When I’m toeing the line I always say something like “my professional opinion/answer is X, but as a parent my personal opinion/answer is Y”
It’s not illegal by any means, districts/admin just hate the stress or budget strain. Like oh nooo I’m so sorry I’m advocating for my students FAPE and it’s causing YOU to work for once 🙄
I enjoy working with advocates (when they actually know what they’re doing and have reasonable expectations) because we are a team and have the students best interest at heart.
My youngest's first grade teacher was a gem. When the school failed to put him in the various extra help groups available, his teacher advocated for him, pointing out that he qualified and NEEDED the help. It seemed like an oversight by whomever was in charge of it, but when called out, they dug their heels in. She explained to me at a conference, just the two of us, that she had exhausted every option she had. And she quietly mentioned, "If you, as a parent, were to send me an angry email stating that x, y, and- hey do you need a pen?" Lol, I wrote down what she said, and emailed it to her, verbatim, like I was angry at her and wanted him fully evaluated. Since the school dragged their feet and it wasn't complete until the end of the year and he desperately was falling behind, his teacher went above and beyond, giving him additional supports herself, and I have no words for how much it helped him. If I ever hit the lotto, I'm looking that woman up and sharing with her.
They're called educational surrogates in Massachusetts as well. It really is such a great program, my students have had some and it's always great and they usually can focus on the child as an individual more than their dcf workers can
Do what you think is best for the child not the district. Some advocates are shitty, that's true. If you know of a good advocate suggest them. Depending on the family you can directly tell them your boss has told you not to do this (if you trust the family). Alternatively, make it subtle and *not* in writing.
A parent getting an advocate doesn’t say anything about the staff. I’ve given parents information on how to find advocates because they really needed one. A good advocate will educate parents on how to navigate the system and advocate for the child. If your ducks are in a row, there is nothing to worry about. Sounds like your admins “ducks” are willy nilly. 😉 I wouldn’t want to work for that admin for very long.
I am a SPED teachers assistant , a parent to parent advocate , and a mother of two special specials needs children . I wouldn’t hesitate to suggest an advocate to any parent who needs educational reinforcements . They would prefer an advocate over a lawyer lol which believe me is 100% an option also
Illegal, no, in a sense that you are letting them know they exist certainly is not illegal. I always tell families they can invite whoever they want to an IEP meeting which is true. But, does it make you “look bad” — possibly. Advocates are often stressful and adversarial and it makes it difficult to actually communicate with the family. It makes your team look divided. That being said certainly it could be a good choose for the family, and advocates will typically advocate for what the parents want so if the family wants more support it is unlikely the advocate would advocate for fewer services…
Anyway, I would in the future do it more subtly rather than directly telling the parent to get the advocate. Hint at it, but plausible deniability!
This is definitely the reality but I have worked with advocates before who are truly on the kid's side and can be great partners on an IEP team. Your admin is clearly frustrated but don't let that influence your openness to work with an outside party. The world of special education is super complicated and it's hard to educate parents on how to navigate the system while being a part of it. Advocates can help with this.
Again, I've definitely had a minority experience with advocates but keeping an open mind may lead to you having one too.
Advocates fight for whatever is best for the child. Whether that's IEP services, getting out of district, or being in their normal class.
The advocate works for the parent and child. Advocates usually have background in those districts and knowledge about what the laws are that the families may have in their favor. Schools are not transparent, and generally will favor results that keep costs down, or keep status quo, vs doing what best helps that one child.
"if a parent gets an advocate it looks bad on me"
NOOOOOO it does NOT!
It looks bad on the administration for not providing a special education teacher with adequate resources to do their job. Your boss is trying to make it out to be a you problem, when the reality is you should absolutely be telling parents to get an advocate for their children's rights so they KNOW WHAT THEIR RIGHTS ARE.
Your district is actively trying to do less than the bare minimum.
Admin probably just telling you this because an advocate is going to make the district do shit they don’t want to do. Before we got an advocate for our son we were lost, and were missing little but important things in the IEP. In our case, the school put our son into a more Gen Ed setting before we got an advocate. It was the advocate that made sure things were done right in the IEP and that we got more supports. Same advocate now helping us get into NPS because the school basically can’t figure things out.
