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Experience the difference |
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Unity, Knowledge & Empowerment |
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School Dazes
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The Educational Rights Of The Disabled page 2 (continued from inclusion) There are several places that you can apply for advocacy help. The best is your local chapter of United Cerebral Palsy. The help they will give you is free of charge. They will be happy to go to bat for you and deal with all the hassles or simply attend all meeting with you and act as a mediator. They also have listings of all updated laws and regulations concerning accessibility, assistance, accommodations, testing, transferring, etc. These laws and regulations will be accessible to you and UCP will help you to see that they are enforced. Hopefully you will not require the aide of an advocate, but if you do , please don't hesitate to obtain one. If you believe that you are able to understand all the laws and are willing to do alot of leg work, then you can act for yourself on your child's behalf. First check around for suitable placement. By placement I mean a program or classroom setting that is right for your child. Visit you local schools and ask for tours of their facilities. See if you can observe a class that you feel might benefit your child. Take the time to talk to the teachers, nurse staff, aides, hall monitors, principal, or anyone else who will have contact with your child. Once you have located a workable program go back and view the building and grounds. Check to make sure that any equipment that your child will need on a daily basis, i.e.; wheelchair, crutches, walker will work in those surroundings. For example; is there a ramp for entering the building, are the bathroom doors wide enough, is there a handicapped stall, are the halls wide enough and is the layout of the class suitable. Some of the other things you will need to check on are, the faucets in the bathrooms, are they the turn kind or are they the push down kind, is the water on an automatic shut off system, are there guard rails in the stall that your child is to use, is there some kind of grip surface on the tile floors. Try to view the entire building with an eye for your child's accessibility. There will be needs in the class room as well. Does your child need communication devices, reading devices or writing assistance? Will your child need a full time aide or only one for certain subjects and activities? Will your child require P.T., O.T. or S.T. during their school years? All of these things are the responsibility of the school district, but you must know what your child's needs are in order to request them. Make sure that all of your child's needs are mentioned specifically in your child's IEP. Don't leave anything to chance or to be taken care of simply by word of mouth. Remember you are your child's voice. You must be willing to speak up and see to it that the right arrangements are made for your child. Remember that there are some districts that will be happy to work with you and your child but there are others that will fight you tooth and nail. Don't let them tell you that they can't accommodate your child's needs or that they can't provide the services or equipment you have requested. The US government says they can and must provide for your child anything that is needed in order to participate in the least restrictive environment possible. Once you have found suitable placement and have gotten your child installed into the program or classroom you deem appropriate, don't take for granted that everything is being done right. Show up periodically and check to see that things are being done the way you and your child's IEP have specified. If they are not find out why. Take the appropriate steps to see that these things are corrected. Don't let anyone tell you that they alone know what is best for your child. For many parents the battle has just begun, for others the battle is still years away and for even more the battle will never begin. These last are either the lucky ones, with districts that are more than willing to co-operate, or those who will sit back and allow others to make all the decisions concerning their child's education. Please do not be a parent who sits back. Discrimination is alive and flourishing in the world of the disabled. If we do not speak out and correct this injustice ........... who will??
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The Cerebral Palsy Network©1997/2014. All graphics are the exclusive property of CPN, unless otherwise indicated. Contact Cerebral Palsy Network for further information. Last updated 05/04/14 |
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