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Are you looking for agencies to provide support?
Good News! You have come to the right place. Below is a list of state, local, and regional agencies that provide support to families new to the Special Education process. To learn more, click on the direct organization to access the link to be directed to the specific agency website.
State, Local, and Regional Agencies

The mission of the Family Care Council Florida (FCCF) is to advocate, educate, and empower individuals with developmental disabilities. FCCF teams with individuals and their families, partnering with the Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD), to bring quality services to individuals for dignity and choice.

The Family Café exists to provide individuals with disabilities and their families with an opportunity for collaboration, advocacy, friendship and empowerment. The family cafe serves as a facilitator of communication, a space for dialogue, and a source of information.

Family Network on Disabilities is a national network of individuals of all ages who may be at-risk, have disabilities, or have special needs and their families, professionals, and concerned citizens. The mission of FND is to strive for the complete integration and equality of persons with disabilities in a society without barriers and to serve families of children with disabilities, ages birth through 26, who have the full range of disabilities described in section 602(3) of IDEA.

This agencies mission is to increase parental awareness on what early childhood well-being means and how to ensure that children are healthy at age one, school ready as well as to provide support groups for families of children with disabilities. The Gadsden/Leon PACT provide training and support to become parent advocates, family mentors and certified peer specialists so that parents can assist other parents in understanding and navigating the system of care.

GAP serves grandparents and other relatives who are raising children by providing support groups, family outings, advocacy, educational programs, legal services, health screenings, information and referral and access to community resources.

This agency supports new parents with an informational packet, telephone contact, and personal visits. In addition to assisting new parents in meeting other parents who live near them, DSAT also host social gatherings throughout the year to provide support and share experiences and information.

The Epilepsy Association connects clients to other service agencies in the community as well as advocates for persons with epilepsy. In addition to educating the community about epilepsy, prevention and seizure first aid, this agency also offers monthly support group meetings for clients and their families in two locations in the Panhandle.

The Federation of Families of Florida provides support to children and families for social, emotional and physical wellbeing. The Federation of Families provides families with connections to resources in the community and parent support group meetings. The Parent Support Group Meetings are held monthly on Mondays from 6:30 - 8pm. The parent support group is a focus group that provides education and support to parents or guardians of children for social, emotional, physical or mental health support.
9.Florida Diagnostic & Learning Resources System (FDLRS)
The FDLRS Associate Centers provide an array of instructional and technical support services to Exceptional Student Education programs statewide. The four central functions of each FDLRS Associate Center are Child Find, Parent Services, Human Resource Development, and Technology. Theses Centers collaborate with districts, agency and support personnel, communities, families, and other educational personnel providing support services for educators, parents, school administrators, and students with exceptionalities.

CARD's purpose is to enhance the lives of individuals we serve by helping them become valued members of their communities. CARD offers free supports within the natural contexts of all settings including homes, child care programs, schools, work, and community businesses and programs.

References


Florida Department of Education. (2010). Parent Information. Retrieved from http://www.fldoe.org/academics/exceptional-student-edu/parent-info/

Florida Diagnostic & Learning Resource System. (2018). Parent Services. Retried from http://www.fdlrsmicco.org/parents.html

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Good News! You have come to the right place. Below is a list of state, local, and regional agencies that provide support to families new to the Special Education process. To learn more, click on the direct organization to access the link to be directed to the specific agency website.

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DES MOINES, Iowa -- Teachers across the United States tell Channel 13 that what's happening in Iowa is also happening in their elementary school classrooms.

"(Children) Screaming. Cursing. I've been stabbed with a pencil."

Ashlee May, a second-grade teacher leaving Des Moines Public Schools for the suburbs next fall, said behavior that used to be considered outrageous is now commonplace. Teachers are forced to take a hands-off approach. Violent outbursts force well-behaved students into the hallway for safety. The practice is widely known as a "room clear."

Iowa State Education Association Executive Director Mary Jane Cobb said, "Every time that we have a room clear, all of the kids suffer."

Now, imagine if you were the parent receiving the phone call informing you that your child's behavior had caused it. Des Moines mother Dawn White said, "(I) get scared before I answer or see who's calling because I'm like, 'Oh, my gosh. What did (my son) do now?'"

When White and her husband adopted Xandir at age three, they couldn't have predicted the special bond he would form with his new big sister. Lillian is 16 now. Xandir is 10. She loves to talk about Xandir's positive attributes. "He is so kind. He is so sweet and funny," said Lillian. "But then something ticks him off and he just explodes and it's crazy to see that's still him. It's a completely different person."

Dawn said, "I feel bad for the other kids (in Xandir's classroom). They have to leave because there's no way to get him out of the room when he's that violent."

The family is responding to comments generated by our last story from people who want to label all bad classroom behavior as a case of "bad parenting." Lillian said that could not be further from the truth. "It's not (Xandir) being a spoiled child. He is autistic. He's schizophrenic. He's got ADHD. He's got all kinds of issues ... drugs and alcohol. While (Xandir's birth mother) was pregnant with him she didn't care at all." Lillian said her parents rescued Xandir with tremendous love and support.