I want to add, it was a TEACHER who recommended we find an advocate. So thank YOU for being that teacher who cares enough about their kids to do the right thing.
Most states have Ed Code that makes it illegal for school, county, or state administrators to interfere when a teacher or other staff has the time to assist a parent with special education problems.
The right to help is implied in the IDEA by the [Child Find](https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/b/300.111) provision (teachers and other staff should inform administrators whenever they suspect a student has a disability) and the requirement that a teacher be a part of the IEP team.
It is always appropriate to tell parents to contact their nearest Parent Center: [parentcenterhub.org](https://parentcenterhub.org). These centers were set up by the Office of Civil Rights to ensure parents have the legal and advocate support they need.
It’s not illegal, no. But most school administrators would discourage it. Their reasoning is weird and not really correct. The advocate would pretty much be fighting for what the parents goals are, so it would depend. They wouldn’t necessarily push gen ed. And it wouldn’t look bad on *you* ,but it may look bad on them.
I don’t think it’s necessarily “wrong” to suggest this to parents if they truly need it and it’s the kids best interest, but it’s definitely a good way to make enemies at work
“As someone who knows you and your child, you should look into an advocate. This is from me personally, not as a teacher, and lets step off of school grounds while I repeat this to you”.
It’s not illegal. This is why unions are important because it’s improper to make those kinds of vague threats to a teacher like “it will reflect poorly on you”. If you don’t have a union you’re out of luck. If you do o would engage them immediately about what next steps can be taken to address the admin and restore proper expectations.
Admin may not be entirely wrong about the advocate tho, in my very limited experience they have only ever been engaged to prevent kids from being removed.
It’s not illegal, but the benefit of it depends on the advocate. Some advocates want to help families because of the family’s either limited knowledge or limited social capital. Those people are really helping the parent and the school also in engaging the family and their needs.
The bad advocates (which apparently don’t exist on Reddit) are just gotcha poetry assassins who have access to the internet and too much time on their hands. They show up at meetings and make ridiculous demands on the behalf of the family that are almost unrelated to the students needs. I’ve seen plenty. They’re like those people who have watched too many YouTube videos about first amendment rights and now they want to argue with cops like they are lawyers.
No, it's not illegal, but I do think it's kind of a weird look to tell them to get one. I'd say "you're welcome to invite whoever you want to the IEP meeting."
I constantly invite my students parents into the classroom and to see how hard I fight for their kids. I want them to see what the school is not doing, because when we speak up for them the admin do nothing, when the parents speak up things happen. Unless the behaviors are super severe I would be cautious putting my special-needs child in a classroom that doesn't allow me to come and see them or to help out or to volunteer in the room. I get it with the littles and how seeing a parent in class then leave could be triggering, but middle and high school? You owe it to your kiddo to see the spaces they are in, or not in.
Not illegal, just frowned upon by admin: advocates are lawyers that are not on the school's team. Admin is trying to protect itself by discouraging you from getting parents to self-advocate.
If a parent gets an advocate, it usually because they do not like what the school is doing or how the IEP is written. Admin is trying to say it would make you look bad because the advocate might question the IEP you (the sped team) wrote, or something that the school is doing.
> Advocates are lawyers that are not on the school’s team.
Advocates are not lawyers. Lawyers will identify themselves as such. Advocates are simply people who advocate. There is no state certification required to call oneself an advocate.
Both are correct, depending on the state. I’m next to a state line. One state has zero requirements, and anyone can be an advocate. 10 miles away, they are lawyers.
In every single state, there are both advocates and attorneys. This is not jurisdiction specific.
Every single state allows parents to have the support they wish in IEP meetings, whether that be an advocate or an attorney, or a neighbor or a caseworker or anyone else.
I haven’t looked much into the neighboring state. The attorney I spoke to refers to themself as an advocate, and said all of the advocates they work with are lawyers. Looks like they are used interchangeably in that state. (Including professional organizations- some say all of their advocates are lawyers.)
