand new: Eligibility? Part C? Part B? Service Providers? Agency? District?
Words that might not be new but in a new context? Due Process? Notice of Meeting? Consent?
The good news is that YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
Hands and Voices has a great network with(one more acronym): ASTra, that are parents themselves and have LIVED the process, are trained and will guide and support you through each step:
- ASTra link
- Any questions anytime can be answered here: email Johanna
If you want to look at resources yourself, look to the CDEto get started.
- Everything from laws to regulations and YOUR RIGHTs are public information, free to you.
- The Department of Education has a facebook page as well: Link where they hold seminars. You as a parent have the right to know whats happening and have a right to ask what you need.
And Hands & Voices ASTra can be there to walk you through all these things.
What has helped you and your family understand the complex process of Public Schooling or ultimately, decide that Public Schooling wasn’t a choice for you, but you knew you had the right to choices?
We can, together,
Ms. Leslie