{"id":4332,"date":"2010-11-29T12:29:06","date_gmt":"2010-11-29T16:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=4332"},"modified":"2010-11-29T12:29:37","modified_gmt":"2010-11-29T16:29:37","slug":"pitfalls-of-advocating-in-your-own-school-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/pitfalls-of-advocating-in-your-own-school-district\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitfalls of Advocating in Your Own School District"},"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=\"Pitfalls%20of%20Advocating%20in%20Your%20Own%20School%20District%20\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>I read with interest Pat Howey\u2019s article about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=4230\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Advocating in Your Own School District<\/span><\/a>. In that article Pat said, \u201cI do not believe that advocating in your own school system is a conflict of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I agree. There is no intrinsic conflict of interest when advocating in your own school district.<\/p>\n<p><strong>There are some possible pitfalls though.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some things to think through before you work with another family:<!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>1.\u00a0 Are you angry with the school\/staff?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Anger when your child has been denied an education is natural.\u00a0 Do not let your anger leak over into someone else\u2019s situation.\u00a0 The other family may be angry as well.\u00a0 Let them know you understand, but do not incite higher anger.\u00a0 It will not serve them or their child.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>2.\u00a0 Are you able to separate your child\u2019s situation from that of other children?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">What worked\/works for your child will not necessarily be what works for someone else&#8217;s child.\u00a0 An advocate\u2019s function is not to direct parents toward a particular program or approach.\u00a0 It is to help parents learn their rights, how the process works, and to help them advocate for their choices for their child.<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>3.\u00a0 Are you able to let other parents make choices that you would not make?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">If what you would choose is the only option you can accept from another parent, then you need to step back.\u00a0 How will you react if the parent accepts what the school says\/offers?\u00a0 If you cannot let parents make their own choices, then you are not truly advocating. Remember, the word advocate means to speak or act on behalf of another, not to layer your opinions over theirs.<\/p>\n<p>You may advocate for one of your children when you have another child in the district. You may advocate for another family. Retaliation is a natural fear in any advocacy situation.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First, it seldom happens.\u00a0 The vast majority of school staff is not malicious.\u00a0 They have built their career around assisting children.<\/li>\n<li>Second, there are processes to stop any retaliation if it does occur.\u00a0 You have developed advocacy skills; use them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Remember, advocacy should not be a win-lose situation.\u00a0 It may become that, but if you start out determined to \u201cwin\u201d, you lose the best chance of developing a true team approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I read with interest Pat Howey\u2019s article about Advocating in Your Own School District. In that article Pat said, \u201cI do not believe that advocating in your own school system <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/pitfalls-of-advocating-in-your-own-school-district\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"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":[3,11],"tags":[421],"class_list":["post-4332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-special-ed-law","tag-parent-advocacy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4332","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\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4332"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4365,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4332\/revisions\/4365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}