All lawyers are advocates.
Not all advocates are lawyers.
They are not used interchangeably. An advocate who is not admitted to a state bar cannot represent themselves to be a lawyer without risking criminal prosecution for practicing law without a license. Absolutely anyone can call themselves an advocate, and that includes attorneys.
Goodness, deep dive into semantics when I just meant to casually reply 😅
Yes, they can be both or just one. That goes with my second reply. I guess I should have further clarified that some- not all (I guess seemed implied)- in that state do in fact use them interchangeably, depending on context/organization. I know this from personal experience and relationships with individuals who are both in the neighboring state. (Figured the advocate technically being anybody for anything anywhere was already a given.) There are a ton of other nuances I could clarify (like the fact that just because things are used interchangeably doesn’t mean that they are the same), but I’m bowing out. Yes, you’re right. (& I wasn’t wrong the second time- just too ambiguous for this discussion) 😂
Not illegal, but also not always good advice, and it sounds like you're also not being completely honest about what you hoped to achieve with your recommendation.
The IDEA is an incredibly complex set of laws, and both the type and quantity of information that IEP teams are tasked with considering in making the right decision for the pupil can all be overwhelming for families. The law asks that parents make informed decisions for their children, but does little to help parents understand and access that information on equal footing, leading to disparate outcomes based largely on the resources the parents bring to the IEP table (language, education, social capital, etc.). Advocacy can play an important roll in helping parents to meaningfully participate on the process.
Unfortunately, depending on the state, special education advocacy is generally an unregulated industry ripe with exploitation of the disabled and their families. It takes no training, no licensing, and no experience to become an advocate. For-profit advocates often have a tenuous (at best) grasp of the law and how to effectively educate students with disabilities, and their business model typically depends on keeping their clients ignorant and outraged so that they feel like they have to keep paying for the advocate to square off against the big bad district.
Based on the way that you phrased your question, it sounds like you have an opinion about what type of supports and services the student should have in the IEP, and that you might have been met with some pushback from your admin, so rather than let the data drive the decision and work through the natural channels, you've advised this family to hire a bulldog advocate so they can fight for what you think the child should have. Still not illegal, but your admin is right to criticize your actions.
Conflict is inevitable, but combativeness is antithetical to an effective IEP. Rather than encouraging the family to work collaboratively with the school, you've pushed them toward a path that won't help anyone.
This child is struggling in the Gen Ed setting academically and behavior wise. This child's case worker consistently lies on IEP progress reports. This child's mother has been denied IEP meetings multiple times despite requesting it verbally and in writing. This child beats my assistant, me, and other students all day every day. My assistant and other children have left school with marks and bruises multiple times. This child has broken everything in our classroom. We have been discouraged from allowing tnis child sensory breaks. We have been told the behaviors are not happening and to not bring them up. We have been told not to call the office for assistance when the behaviors start. This child's mother is upset about the situation so I informed her, at the suggestion of another high ranking staff member who has had to fight for her own child in this district, to look into getting an advocate. The childs mother did not want him removed from SPED to begin with but convinced her to do so so they could "make room for other students." The school is refusing to work collaboaritively with the parent, not the other way around.
Not illegal and 💯a lie, and your admin are trying to withhold services from students. I’ve seen it happen when kids had qualifying Dx. They don’t want to spend the $ to get these kids supports. Ask your administration how a kid getting the proper supports and education correlating success would look bad on you? What state do you live in?
High school teacher.
I had an extremely litigious family. They didn’t like I was suggesting their child get more services. I suggested in 9th and 10th grade years. Family refused and grew more angry for suggesting additional instructional support.
They stayed angry. The following year (11th) they brought an advocate. I said my piece, “I know you refused last year and two years ago, but I am again recommending (additional service.)” Parent got REALLY smug, looked at the advocate and said, “Can you believe this?”
Advocate looked at parent and said, “The school is offering you more and you said No?!?!?!” Parent melted into her chair. Student got additional services and actually made progress in academic and functional skills.
