Wrightslaw: From Emotions To Advocacy

Success Stories

Welcome to Success Stories, a new section of Fetaweb.com. Learn how parents are using common sense and resources and training from Wrightslaw to resolve problems and get better services for their children. Do you have a success story?

The Numbers Do Not Lie - Charting the Test Scores is a powerful success story from a mother of three children with disabilities. Susan Bruce explains how she stopped playing the victim and did what was necessary to become an effective advocate for her children. Susan is now the Region 3 Regional Education Coordinator for PRO-Parents of South Carolina, Inc.-and a mighty force. Read story

How I Got 140 Hours of Compensatory Education for My Son with Autism. "One evening my wife mentioned that the school released the special ed kids earlier than the regular ed kids. In fact, the school released our son 27 minutes earlier than they released non-disabled students -- every day. What did I do? How? What did I accomplish? What did I do wrong?" Read story

The Cold Hard Numbers and a Successful IEP Meeting. "When we recently moved to a new town, ...the staff were skeptical about our ABA program. I thought I would have to do a lot of persuasive arguing on behalf of ABA at the IEP meeting. I DIDN'T HAVE TO SAY A WORD! The IEP team had reviewed the objective data before the meeting. They gave us everything we needed for Sam..." Read story

How My Son with Down Syndrome Passed High Stakes Tests. "My son Dylan has Down Syndrome. I wanted him to be re-evaluated every few years. The IEP team tried to talk me out of having him take any standardized tests. This year, he took the high-stakes tests . . ." Read story

How I Learned to Get Services by Asking Questions. "When I began to advocate for my daughter, I supported requests with tons of documentation. I was surprised when the "powers that be" would not provide the services and supports. Why was I having this problem? What could I do? Then I realized that
the educators viewed me as a 'Know it All Parent' . . ." Read story

How Parents Can Become More Effective Advocates by Marie Sherrett. "In my work, I find that parents of children with special education needs come in several categories. Which are you?"

How We Got an Appropriate Program and Avoided Due Process. "After struggling with our school district for over a year to provide services to my disabled child without success, I knew I had to educate myself on the law." Read story

Plans are Our Safety Net - Laura and Steve explain how plans help them to stay focused, anticipate problems, prepare for the future - and keep them sane.

Special Education Journey from Emotions to Advocacy by Becky Milton. "Our special education journey began ten years ago at a small rural county in southeastern Georgia. My son had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder at age 5 . . . "

Win-Win Solutions: How I Persuaded the School to Change My Son's Program & Placement. "My 7 year old son has autism. Let me tell you how your advice helped us get the services he needs . . . "

Do You Have a Success Story?

We are collecting stories about successful advocacy from parents and advocates. We will post some of these stories on Fetaweb.com, the new parent advocacy site as time permits.

If you are interested in submitting a success story or strategy, please send an email to: success@wrightslaw.com

In the Subject line of your email, type SUCCESS STORY in all caps. You will receive an autoresponder email with details about our submissions policy.

Please do not send an article until after you read and review our Submissions Policy for Success Stories.