Ga Education Advocates

Are you the parent of a child with autism that is having a dispute with school personnel, and would like some help? Are you the parent of a child with a learning disability, or another type of disability, that could use an advocate to help you in getting an appropriate education for your child? This article will give you 5 qualities that make a good special education advocateAn advocate is a person that has received special training, that helps parents navigate the special education system. In some cases the advocate is a parent of a child themselves, but this is not always the case. Before you hire an advocate check on their experience, and also make sure that the advocate is familiar with your child’s disability, so that they are able to advocate effectively

Qualities:
1 A good advocate must be familiar with the federal and state education laws that apply to special education, and be willing to use them, when needed. This is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), State rules for special education (how they will comply with IDEA), and No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The advocate does not have to memorize the laws, but should have a basic knowledge of what is in them. The advocate must also be willing to bring up the laws, at IEP meetings, if this will benefit the child.
2. A good advocate should not make false promises to parents. If an advocate tells you. that they will get the services that you want for your child, be leery! Unfortunately, there are no guarantees in special education, and advocates should not promise things that they may not be able to get. An experienced advocate who knows the law and your school district, should have a sense about what can be accomplished.
3. A good advocate should be passionate about your child, and the educational services that they need. Advocacy sometimes takes a lot of time. If the person helping you is not passionate about your child, they may not be willing to help you for the length of time that it takes to get your child an appropriate education.
4. A good advocate must be willing to stand up to special education personnel, when they disagree with them, or when the school personnel tell a lie. If the advocate you pick, has every quality, but is not willing to stand up to school personnel, he or she will not be an effective advocate for your child.
5. A good advocate is detail oriented, and makes sure that any services promised by special educationpersonnel, are put in writing. A good advocate will read the IEP before they leave the meeting, and bring up any changes that should be made. Sometimes the little details are what makes for success!

AUSTIN (AP) – A loud group of parents, teachers and education advocates rallied outside the House chamber in the Texas Capitol to protest a state budget that will cut $4 billion from education.The protest Saturday came on the heels of a budget agreement announced Friday that will likely result in massive state layoffs.The House, made up of mostly fiscal conservatives, has been urged by Gov. Rick Perry not to use the state’s Rainy Day Fund. Teachers and parents are outraged that lawmakers would lay off educators instead of using more of the fund.The message Saturday was intended to be loud and clear to members of both chambers: Texans will remember the lawmakers that voted to cripple public education and vote them out in November.

Retired educator Linda M. Roberts isn’t oblivious to the financial pinch that North Carolina has found itself in, and the tough decisions legislators are having to make in Raleigh.But she doesn’t believe budget cuts are an excuse for sacrificing the future success of children who live in this state. And she was one of more than 50 people who attended a recent rally to drive that point home to lawmakers.“Let them know this isn’t right!” an impassioned Roberts said through a megaphone, speaking to a group in front of the Gaston County Courthouse in Gastonia. “We are not going to put you back (in office) if you’re stealing our children’s future!”The gathering Thursday was organized by the Gaston County Democratic Party and preceded a regular meeting of the Gaston County Board of Commissioners, though Democratic Party Chairman Robert Kellogg said that was purely coincidental. The commissioners’ proposed fiscal year 2012 budget would hold education funding steady, with no cuts being considered.

‘A moral issue’

Local Democrats and other education advocates are more concerned about the plans of the Republican-led House and Senate in Raleigh, which are inching closer to cutting education funding by 10 percent next year.

Roberts and others favor an alternative proposal that would permanently retain a one percent increase to the state sales tax that took effect in 2009 and is set to expire June 30. Requiring people to continue paying that levy, which was accompanied by a corporate and personal income surtax, would narrow the anticipated deficit by about $1.5 billion, they say.

“Wake up, Gaston County. Wake up, North Carolina,” said Roberts, who taught at Holbrook Middle School and worked in administration at several other Gaston schools before her retirement. “Let’s not balance our budget on the backs of our children. It becomes a moral issue.”

An Elon University poll conducted this year found that 56 percent of the respondents favor making a permanent, one percent increase in the state sales tax to “take care of” a projected budget shortfall of more than $3 billion. In a separate question, 62 percent said they would support a state sales tax increase of one cent per $100 to “close the budget gap.”

The crowd outside the courthouse included teachers and teacher assistants who were recently told they won’t be hired back in the fall, as well as students and other supporters.

“It’s a pretty good variety of people,” said Kellogg, who also spoke to the logic of fixing the problem by retaining the existing sales tax. “We’re not technically adding a tax because it’s already in place.”