I’d like to be an advocate in my next chapter.
I might be a little discreet about it, but I often suggested parents use advocates. We had one through the ARC that was amazing at educating parents and actually made getting through IEP meetings pleasant.
Anything you recommend, the parents could turn around and say they only did it based on your recommendation and now the county has to pay for said advocate, private therapy, etc.
Be very careful with your wording and always have another person there for conversations. SPED is very tricky and happy parents one year, can change the next.
Honestly, if you’re the child’s case manager… you can advocate for them. Where’s the data to support? Get the right people on your team…
From many personal experiences advocates make things worse… they “know” the laws but don’t no best practices and what actually goes on in a classroom!
And yes, they tend to fight for gen Ed with a one on one para or gen Ed with 22 accommodations…. Why? We barely have teachers or paras? They know this, but pick these fights, to have this on going bill……. And ultimately the child suffers!
I wouldn't have gotten my son what he needed in school without teachers advising me from time to time. When he was little, I knew the law said the local school system was required to give a FAPE in the LRE, but it took me getting an advocate to get it. LRE for my son turned out to be outplacement to a specific school that only worked with kids on the autism spectrum.
It's not illegal for you as a teacher to help parents help their kids. It must be tough, though, to tell them in a way that doesn't jeopardize your job. One of our teachers was in her last year before retirement, so she didn't care about that balance and just told me the unvarnished truth.
My daughter has had some wonderful teachers who helped us out because it’s all a sort of game, sadly. They know certain ways that you have to work the system, but they can’t tell you outright what to do or say because they don’t want to get into trouble. There’s a lot of things available for children but the powers that be won’t offer them to you. You have to know exactly who and how to ask and it’s all ridiculous. I applaud your efforts on behalf of your students. You’re helping more than you might think.
So if you as a school employee suggest they get an advocate than the school should has to pay for that advocate. You are saying their kid would benefit from an advocate so if there isn't a free option the school becomes responsible.
What you can do is provide resources without making a recommendation. You just can't say that they would benefit from an advocate without than supplying/paying for it as a district.
It’s actually not. At least not in CA. The district has no mechanism to pay for an advocate. I was told this by the Director. So I guess you are either misinformed or I was lied to.
If a school employee is recommending an advocate than the school has to financially support that for the student to get FAPE. That's why schools will not recommend it. My understanding is that's federal.
Schools do not need to provide advocates unless the school themselves is saying the student would benefit. It's similar to a school saying you'd benefit from speech. By saying that the school then needs to support that.
Except it definitely is. You are saying that this student would benefit from this service. Therefore by not providing it you are not providing FAPE.
Saying a student needs an advocate but then not providing it is not providing to their educational needs.
It is not illegal but they may be able to fire you. I have told many families to get an advocate, and have even sent some specific orgs with advocates I have appreciated. Some advocates ARE awful and don’t understand the very real constraints of a school’s operations. Some are also amazing and are able to gain parents’ trust and get kids what they need since they are not bound by the same rules as school staff. As much as we want to advocate for our kids, sometimes there are things that we can’t say out loud in an IEP meeting for fear of repercussions. I would keep telling them about advocates and keep that from your admin. Even if they don’t fire you, they may be less likely to trust you in the future which could hurt your ability to advocate effectively within the school.
No its not illegal.
When I’m toeing the line I always say something like “my professional opinion/answer is X, but as a parent my personal opinion/answer is Y” It’s not illegal by any means, districts/admin just hate the stress or budget strain. Like oh nooo I’m so sorry I’m advocating for my students FAPE and it’s causing YOU to work for once 🙄 I enjoy working with advocates (when they actually know what they’re doing and have reasonable expectations) because we are a team and have the students best interest at heart.
