Search Results for: blog the meeting of the parents

Court Rules School Must Reimburse Parents for Tuition

This is a unique case! A court has ruled that a public school district must reimburse parents whose child is now in a residential facility. The facility is not located in the same state as the school district. The court ruled that the school is still required to pay for the cost of enrollment. Public schools are required to properly provide for students who have special needs. This is a federal law. If the school is unable, or unwilling, to do so, the parent has the option to remove her child from the public school and place the child into … Continue reading →

Oklahoma Rules Public School Districts Can’t Sue Parents

There has been an ongoing battle of the Lindsey Nichole Henry Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Act in Oklahoma. One court ruled the vouchers were unconstitutional. Some school districts were suing parents who used the vouchers. The Supreme Court of Oklahoma ruled that the school districts can’t do that. The Lindsey Nichole Henry Scholarships for Students for Disabilities Act was signed into law around two years ago. The funding for the scholarships came from the funds that were set aside for public schools to run their Special Education programs. The vouchers allowed parents to move their child from a school … Continue reading →

Parents Concerned About Clustering At Bus Stops

Often, students who are in a Special Education program ride busses that will pick them up, and drop them off, at their door. Parents in California are concerned about a school district’s decision to begin “clustering” Special Education students at bus stops. Is this really what is best for the students? There are some very good reasons for the typical system that provides bussing to students who are in Special Education programs. Having a smaller bus, with less students on it, can make things less stressful for students who have an autism spectrum disorder, or who have sensory or social … Continue reading →

Find a Support Group for Parents of Kids with Special Needs

Every parent could use some support from time to time. There will be plenty of good days when life seems easy. There will also be some incredibly stressful bad days to deal with. Parents of kids who have special needs can benefit from attending a good support group. Start by seeing if a group mentioned in this blog can help you. In San Jose, California, there is a support hotline for parents of kids who have special needs. This is an excellent resource for parents who have reached their breaking point and cannot leave the house to attend a support … Continue reading →

Parents Share Stories of Choosing Schools for Their Kids

How do you go about figuring out what the best school for your child is? It is a decision that many parents can struggle with. Parents of kids who have special needs have additional criteria to use when choosing a school for their child. NPR released an episode of “Tell Me More” on August 21, 2012. The episode is titled “Choosing The Right School for Special Needs”. In this episode, Guest host Viviana Hurtado talks with three moms, each of whom have children with special needs. They talk about the challenges they faced while helping their kids do well in … Continue reading →

Single Parents in the Online Dating Scene

For many single parents it seems as if online dating is the only way to meet someone in our current situation. Most single mothers have a very limited amount of time to meet people. If you’re lucky you get every other weekend to yourself, and most of us spend that time doing all the things that we couldn’t do when our children were there during the week. It’s about the only time we can clean something and have it stay clean for more than five minutes so we take advantage of it. Because of our limited amount of time, online … Continue reading →

The Meeting of the Parents

A friend of ours just got engaged to his girlfriend. We both like her a lot so we’re really happy for them. This past weekend was a big deal for them: the meeting of the families. Both their sets of parents came down to the area for their first official meeting (or possibly their first meeting period; our friends have only been dating for about a year and their families don’t live in the area). “Did you get a chance to ask Rich how it went yet?” I asked Jon. “Nope,” Jon replied with a bit of a grimace. We … Continue reading →

Meeting Baby For The First Time

If you are pregnant with your first child, you may be wondering what it’s like to meet your new baby for the first time at the hospital. Of course, since every child and every birth is different, there is no “standard procedure” by which new parents get acquainted with their newborns. The births of my two sons were different, so I met each of them in a slightly different way. Dylan was born at around seven in the evening. He was born in a local hospital, and my labor had been induced because of preeclampsia. The delivery was fairly uneventful, … Continue reading →

Support Group for Parents of Kids with Special Needs

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All parents can benefit from having access to some help. There are support groups that are designed specifically to help out parents of kids who have special needs. Here is a list of where many of these support groups can be found. For further information, click on the links. You can also try looking in the newspaper for support groups that are located near where you live. You can divide the types of support groups that are for parents of children who have special needs into two categories. There are support groups that are held online, and there are support … Continue reading →

What Keeps Parents Out of the IEP Process?

IEP stands for “Individualized Education Plan”. It is designed to clearly describe the goals that a child who has special needs will be helped to achieve in a given school year. That team is supposed to include the child’s parents and teachers. However, there are certain things that keep parents out of the decision making process. Most schools do not intentionally make an effort to keep parents out of an IEP meeting. The majority of parents do their best to make sure that they are involved in the decisions that are made regarding the education of their children. Despite this, … Continue reading →