{"id":4067,"date":"2011-02-21T10:00:22","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T14:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=4067"},"modified":"2014-08-15T17:34:31","modified_gmt":"2014-08-15T21:34:31","slug":"i-am-not-powerless-i-am-a-parent-advocate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/i-am-not-powerless-i-am-a-parent-advocate\/","title":{"rendered":"I am NOT Powerless. I am a Parent Advocate."},"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=\"I%20am%20NOT%20Powerless.%20I%20am%20a%20Parent%20Advocate.%20%20\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><blockquote><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"border: 1px solid black; margin: 3px; float: right;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/nltr\/img\/kiss.goodbye.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"130\" height=\"154\" \/>You say parents have rights but I don\u2019t think they do. I think parents are powerless. The only parents who have rights are financially able to afford the implementation of the IEP. Schools call those who cannot a \u201cconstant complainer.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Parent Credibility<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>You sound a lot like I did about 6 years ago. Three of my four children have IEPs.<\/p>\n<p>When I began advocating for my kids, the principal of my kid\u2019s school told other parents that <em>I was mentally ill<\/em> and&#8230;<!--more-->&#8230; she said my kids could not read because I was a bad parent. <strong>Was I mad!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The hardest thing I ever had to do was to<strong> leave those emotions out of the parent\/school equation<\/strong>. When I learned to do that, it gave me the credibility, not the principal.<\/p>\n<p>I built my credibility when I left my emotions in the parking lot. The principal called in the school district.\u00a0 The district saw that I was not the \u201ccrazy\u201d the principal made me out to be. The district eventually sided with me.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">The Over Emotional Parent<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We are a working family who could not afford lawyers to advocate for our children. I felt powerless to do anything.<\/p>\n<p>I knew one thing. I had to find a way to get my kids what they needed.<\/p>\n<p>A lady named Pam told me to stop playing the overly emotional parent and do what was necessary to advocate for my kids. <strong>This was hard<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>[Read Susan&#8217;s story: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/advo.susan.success.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">From Victim to a Mighty Force, the Numbers Do Not Lie<\/span><\/a> ]<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Parent Power<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My struggle has paid off. I am NOT powerless. I am a parent advocate.<\/p>\n<p>My kids now have good strong IEPs.\u00a0 The school follows the IEPS. <strong>You CAN do this.<\/strong> The change we seek will come from parents advocating for their own kids!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">[ <\/span><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Wrightslaw Note:<\/span><\/strong> Susan Bruce is now an education coordinator and parent trainer for South Carolina&#8217;s Parent Training and Information Center, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.proparents.org\/index.html\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">PRO*Parents of South Carolina <\/span><\/a> and graduate of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/ISEA\/isea.2012.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">ISEA 2012<\/span><\/a>. ]<\/p>\n<p>Susan has trained thousands of parents and professionals on the IDEA and effective advocacy skills, empowering them to effectively advocate for appropriate services for students with disabilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You say parents have rights but I don\u2019t think they do. I think parents are powerless. The only parents who have rights are financially able to afford the implementation of <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/i-am-not-powerless-i-am-a-parent-advocate\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"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":[3,136,643],"tags":[421,153,41,67],"class_list":["post-4067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-strategies","category-success-stories","tag-parent-advocacy","tag-parent-involvement","tag-parental-rights","tag-parental-role"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4067","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4067"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11789,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4067\/revisions\/11789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}