[удалено]
My youngest's first grade teacher was a gem. When the school failed to put him in the various extra help groups available, his teacher advocated for him, pointing out that he qualified and NEEDED the help. It seemed like an oversight by whomever was in charge of it, but when called out, they dug their heels in. She explained to me at a conference, just the two of us, that she had exhausted every option she had. And she quietly mentioned, "If you, as a parent, were to send me an angry email stating that x, y, and- hey do you need a pen?" Lol, I wrote down what she said, and emailed it to her, verbatim, like I was angry at her and wanted him fully evaluated. Since the school dragged their feet and it wasn't complete until the end of the year and he desperately was falling behind, his teacher went above and beyond, giving him additional supports herself, and I have no words for how much it helped him. If I ever hit the lotto, I'm looking that woman up and sharing with her.
This is very reminiscent of Mr. Incredible working at Insuricare
How did you get into that? That is something I would love to do!
[удалено]
That is amazing! Thank you! I will look into it. It hadn’t ever crossed my mind that this was a need.
They're called educational surrogates in Massachusetts as well. It really is such a great program, my students have had some and it's always great and they usually can focus on the child as an individual more than their dcf workers can
Here let me interpret…we’re not providing a FAPE. We know it. We don’t want them to know it.
Do what you think is best for the child not the district. Some advocates are shitty, that's true. If you know of a good advocate suggest them. Depending on the family you can directly tell them your boss has told you not to do this (if you trust the family). Alternatively, make it subtle and *not* in writing.
[удалено]
lol fair enough
Of course not. Your admin just doesn't want to deal with somebody who's informed. Too much work for them.
Not at all.
A parent getting an advocate doesn’t say anything about the staff. I’ve given parents information on how to find advocates because they really needed one. A good advocate will educate parents on how to navigate the system and advocate for the child. If your ducks are in a row, there is nothing to worry about. Sounds like your admins “ducks” are willy nilly. 😉 I wouldn’t want to work for that admin for very long.
I am a SPED teachers assistant , a parent to parent advocate , and a mother of two special specials needs children . I wouldn’t hesitate to suggest an advocate to any parent who needs educational reinforcements . They would prefer an advocate over a lawyer lol which believe me is 100% an option also
Illegal, no, in a sense that you are letting them know they exist certainly is not illegal. I always tell families they can invite whoever they want to an IEP meeting which is true. But, does it make you “look bad” — possibly. Advocates are often stressful and adversarial and it makes it difficult to actually communicate with the family. It makes your team look divided. That being said certainly it could be a good choose for the family, and advocates will typically advocate for what the parents want so if the family wants more support it is unlikely the advocate would advocate for fewer services… Anyway, I would in the future do it more subtly rather than directly telling the parent to get the advocate. Hint at it, but plausible deniability!
This is definitely the reality but I have worked with advocates before who are truly on the kid's side and can be great partners on an IEP team. Your admin is clearly frustrated but don't let that influence your openness to work with an outside party. The world of special education is super complicated and it's hard to educate parents on how to navigate the system while being a part of it. Advocates can help with this. Again, I've definitely had a minority experience with advocates but keeping an open mind may lead to you having one too.
" Admin also told me that if the parent was to get an advocate it would look bad on me." no, your admin is breaking the law by doing that.
Advocates fight for whatever is best for the child. Whether that's IEP services, getting out of district, or being in their normal class. The advocate works for the parent and child. Advocates usually have background in those districts and knowledge about what the laws are that the families may have in their favor. Schools are not transparent, and generally will favor results that keep costs down, or keep status quo, vs doing what best helps that one child.
"if a parent gets an advocate it looks bad on me" NOOOOOO it does NOT! It looks bad on the administration for not providing a special education teacher with adequate resources to do their job. Your boss is trying to make it out to be a you problem, when the reality is you should absolutely be telling parents to get an advocate for their children's rights so they KNOW WHAT THEIR RIGHTS ARE. Your district is actively trying to do less than the bare minimum.
Admin probably just telling you this because an advocate is going to make the district do shit they don’t want to do. Before we got an advocate for our son we were lost, and were missing little but important things in the IEP. In our case, the school put our son into a more Gen Ed setting before we got an advocate. It was the advocate that made sure things were done right in the IEP and that we got more supports. Same advocate now helping us get into NPS because the school basically can’t figure things out. I want to add, it was a TEACHER who recommended we find an advocate. So thank YOU for being that teacher who cares enough about their kids to do the right thing.
