A key component of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living. However, what happens when caregivers and parents do not even know the first step to get the needed resources for their students? Tune in to today's episode to hear Drs. Lisa Dieker and Rebecca Hines share some practical tips and suggestions.
Don't forget we love to hear from our listeners! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. We look forward to receiving your questions on our Google Phone (407) 900- 9305, Facebook (Practical Access), Twitter (@AccessPractical), or Instagram (@Practical_Access).
A key component of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living. However, what happens when caregivers and parents do not even know the first step to get the needed resources for their students? Tune in to today's episode to hear Drs. Lisa Dieker and Rebecca Hines share some practical tips and suggestions.
Don't forget we love to hear from our listeners! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. We look forward to receiving your questions on our Google Phone (407) 900- 9305, Facebook (Practical Access), Twitter (@AccessPractical), or Instagram (@Practical_Access).
Lisa Dieker: [00:00:11] Welcome to practical access, I'm Lisa Decker. [00:00:13][1.8]
Rebecca Hines: [00:00:14] And I'm Rebecca Hines, and today I cannot wait to hear how my friend Lisa answers this question because it's actually a question that I've had for about. [00:00:24][10.1]
Lisa Dieker: [00:00:24] 18 years. Well, I don't have the answer. That's what practical access is about. It's about lots of suggestions on possible solutions. And I think this answer does vary state by state, child by child and family by family. But the question that was asked by a get a new teacher getting lots of great new teacher questions and we appreciate you letting us know your novices in the field and need some support is how do we help families secure needed services and that might be in the school or in the community? And so I'm going to start with, I think the biggest thing to think about early on in your career is what is available. Again, as you know, Becky and I know all states are not created equal, and I'm going to give a clear example. I'm pretty certain Michigan still offers transition services till you're twenty five. I'm not going to say what other states, but many other states don't even offer good ones until you're 21. And so I think you have to think about, is this a preschooler? Is this a elementary student, middle school student or high school? The caller didn't say which one. Or is it transition? Because I think those service toolkits are very different. And the first thing I would do is go to the veteran in the building and say, All right, if there is one, what have you been offering and what did you know is in the community? What's in the library? What's the after school tutoring program? What's appropriate for this kid? Where's our services, OTT service? Oh, kids, don't get those in our district. OK, how do I figure that out? And I so that's my first go to is how do you help kids? I don't think you help if you don't really think about where they're at in your grade level and what specific things kids might need, because I think often we say, Oh, here's the IEP, and here's the resources in the district. But oftentimes it's really beyond the district that families need support with. [00:02:14][109.9]
Rebecca Hines: [00:02:15] Your thoughts, Becky? Well. Lisa, as you know, I have such specific. Feelings on this topic, because, as you know, again, a family member of a child with significant disabilities. I'm not a novice teacher, and my greatest frustration has been for the last 18 years. Having to navigate systems to get support for someone who cannot sit up. You can't walk, you can't talk. He's in a diaper and I still can't get services for this child. And it is probably. One of my. Greatest. Restoration. So. [00:03:00][44.8]
Lisa Dieker: [00:03:04] I'm going to take it from there, and I I have no words except empathy, because I know you're not the only family member out there [00:03:15][10.9]
Rebecca Hines: [00:03:15] and an empathy is a good place to start. Yeah. So the kind of things even in schools that have happened. My experience. You try to get a walker so that you can try to get this young man out of a wheelchair. And nobody seems to be able to figure out whose job that is. So. One thing I would ask is that teachers. When they recognize a need. It can't be tabled. It can't be tabled. My nephew. Wheelchairs. It's like, OK, but yeah, we'll get that in three months. Oh, OK. And what do you want him to do until then? So it's really hard for it's hard for families, as my brother said about his son. When he was little, he said, Becky, I can quit my job and be a full time person who tries to round up services for my people, or I can keep making money to try to buy them myself. So, so when it comes to supports and services, it has to be the thing that someone wakes up and thinks about every morning besides just the family. So I would say the first thing teachers could do. And this is whether you're special. Or General? Look at the AP, look at every single support and service day one. And make it a scavenger hunt and don't stop. Until you have a plan for everything on that list, because honestly, Lisa. Very, very few people do that. [00:04:53][98.0]
