{"id":123,"date":"2009-04-13T08:16:02","date_gmt":"2009-04-13T13:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=123"},"modified":"2009-04-13T08:16:02","modified_gmt":"2009-04-13T13:16:02","slug":"advice-for-parents-who-are-getting-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/advice-for-parents-who-are-getting-started\/","title":{"rendered":"Advice for Parents Who Are Getting Started"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Advice%20for%20Parents%20Who%20Are%20Getting%20Started%20\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><blockquote><p><em>My extremely intelligent son is dyslexic. Without help from your web site about how to deal with the school, he would still be ignored. The school would still be telling us parents that he&#8217;s lazy, needs to apply himself, etc. <strong>I have some advice for other parents who are getting started<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Document Everything, Create a Paper Trail<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The most important advice I can give parents is to document and make a record of EVERYTHING.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"float: right; margin: 5px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/images\/ltrs.computer.jpg\" alt=\"woman writing at computer\" width=\"140\" height=\"97\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Most schools have e-mail. E-mail creates a permanent record. Depending on state law, phone conversations may not be recorded without both parties agreeing. Email is more convenient and creates that &#8220;paper trail.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #990000;\">Note from Wrights:<\/span><\/strong> In general, we agree. But emails can create problems, especially if you need to use them as evidence. Emails can be altered or destroyed. This is why we advise parents to write short notes to document events, conversations, agreements, and disagreements. Yes, it takes a little time &#8211; but typing a quick note doesn&#8217;t take much longer than typing an email (you can write an email, print it, and send it by snail mail). The advantages? You have copies of all notes you wrote on your computer and you have print copies in your child&#8217;s file. You have peace of mind.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Record IEP Meetings<br \/>\n<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\nAlways tape record IEP meetings, even if there are not obvious problems. I&#8217;ve had to refer to sections on a tape later to prove that the IEP team said they were going to provide a service.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Learn What Your Child&#8217;s Test Scores Mean<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Parents need to understand their child&#8217;s test scores. When I started studying tests and measurements, I was surprised that I could learn it fairly easily. With your new WebEx program, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/webex\/test.scores.index.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Understanding Your Child&#8217;s Test Scores<\/span><\/a>, it&#8217;s even easier to learn.<\/p>\n<p>Because the program is recorded, I can refer to it whenever I need to. I used it as a refresher course before the last IEP meeting.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Learn to Create SMART IEP Goals to Measure Progress<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Parents need to learn how to create measurable IEP goals where their child&#8217;s progress is measured with objective tests.<\/p>\n<p>When I compared test scores from three years ago to recent scores, I discovered that my son had REGRESSED in over half of the areas tested. I also discovered that the school psychologist didn&#8217;t complete parts of several tests.<\/p>\n<p>Jaws dropped at my son&#8217;s IEP meeting when I used their test scores to show that their program was not appropriate. The school psychologist was so rattled that she walked out of the meeting.<\/p>\n<p>The staff at my son&#8217;s school never bothered to look at his test scores to see if he was making progress. I have to assume they don&#8217;t care.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #990000;\">Note from Wrights<\/span><\/strong>: It&#8217;s tempting to assume that school staff who don&#8217;t look at a child&#8217;s test scores don&#8217;t care. I don&#8217;t think you can make that assumption. Most teachers receive little or no training in tests and measurements. Teachers complain that the information they receive in psycho-educational evaluations is not useful.<\/p>\n<p>School personnel tend to rely on the school psychologist to provide information from tests. After evaluations are completed, they are often filed away. The school psych may never look at earlier testing to see if the child is making progress or regressing. When confronted with evidence from school testing that the child regressed, the school psych is often embarrassed and defensive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My extremely intelligent son is dyslexic. Without help from your web site about how to deal with the school, he would still be ignored. The school would still be telling <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/advice-for-parents-who-are-getting-started\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,57,5,18,150,11,136],"tags":[1291,1303,31,1293,99,32],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-fape","category-idea-2004","category-ieps","category-letters","category-special-ed-law","category-strategies","tag-advocacy","tag-documentation","tag-evaluations","tag-idea-2004","tag-special-education-training","tag-test-scores"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7787,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/7787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}