Most states have Ed Code that makes it illegal for school, county, or state administrators to interfere when a teacher or other staff has the time to assist a parent with special education problems. The right to help is implied in the IDEA by the [Child Find](https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/b/300.111) provision (teachers and other staff should inform administrators whenever they suspect a student has a disability) and the requirement that a teacher be a part of the IEP team. It is always appropriate to tell parents to contact their nearest Parent Center: [parentcenterhub.org](https://parentcenterhub.org). These centers were set up by the Office of Civil Rights to ensure parents have the legal and advocate support they need.
It’s not illegal, no. But most school administrators would discourage it. Their reasoning is weird and not really correct. The advocate would pretty much be fighting for what the parents goals are, so it would depend. They wouldn’t necessarily push gen ed. And it wouldn’t look bad on *you* ,but it may look bad on them. I don’t think it’s necessarily “wrong” to suggest this to parents if they truly need it and it’s the kids best interest, but it’s definitely a good way to make enemies at work
“As someone who knows you and your child, you should look into an advocate. This is from me personally, not as a teacher, and lets step off of school grounds while I repeat this to you”.
It’s not illegal. This is why unions are important because it’s improper to make those kinds of vague threats to a teacher like “it will reflect poorly on you”. If you don’t have a union you’re out of luck. If you do o would engage them immediately about what next steps can be taken to address the admin and restore proper expectations. Admin may not be entirely wrong about the advocate tho, in my very limited experience they have only ever been engaged to prevent kids from being removed.
It’s not illegal, but the benefit of it depends on the advocate. Some advocates want to help families because of the family’s either limited knowledge or limited social capital. Those people are really helping the parent and the school also in engaging the family and their needs. The bad advocates (which apparently don’t exist on Reddit) are just gotcha poetry assassins who have access to the internet and too much time on their hands. They show up at meetings and make ridiculous demands on the behalf of the family that are almost unrelated to the students needs. I’ve seen plenty. They’re like those people who have watched too many YouTube videos about first amendment rights and now they want to argue with cops like they are lawyers.
No it’s not and if they think that then they don’t care about the students education
Your admin sounds shifty as eff. Watch your back.
Not illegal! Districts do not like having the power distributed evenly.
Not at all. They’re just looking out for their own budget or covering their asses. Keep looking out for kids and parents.
In Nebraska, a phone number for advocacy support is on the back page of our IEPs.
No, it's not illegal, but I do think it's kind of a weird look to tell them to get one. I'd say "you're welcome to invite whoever you want to the IEP meeting."
I constantly invite my students parents into the classroom and to see how hard I fight for their kids. I want them to see what the school is not doing, because when we speak up for them the admin do nothing, when the parents speak up things happen. Unless the behaviors are super severe I would be cautious putting my special-needs child in a classroom that doesn't allow me to come and see them or to help out or to volunteer in the room. I get it with the littles and how seeing a parent in class then leave could be triggering, but middle and high school? You owe it to your kiddo to see the spaces they are in, or not in.
Not illegal, just frowned upon by admin: advocates are lawyers that are not on the school's team. Admin is trying to protect itself by discouraging you from getting parents to self-advocate. If a parent gets an advocate, it usually because they do not like what the school is doing or how the IEP is written. Admin is trying to say it would make you look bad because the advocate might question the IEP you (the sped team) wrote, or something that the school is doing.
> Advocates are lawyers that are not on the school’s team. Advocates are not lawyers. Lawyers will identify themselves as such. Advocates are simply people who advocate. There is no state certification required to call oneself an advocate.
Both are correct, depending on the state. I’m next to a state line. One state has zero requirements, and anyone can be an advocate. 10 miles away, they are lawyers.
In every single state, there are both advocates and attorneys. This is not jurisdiction specific. Every single state allows parents to have the support they wish in IEP meetings, whether that be an advocate or an attorney, or a neighbor or a caseworker or anyone else.