Lisa Dieker: [00:04:54] Yeah, and I don't disagree with you and I think I'm going to flip it and not to minimize, but I think the same is true when it's a hidden disability. Absolutely. You know, I think when we see something and it's a simple solution, we find a way to support that family. When the solution gets hard, it often is easy to see the buck be passed. Well, it's the kid's problem. It's the parents' problem. And I think it's the partnership. And I know that's what you've done well with the schools when you have had the opportunity, it's the partnership between the school, the families and the community services. And you well know that both of us have hit our head against the wall, not just with our own family members, but just with change of policy at the school, the district, the nation's level. And I think that's where you have to often say as a new teacher, do I need to call my Legislature person and know who is my congressperson and an advocate for that? Are there laws that need to be changed? And again, I'm not asking you to do one more thing as a new teacher, but when you realize there's no other pathway that may be a pathway befriending someone else who has power that has a disability, veteran teachers who say, Oh, I know that there's not anybody does, but this church down the road will give you X, Y and Z for that child until we can get it in the district. And I do think that that's the best we can do, but it's never going to be enough. The last place I would really encourage you to advocate for is health care changes and to think about funding for special ED. I mean, special. It has never been funded to the level, so it becomes this war of families once teachers see the need. And yet everybody says no because of this, this financial piece. So not to be little that that these are real and they're huge and they're ridiculous that we can't solve them. But be careful, protect yourself, but also be an advocate. I just think the word advocate can't come early enough in your career. And and I think that's what families are doing. So when they call you, they're not there to you. If they bring it lawyer, they're not there to take you out. They're there to say, my voice wasn't loud enough, so I need a second voice. When that person comes, people are going to say, Oh, document, you know, Becky's been at meetings with me as an advocate. I didn't bring her because I wasn't capable. But as you heard from Becky, so it becomes emotional. And when it becomes emotional, the advocate is there to say, let me make sure their voices clear. With compassion. But I'm asking for specific things. How can I help you with that? And I think it's a specificity that often gets forgotten. [00:07:35][160.5]
Rebecca Hines: [00:07:35] Yeah. And I that's that's actually what I was going to mention because. At the end of the day. Sure, we all can hop on and Google something and say, Oh, this child needs this and hey, parents, if you just go to this one website, that's going to solve all your problems. Our best services, and again, I'm just speaking from a family member standpoint, the greatest help we've received has been from. Organizations that are either private nonprofits. And if wheelchairs for kids, for example, here in Florida. That's how I got a wheelchair for my nephew was going through an outside agency because even the things that he would use at school, he didn't necessarily have access to at home. So I mentioned a walker well short of buying gold, he might have one in the classroom. I know that teachers and again, you said it varies state to state in various classroom with classroom school, the school. But I know, you know, that equipment is out there. It's just getting it to the kids and then even when they have it at school, they don't have it at home to continue to practice with whether it's a communication device, whether it is training to use a communication device, if they don't have it outside of school, then there's a lot of learning loss within the time they're not there. So coordinating agencies, if there's anyone at your school, if they haven't done it, make make a list. Think about it in terms of individual kids or at least individual types of disabilities and be very specific to what is reasonably and easily available in your own community outside of the school system because parents are desperate. I can't stress that part. Parents are desperate for support we have in Florida the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities. They are a great resource for families of kids with ASD. Again, I mentioned, you know, with wheelchairs for kids. So of course we have Down Syndrome Foundation or we have. You know, you have Central Florida. All of these agencies can help, but even. More specifically, if we could give parents, OK, here's a list, here's a list that list can get you started. It's not enough to just send them to a single web site. [00:10:05][149.6]
Lisa Dieker: [00:10:06] Yeah, and I'm going to end with don't be afraid of connecting parents. You know, I will tell you that when my son was diagnosed with Tourette's, I didn't learn anything from anybody around me, not because they weren't brilliant. And I have a Ph.D. in Special Ed. Nobody trained me in what Tourette's matters, but what I learned from was calling mom after mom, after mom. Like, Where do you go? Oh, join the Trent syndrome associate. Great. Oh, make your son an ambassador so you learn to advocate for his needs. Oh, here's the dyslexia association and they can provide this. And you know, you would think as a professor in Special ED First Year Teacher, I should have all of that. I did it. So don't feel guilty about what you don't know. But do you know your greatest resource would be parents who came before that child? They'll know what Becky just said. All those great resources in the community, in your community who are the go to families and sometimes you feel like, you know, don't have a group of parents together that is actually your most powerful thing to do because they'll share with you what they can need and what they don't have and how you might put that all together. So we really commend you for bringing up this question. We know it's a hard one. We know the world is still not well endowed for getting services in schools and classrooms quickly. You know, it can take one to three to five years and then you're like, Well, now that's not even a needed service anymore, but your job is to help advocate, to listen and to bring that connection, whether be another parent or a community resource. And so we thank you for bringing us that question. And if you have questions, please feel free to put them on our Facebook page, or you can send us a tweet at Access Practical. [00:10:06][0.0]
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