Witnesses to the need

Bertha Watkins thought she’d found a job that she enjoyed and that was helping to make a difference in society when she became a teacher assistant at Pinewood Elementary School three years ago. But she was one of those who received a pink slip last week advising her to make other plans for employment.

“The worst part of it is when you love working with children and you see such a need for these positions,” she said. “There are students who need more personal, one-on-one attention, or else they struggle.”

Watkins was equally emotional as she took hold of the megaphone and encouraged others in attendance to bombard their elected leaders in Raleigh with phone calls and emails. Education is not just a Republican or Democratic issue, she said.

“You know what we’ve got to do? We’ve got to fight!” she said. “This is not right. If they don’t work for us, we can give them the boot because our vote is what counts.”

More and more I see parents of children with disabilities who have been bamboozled by the inflated egos of certain public school administrators.  It seems the status quo is what the system seeks for their student, although the parent assumes and expects that “specialized”  instruction is being provided to the “special” child.

The first quarter of a school year has passed;  here’s some recent observations:

• a second grade students’ mother learned the specialist who was suppose to meet quarterly with the girls’ teachers had not done so.
• A first grader who was suppose to have someone assist him on/off the bus due to neurological problems supposedly had someone watching him from afar.
• Another school district tells parents that their student gets “full direct supervision” in response to a parent requesting an aide for the student (what student in a public school doesn’t get “full direct supervision”?).
• A dad indicates to a school that he wants his child to be “more independent”.  The school interprets this to mean less support from the paraprofessional; as a result the student lags further behind academically.
• A district claims they use research-based curriculum for a specific group of children;  however,  the district cannot provide documentation that the  curriculum they purported being used was purchased by the district in years.

No longer can parents trust that their child’s needs are adequately addressed at the school; the system responds to parents who know what to ask and to whom/when to ask it.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told an international conference that educating women and girls helps them substantially contribute to their communities.“The evidence shows conclusively that even one extra year of schooling leads to significantly higher wages for women and girls, which allows them to lift up themselves, their families, and contribute to their communities and countries,” Clinton said May 26 at the Paris launch of the UNESCO Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education.“We have seen that when women and girls have the opportunity to pursue education, GDP [gross domestic product] grows for entire societies,” she said.Clinton is the first secretary of state to visit the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

The secretary said the reason for educating women and girls is not only economic.“Birth rates, HIV infections, incidents of domestic violence, female cutting all decline when education rises,” Clinton told the conference. “Fully one-half of the drop in child mortality achieved between 1970 and 1990 can be attributed to increased education for women and girls.”At the conference, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the opportunity to acquire knowledge creates a new generation of mothers who raise educated and empowered young women.

June 1–As the Obama administration continues to seek an overhaul of No Child Left Behind, a change that would give states and school districts more decision making, Senator Jay Rockefeller is pursuing legislation that would provide more support for education in rural communities.Rockefeller is co-sponsoring the Office of Rural Education Policy Act that, if adopted, would form an Office or Rural Education inside the current Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the Department of Education.According to Rockefeller’s Press Secretary Andrew J. Beckner, this legislation has been referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.In a Congressional Record Statement, Rockefeller noted that rural education is becoming increasingly important in the United States public school system with nearly one quarter of the students in America attend rural schools and over half of the schools in West Virginia in rural areas.The proposed act cites the Digest of Education Statistics reported by the National Center for Education Statistics; “The number of students attending rural schools increased by over 11 percent, from 10.5 million to nearly 11.7 million between the 2004-05 and 2008-09 school years.”“Students in rural areas face unique challenges — such as recruiting and retaining teachers and having less access to advanced courses,” said Rockefeller. “People in West Virginia and other states with largely rural populations deserve the same access to opportunities that are afforded to our more urban areas — including healthcare, technology and importantly, education.”In a press release, Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and co-sponsor of the legislation said, “The goal here is to allow rural schools to focus on students in the classroom rather than red tape in the bureaucracy. Students in rural areas deserve a fair shake at the resources and opportunities afforded to students who live in urban areas.”According to the proposed Office of Rural Education Policy Act, rural schools face “unique challenges” such as low enrollment numbers, disparity in funding, geographic isolation, difficulty recruiting qualified teachers and the inability to offer advanced and diverse courses.The Office of Rural Education would be run by a director who would work to assess and address issues of rural education including producing an annual report on the condition of rural education, promoting partnerships with community-based organizations and advocate financing or rural schools.