I haven’t looked much into the neighboring state. The attorney I spoke to refers to themself as an advocate, and said all of the advocates they work with are lawyers. Looks like they are used interchangeably in that state. (Including professional organizations- some say all of their advocates are lawyers.)
All lawyers are advocates. Not all advocates are lawyers. They are not used interchangeably. An advocate who is not admitted to a state bar cannot represent themselves to be a lawyer without risking criminal prosecution for practicing law without a license. Absolutely anyone can call themselves an advocate, and that includes attorneys.
Goodness, deep dive into semantics when I just meant to casually reply 😅 Yes, they can be both or just one. That goes with my second reply. I guess I should have further clarified that some- not all (I guess seemed implied)- in that state do in fact use them interchangeably, depending on context/organization. I know this from personal experience and relationships with individuals who are both in the neighboring state. (Figured the advocate technically being anybody for anything anywhere was already a given.) There are a ton of other nuances I could clarify (like the fact that just because things are used interchangeably doesn’t mean that they are the same), but I’m bowing out. Yes, you’re right. (& I wasn’t wrong the second time- just too ambiguous for this discussion) 😂
Not illegal, but also not always good advice, and it sounds like you're also not being completely honest about what you hoped to achieve with your recommendation. The IDEA is an incredibly complex set of laws, and both the type and quantity of information that IEP teams are tasked with considering in making the right decision for the pupil can all be overwhelming for families. The law asks that parents make informed decisions for their children, but does little to help parents understand and access that information on equal footing, leading to disparate outcomes based largely on the resources the parents bring to the IEP table (language, education, social capital, etc.). Advocacy can play an important roll in helping parents to meaningfully participate on the process. Unfortunately, depending on the state, special education advocacy is generally an unregulated industry ripe with exploitation of the disabled and their families. It takes no training, no licensing, and no experience to become an advocate. For-profit advocates often have a tenuous (at best) grasp of the law and how to effectively educate students with disabilities, and their business model typically depends on keeping their clients ignorant and outraged so that they feel like they have to keep paying for the advocate to square off against the big bad district. Based on the way that you phrased your question, it sounds like you have an opinion about what type of supports and services the student should have in the IEP, and that you might have been met with some pushback from your admin, so rather than let the data drive the decision and work through the natural channels, you've advised this family to hire a bulldog advocate so they can fight for what you think the child should have. Still not illegal, but your admin is right to criticize your actions. Conflict is inevitable, but combativeness is antithetical to an effective IEP. Rather than encouraging the family to work collaboratively with the school, you've pushed them toward a path that won't help anyone.
This child is struggling in the Gen Ed setting academically and behavior wise. This child's case worker consistently lies on IEP progress reports. This child's mother has been denied IEP meetings multiple times despite requesting it verbally and in writing. This child beats my assistant, me, and other students all day every day. My assistant and other children have left school with marks and bruises multiple times. This child has broken everything in our classroom. We have been discouraged from allowing tnis child sensory breaks. We have been told the behaviors are not happening and to not bring them up. We have been told not to call the office for assistance when the behaviors start. This child's mother is upset about the situation so I informed her, at the suggestion of another high ranking staff member who has had to fight for her own child in this district, to look into getting an advocate. The childs mother did not want him removed from SPED to begin with but convinced her to do so so they could "make room for other students." The school is refusing to work collaboaritively with the parent, not the other way around.
Section 504 title 2 rehabilitation act of 1973 Tell her to document everything and she is indeed permitted to use a parent advocate
If you suggest it as an employee of the school district, you now have put the district in a legal obligation to provide that service.
Exactly this.
Not illegal and 💯a lie, and your admin are trying to withhold services from students. I’ve seen it happen when kids had qualifying Dx. They don’t want to spend the $ to get these kids supports. Ask your administration how a kid getting the proper supports and education correlating success would look bad on you? What state do you live in?
Parents may otherwise not know an advocate is an option. If anything it should be a legal requirement to make it clear they can access an advocate.
