In Ohio, we were so new to the process, we felt we couldn’t represent our son who is dyslexic and dysgraphic the way that he needed to be represented because of our lack of education in special education law. It takes a while to grasp enough information to at least think you know what you’re doing. We knew we needed an advocate when during the very first meeting we had after writing the principal about our concerns, the school psychologist told me that dyslexia was a medical issue, not an educational issue. After the meeting, I called our family doctor and she told me that dyslexia wasn’t a medical issue, it was an educational issue. WHAT THE WHAT!? What do you do with that kind of information? Talk about getting the run around! However, my doctor then went on to share that there was dyslexia in her family, and while she’s a doctor, her dyslexic relatives can build and make beautiful things with their hands and can fix anything mechanical like cars with ease. She said if her car breaks down, she has no idea what to do, but one of her dyslexic relatives could repair it with no problem, so, she said, who really has the disability? I appreciated her taking the time to share her story but still had no idea what to do next, so back to school we went. Luckily, we found The Ability Center and they had free educational advocates who would attend meetings with us.
In West Virginia, we knew a little bit more about the special education system and IEP Meetings, but we were still learning and we couldn’t find an organization likeThe Ability Center in Ohio that offered free educational advocates, so we were on our own. I remember being told during one eligibility meeting that dyslexia wasn’t recognized as a learning disability in West Virginia, but I kept calling it dyslexia and was corrected every time. By the way, I did learn that dyslexia is under the Specific Learning Disability Category, highlighted that section, showed it to the same team member that didn’t allow me to say dyslexia in the previous meeting and that ended that issue. We had some of our best and most ugly meetings in this state and usually the ugly meetings were due to just a few team members and their ego's. Egos tank an IEP Meeting pretty quick and the meeting is pretty much doomed before everyone is even through the door if they are brought into the room.
When we moved to North Carolina we came across North Carolina’s Exceptional Children’s Assistance Center (North Carolina’s Parent Training and Information Center) and found out they had a program called, “IEP Partners.” IEP Partnersare volunteers who are trained by ECAC Parent Educators to help other parents prepare for IEP meetings and provide support during IEP meetings when possible. The trainings are held via live webinar so there are IEP Partners throughout NC. While My husband and I don’t view an IEP Meeting as sport, we do understand what if feels like to be overwhelmed and lost in a bunch of jargon that you don’t understand. We sure wish we had access to an IEP Partner when we were first learning about IEP Meetings and special education law. We decided to train as IEP Partners in the Summer of 2014 and are very glad that we made the commitment because it's a great feeling knowing that the parent you are sitting beside has the support that we didn't.