What does Advocacy look like?
All Advocate Meetings require an in person or video conference Consultation Meeting prior. Advocates are only welcome and effective in schools when they are respectful and well prepared. Consultation Meetings can be as simple as receiving information about the effectiveness of your student’s special services document. We can talk over the phone, email, video conference, or ideally in person. Phone or video conferencing during a school meeting is also possible.
Bringing an Advocate to a School facilitated meeting has a process. The special education case manager or an administrator will have an agenda established prior to the meeting. Being invited officially is important. Advocate support in a school meeting changes per the parents intentions. After our Initial Consultation Meeting we’ll have a good plan. We’ll have questions and suggestions ready for the school team. Before that can occur, we must communicate that we need some time during a particular meeting to address a couple of specific details. This gets our concerns and suggestions onto the meeting agenda. Successful Advocacy has a method behind it.
At our consultation meeting we will review documents together and plan language for an upcoming school meeting. An advocate is meant to be a positive addition to a school team. Contributions must happen purposefully and efficiently, firm but sensitive. My gifts are relational. It is human nature to protect oneself when feeling attacked or criticized, teachers and administrators are no different. Suggestions from an advocate can be misinterpreted or not received well depending on how successfully the meeting goes over. Developing an IEP as a team takes time and careful relationship building for the good of the student.
Please email Clanton@LandformEd.com to discuss your student’s special services or 504 document. Asking your school for a pdf of your student’s IEP, ELP, BSP, FBA, Special Services Evaluation, or 504, is a good way to prepare. Emailing me a copy of that pdf is an efficient means for sharing those confidential documents with me.