School Matters: Getting Help with Individual Education Plans (CA)
November 12, 2010
Parents of children with special needs in Palo Alto are invited to attend a presentation next week to learn more about individual education plans, or IEPs.
The Community Advisory Committee for Special Education sponsored-event will t ake place from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday at the Palo Alto Unified School District’s administrative offices, in the board room,at 25 Churchill Ave.
Joanna Jaeger, chairwoman of the Parents Helping Parents board of directors, will give a presentation and also provide an overview of the San Jose-based organization that helps parents of children with special needs.
"This is an intro and overview of the (IEP) process," said Stacey Ashlund, vice president of education for the Palo Alto Council of PTAs, or PTAC.
"For new parents there’s an obvious reason to go because the process is overwhelming. And if you’re not new to the IEP, you should go anyway because there may be aspects to the process you are not familiar with."
The IEP is a child-centered package of accommodations and services a school district must provide to help a child achieve measurable goals. The goals can be social, behavioral or academic, and the services can include anything from counseling to special reading help to a full-time aide in the classroom.
"Like writing the alphabet when asked eight out of 10 times, or raising a hand in class," Ashlund said.
Students are eligible for IEPs and government services until they are 21 years old.
"I believe there are 1,200 IEPs in the district," Ashlund said.
This year, child care and Spanish translation services will be provided at all presentations by the CAC on special education. The services are made possible through a small grant from the PTAC.Five more meetings are planned: Jan. 10, Feb. 28, Mar. 14, Apr. 25 and May 16.
A network of special education representatives has been organized by Barbara Shufro and Jennifer Wright. They have the goals of educating and supporting parents of special ed children and holding an ability awareness training at every school in the district in the next two years.
"Our plan is to make materials available and instructions available and make it easy for volunteers who want to do it to do it," Shufro said. "We want to facilitate the local efforts that are very much there in the schools anyway."
There are numerous online resources for parents of special needs children. Tina Underwood set up the CAC web site at www.cac-paloalto.org and runs a "warm line" for people who need information athttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/PaloAltoCAC_discuss/ .