Strategies, Tips, and Language to Support Parent and Educators Through the IEP Process

This chapter provides strategies, tips, and language through the IEP process from the first person perspective of a parent turned parent-advocate. This chapter shares with educators what the experience is like from a parent side of the table and the emotions involved. It also is meant to help build a knowledge base for parents and encouragement from the author's perspective as a parent. Lastly, this chapter shows that there are ways to bring the student's voice into their IEP regardless of their communication ability.

Representation of autism in Vietnamese online news media between 2006 and 2016

Being a parent advocate of the rights of children with autism, I have witnessed how the Vietnamese news media perpetuate misrepresentation, misinformation and disinformation about autism. As the first media study of its kind in Vietnam, this thesis set out to describe, interpret and explain the issue of misrepresentation, misinformation and disinformation about autism in the Vietnamese online news media between 2006 and 2016.

Exploring the Special Education Advocacy Process According to Families and Advocates

Although many parents report needing advocates to receive special education services for their children with disabilities, the advocacy process is largely unexplored especially in relation to school and child outcomes. The purpose of this study was to explore the special education advocacy process by conducting interviews with nine parent–advocate dyads. Findings indicate that advocates and parents agreed on the advocacy process. Participants reported that schools often responded positively to the advocate; however, some schools were confrontational and surprised. Regardless of the school’s response, advocates and parents perceived that advocacy positively influenced child and family outcomes. Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed.

Attached Advocacy and the Rights of the Trans Child

Over the past five years transgender children and their parents have emerged as visible actors in public discussions about the rights of transgender people in Canada. In this article, I track the work of emotions in parent advocacy, showing how the enactment of filial (family) ties sheds new light on the gendered relationship between intimacy and political practice. I argue that an affective shift in parenting has opened up space for some cisgender parents to emerge as political actors in trans advocacy work. The affective politics of parent advocacy nonetheless operates through dominant frames of gendered, classed and racialized normativity, limiting both who can become a parent advocate and potentially narrowing the focus of the struggle.

The Effectiveness of Alternative IEP Dispute Resolution Practices

Alternative Individualized Education Program (IEP) dispute resolution models should respond to limitations of current options. An experimental IEP dispute resolution program provides parents and schools with an evidence-supported neutral perspective on what is needed for free and appropriate education (FAPE) and least restrictive environment (LRE). Then, instead of being facilitated or directed via a hearing, for example, the parties attempt to resolve their own dispute. Ninety percent of consultations led to a signed IEP. Effectiveness, however, also concerns satisfaction and working relationships between the parties. Follow-up surveys with 36% of parent parties (parent, advocate, attorney), and 33% of school parties (administrator, educator, attorney) were analyzed using concurrent triangulation mixed methods design, including a content coding analysis. Results reveal beliefs by a majority that the process was effective, and working relationships were maintained or strengthened. Lessons for future interactions were learned.