Myomancy ADHD, Dyslexia and Autism

Negotiating the Special Education Maze: A Guide for Parents & Teachers

Winifred Anderson

$7.35 via Amazon

Now in its third edition, Negotiating the Special Education Maze is one of the best tools available to parents and teachers for developing an effective education program for their child or student. Every step is explained, from eligibility and evaluation to the Individualized Education Program (IEP) and beyond. This edition covers changes in disability laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It reviews early intervention services for children from birth to age three, and for those who have young adults with special needs, it also covers transitioning out of school. AUTHOR BIO: Winifred G. Anderson, Stephen R. Chitwood, and Deidre Hayden all worked previously at the Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center (PEATC), a training and information center for families and professionals who work with children and youth with disabilities in Alexandria, Virginia. PEATC was founded by Anderson and Chitwood. The authors continue to work in the field of special education and the law.

People who have brought this book wrote:

If you are the parent of a child with special needs, and she is a student n public school, be ready to do some big-time advocating to ensure that she gets the special ed. services she needs. As a special education teacher I am amazed at how little parents know about their rights under the IDEA '97 legislation, and how little they advocate for their child at IEP meetings.

This book is a good start to get you, as the parent-advocate, in the frame of mind you need to be in when "negotiating the special education maze." My brief experience in the field has taught me that the most frustrated parents are those that are the least informed about what their rights are. Like trading stocks on the stock market, operating within the criminal justice system, or living in a foreign culture, the domain of special education has a culture, and rules all its own. If the parent does not know how to "play the game," you will be rolled by school districts that pay a lot of lip-service to providing an "education for all," but in practice are only concerned about the "best and the brightest."

I would also highly recommend doing two things if you are a parent of a special needs child, and you are just about to enter "the maze;"

(1) I would look in your local phone directory for a special ed. advocacy group, or some type of parent group, where you can join with other parents and learn about the special ed. field, and what is available in your area. (2) I would also join the Council for Exceptional Children as they are an excellent source of special ed. info. re: legislation, parent rights, advocacy, etc. I hope that this review helps in inspiring you to become better informed about the "system" so that you can obtain the best for your child. I want to stress again how important it is to (a) become as informed as you can regarding your rights as a parent, and your child's rights to a free and appropriate public education as stipulated by federal legislation such as IDEA '97. One of the frustrations I have had as a special ed. teacher is seeing how much lip-service school districts pay to special needs children, but how little is done for them in actual practice. I call special education "the last bastion of discrimination in the public schools." I want to write a book about this some day and call it "Separate and Unequal." ;) And I also want to stress (b) how important it is to become actively involved in a local parent advocacy group. There is strength in numbers, and there are battle-scarred veterans of the special ed. wars who have had to go at it with recalcitrant school districts hammer-and-tong to get even the bare minimum services for their child. I don't mean to be "negative," but I know what I am talking about.

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