{"id":25085,"date":"2019-10-17T15:01:39","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T19:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=25085"},"modified":"2019-10-17T15:01:41","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T19:01:41","slug":"effective-advocacy-4-mistakes-parents-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/effective-advocacy-4-mistakes-parents-make\/","title":{"rendered":"Effective Advocacy &#8211; 4 Mistakes Parents Make"},"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=\"Effective%20Advocacy%20-%204%20Mistakes%20Parents%20Make\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>When you attend IEP meetings, you represent your child&#8217;s interests.&nbsp; Your goals are to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>negotiate with the school<\/li>\n<li>obtain quality special education services for your child<\/li>\n<li>build healthy working relationships with school personnel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-25086\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/boy.parents.happy_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"510\" height=\"343\"\/><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Who is your child&#8217;s first teacher? <\/em>You are.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Who is your child&#8217;s most important role model? <\/em>You are.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Who is responsible for your child&#8217;s welfare? <\/em>You are.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Who has your child&#8217;s best interests at heart? <\/em>You do.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Effective parent advocates avoid these four mistakes.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Failing to make a long term plan for their child&#8217;s education or the future<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some parents don&#8217;t think about the future until it&#8217;s here. They don&#8217;t have long-range goals for their child when he leaves public school.&nbsp; They don&#8217;t have a plan.<\/p>\n<p>Your child&#8217;s special education is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/advoc\/ltrs\/masterplan.htm\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">long-term project<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A plan will help you stay focused, anticipate problems, and prepare for the future.<\/p>\n<p>Your plan should include&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em> academic and behavioral, social, and emotional goals that include hobbies, personal interests, sports and fitness, family, friendships, and the community.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Your plan should be revisited and revised as your child grows.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Not understanding their child&#8217;s disability and allowing the school to make decisions about their child&#8217;s special education<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some parents don&#8217;t understand their child&#8217;s disability, how the disability affects the child&#8217;s learning, or how the child needs to be taught.<\/p>\n<p>If you do not ensure that your child receives an appropriate education and learns the skills necessary to be an independent, self-sufficient member of the community, you will deal with the outcome long past childhood.<\/p>\n<p>If you are tempted to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/high-expectations-raising-the-bar-for-children-with-disabilities\/\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">lower your expectations<\/span><\/a>, consider this: Your child will internalize your low expectations.<\/p>\n<p>A vicious cycle begins. Low expectations lead to low achievement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Forgetting to keep your emotions under control<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As a parent, your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/advoc\/articles\/Emotions.html\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">emotions may be your Achilles&#8217; heel<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you are like many parents, when you learn that your child has a disability, you turn to school personnel and medical specialists for help.<\/p>\n<p>If you and the school disagree about what is appropriate for your child, you may feel shocked and angry.<\/p>\n<p>You may feel betrayed by the system you trusted. Once lost, trust is hard to regain.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Not documenting events and conversations in writing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One common mistake parents make is not <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/ltrs.index.htm\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">writing things down as they happen<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>When you write things down &#8211; in a letter, log, or journal &#8211; you are taking steps to protect your child&#8217;s interests.<\/p>\n<p>In general the best way to document events and problems is by writing short polite letters to the school.<\/p>\n<p>Describe what happened or what you were told. Use facts, not emotions.<\/p>\n<p>Your letters will become part of your child&#8217;s file.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Be sure to keep a copy of all correspondence for your records.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Avoiding Mistakes &#8211; Wrightslaw Back to School 2018<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/nltr\/18\/bts.series.mistakes.people.make.htm\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Mistakes People Make <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/nltr\/18\/nl.0911.htm\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Mistakes Parents Make<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you attend IEP meetings, you represent your child&#8217;s interests.&nbsp; Your goals are to: negotiate with the school obtain quality special education services for your child build healthy working relationships <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/effective-advocacy-4-mistakes-parents-make\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[529,883],"tags":[132,41,67],"class_list":["post-25085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parent-rights-responsibilities","category-parent-school-relationship-2","tag-iep-meetings","tag-parental-rights","tag-parental-role"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25085","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=25085"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25200,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25085\/revisions\/25200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}