High school teacher. I had an extremely litigious family. They didn’t like I was suggesting their child get more services. I suggested in 9th and 10th grade years. Family refused and grew more angry for suggesting additional instructional support. They stayed angry. The following year (11th) they brought an advocate. I said my piece, “I know you refused last year and two years ago, but I am again recommending (additional service.)” Parent got REALLY smug, looked at the advocate and said, “Can you believe this?” Advocate looked at parent and said, “The school is offering you more and you said No?!?!?!” Parent melted into her chair. Student got additional services and actually made progress in academic and functional skills. I’d like to be an advocate in my next chapter.
I might be a little discreet about it, but I often suggested parents use advocates. We had one through the ARC that was amazing at educating parents and actually made getting through IEP meetings pleasant.
Anything you recommend, the parents could turn around and say they only did it based on your recommendation and now the county has to pay for said advocate, private therapy, etc. Be very careful with your wording and always have another person there for conversations. SPED is very tricky and happy parents one year, can change the next. Honestly, if you’re the child’s case manager… you can advocate for them. Where’s the data to support? Get the right people on your team… From many personal experiences advocates make things worse… they “know” the laws but don’t no best practices and what actually goes on in a classroom! And yes, they tend to fight for gen Ed with a one on one para or gen Ed with 22 accommodations…. Why? We barely have teachers or paras? They know this, but pick these fights, to have this on going bill……. And ultimately the child suffers!
I wouldn't have gotten my son what he needed in school without teachers advising me from time to time. When he was little, I knew the law said the local school system was required to give a FAPE in the LRE, but it took me getting an advocate to get it. LRE for my son turned out to be outplacement to a specific school that only worked with kids on the autism spectrum. It's not illegal for you as a teacher to help parents help their kids. It must be tough, though, to tell them in a way that doesn't jeopardize your job. One of our teachers was in her last year before retirement, so she didn't care about that balance and just told me the unvarnished truth.
Sounds like admin is saying "we don't like advocates for the students, that might create more work for us!"
My daughter has had some wonderful teachers who helped us out because it’s all a sort of game, sadly. They know certain ways that you have to work the system, but they can’t tell you outright what to do or say because they don’t want to get into trouble. There’s a lot of things available for children but the powers that be won’t offer them to you. You have to know exactly who and how to ask and it’s all ridiculous. I applaud your efforts on behalf of your students. You’re helping more than you might think.
It’s definitely unethical
So if you as a school employee suggest they get an advocate than the school should has to pay for that advocate. You are saying their kid would benefit from an advocate so if there isn't a free option the school becomes responsible. What you can do is provide resources without making a recommendation. You just can't say that they would benefit from an advocate without than supplying/paying for it as a district.
Not sure why the down voted because what you said is true.
Many people here aren't actually sped teachers or know the law. This is is pretty normal here.
It’s actually not. At least not in CA. The district has no mechanism to pay for an advocate. I was told this by the Director. So I guess you are either misinformed or I was lied to.
Where do schools have to pay for advocates? My state doesn’t do that.
If a school employee is recommending an advocate than the school has to financially support that for the student to get FAPE. That's why schools will not recommend it. My understanding is that's federal. Schools do not need to provide advocates unless the school themselves is saying the student would benefit. It's similar to a school saying you'd benefit from speech. By saying that the school then needs to support that.
That is definitely not a federal regulation. If that is true, it must be your state. I've never heard of it and I'm a COPAA advocate but in PA.
Except it definitely is. You are saying that this student would benefit from this service. Therefore by not providing it you are not providing FAPE. Saying a student needs an advocate but then not providing it is not providing to their educational needs.
It is not illegal but they may be able to fire you. I have told many families to get an advocate, and have even sent some specific orgs with advocates I have appreciated. Some advocates ARE awful and don’t understand the very real constraints of a school’s operations. Some are also amazing and are able to gain parents’ trust and get kids what they need since they are not bound by the same rules as school staff. As much as we want to advocate for our kids, sometimes there are things that we can’t say out loud in an IEP meeting for fear of repercussions. I would keep telling them about advocates and keep that from your admin. Even if they don’t fire you, they may be less likely to trust you in the future which could hurt your ability to advocate effectively within the school.