Internal and external stress at a peak. Nails bitten. Everyone freaking out. Noise level at an all time high. Yep, it’s the week before school starts. Julian starts tomorrow. Oliver on Wednesday. Can I just say that the kids are in truly bad form this past week. I always try and focus on the good and work through the negative but these past few days that has been a true challenge!

I went to a fantastic seminar this past weekend sponsored by FEAT. A very respected lawyer in the Seattle Special Education community, Howard C. Powers, spoke on the whole IEP process and making the system work for you and your child. It was fascinating! I learned so much not only from the information presented, but also from the very well versed audience. Many parents who have a better hold of this system than I, and also an extremely informative staff of FEAT of whom asked some truly poignant questions. It was a very timely lecture to attend as we jump into the Seattle School District full bore this week. We are placing a great deal of our faith in the system to care the best for our child and his education. Although we have yet to encounter anything remotely similar to what some of these parents have had to endure, it was definitely good information to have in store for the years to come. It really opened my eyes to the process of IEPs and Special Education.

One piece of the IEP that I didn’t know existed was the ‘parental concerns regarding their child’s education’. Yes, you can submit a statement of YOUR concerns of your child’s education. There are so many critical pieces to the IEP. For the process to be successful, every part needs to be in place. The many different types of evaluations, the people involved, the absolute necessity to have everything in writing pertaining to your child’s education, the wording, the need for knowledge of what is available for your child, the need for knowledge of all of the parameters of your child’s disability, when to sign what and when not to sign anything. You could get lost in all of it, but ever so coincidently, I ran into a friend the day after this conference who is a Special Education Consultant and after telling her of the amazing information I took in at this conference, she told me how far kindness will take you in this process. Indeed! Granted, if I had to endure some of the situations that some of these parents have had to endure, I would be less than inviting in my tone. I know that a great portion of the calls that my friend receives are from parents who are mad and want to hold someone accountable for the disservice that they have received. Ugg…I get that, too. First and foremost, we should assume that everyone wants the best for our children and their education. I believe that. There is so much that is just plain subjective when measuring and evaluating the social skills of a child. I don’t want to enter this realm skeptical. We have no reason to be skeptical and have received amazingly appropriate services thus far. Cross your fingers that it remains the case for us!