But the cards are stacked against this family. Ask anyone associated with children's mental health in Iowa. "We're getting exactly the outcome that we have designed the system to give us today," said Anne Starr. She is the CEO of Orchard Place, a charity providing mental health services to 10,000 children and teens in Iowa. When Starr sees images of destroyed classrooms, she sees scared kids and parents who are desperate "...to have information and get access to timely (mental health) services. And to have payment for those services. There's a reason why they feel the way they do."

Dawn said, "(At) The beginning of this year, we tried to put Xandir in-patient at the hospital, but there were no beds anywhere in the state. We were wait-listed twice. (Nothing opened up.) So, we never actually got (any form of in-patient service) this year."

Federal law requires students with disabilities, including behavioral disabilities, to be taught in their "least restrictive environment," meaning educated with children who are non-disabled. Parents, teachers, and administrators say most of the time, it works great. But when violence breaks out, general education teachers aren't trained to deal with it. The federal government doesn't spend enough money to put someone qualified in the classroom to assist. Neither do many states. The National Council on Disability, a non-partisan government entity, points out that Congress appropriates less than half of the money promised for disabled children when the program began in 1975.

Starr said, "We know (disabled children are) going to fail." Jon Sheldahl is in charge of Heartland Area Education Agency. It's the place school districts turn to for help managing students with special behavior needs. He acknowledged those students may start each morning in a general education classroom. Explosive behavior may then lead them to a special education classroom. Xandir's mother, Dawn, said, "That's basically how it works."

Teachers nationwide tell Channel 13 that this scenario can play out multiple times per day, in an effort to keep placing a child in his or her least restrictive environment. Sheldahl said, "When things aren't working, you need to be able to reconvene and say this isn't working."

Anne Starr sits on a task force formed in February to address the shortage of children's mental health services in central Iowa. She said the way the system is currently set-up, "You have to fail to get the appropriate level of service." In some cases, a child will become suicidal before receiving treatment. Starr said Orchard place is in the process of creating and staffing a crisis intervention hotline and response team. She said it will cost roughly $1,000,000 to implement. Based on research, they anticipate fielding 2,500 calls annually, including from schools experiencing a crisis.

The White Family is grateful for what they describe as incredible support from a number of public school teachers, including Ashlee May. She taught Xandir in second grade and formed a special bond with the Whites. All of them wish Xandir could get a higher level of professional care. "I'm sorry," said Dawn. "But I don't know what else to do."

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Elementary School Violence: Parents Reach Breaking Point, 'You have to fail to get the appropriate level of service'

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DES MOINES, Iowa -- Teachers across the United States tell Channel 13 that what's happening in Iowa is also happening in their elementary school classrooms. "(Children) Screaming. Cursing. I've been stabbed with a pencil." Ashlee May, a second-grade teacher leaving Des Moines Public Schools for the suburbs next fall, said behavior that used to be considered outrageous is now commonplace.

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One parent was told to bring a teenage nephew to translate her daughter's special education meeting. Another mother struggled to decipher a phone call explaining that her daughter had a seizure and was taken to the hospital. A third parent, who requested an interpreter for a meeting, was asked, "Why don't you learn English?"

A sweeping federal civil rights lawsuit filed this week on behalf of four families says these experiences are common, and the New York City Department of Education routinely withholds translation services to families who don't speak English.

The complaint, filed by Legal Services NYC, describes a "pattern and practice" of failing to provide interpretation, including for communication about special education services, lead contamination in schools, bullying, and even serious medical conditions.

"The DOE repeatedly denied [limited English proficient] parents critical information about their children's health, well-being, and education because of the language they speak," said Amy Leipziger, a Legal Services NYC attorney.

"It really is denying parents the opportunity to get services for their children," she added.

Out of the city's 228,000 students with disabilities, roughly 76,000 speak another language at home, officials said. Their parents are legally entitled to translation so they can fully participate in their child's education, including translations of key special education documents that spell out what services a student needs, how they are progressing, and what their goals are. The meetings where those individualized education programs (known as IEPs) are created must also include translators so parents can participate.

But the burden often falls on parents and schools to make sure translators are on hand, a patchwork system that often leaves parents in the dark. This year, 11,000 parents have requested a translator for an IEP meeting, officials said.

The Legal Services lawsuit describes four parents' experiences in detail, all of whom have children in District 75 - which serves students with the most complicated disabilities, including autism, emotional disorders, and severe medical issues.

In many cases, parents only receive invitations to IEP meetings in English, key documents such as psychologist evaluations are not translated in advance, and the meetings are often conducted without trained interpreters, leaving school personnel to recruit staff members whose language skills or knowledge of special education can be shaky, according to the complaint.

When an IEP is finally created, translations of the documents can take months if they're provided at all, the lawsuit said. Some schools told parents they couldn't provide trained interpreters because they had exhausted their translation budgets, the lawsuit claims.

Education department officials declined to comment on specific families, but pointed to recent efforts to improve and expand services, including a pilot program designed to beef up translations of special education learning plans and a program that provides salary increases for bilingual special education teachers in some neighborhoods.

"We know there is more work to do and we will continue to expand our programs to meet the needs of our multilingual students with disabilities," education department spokeswoman Danielle Filson said in a statement

Hui Qin Liu, whose eight-year-old daughter has autism and is part of the lawsuit, said that without good translation services, the process of advocating for her daughter has become an exhausting ordeal.

Liu - who lives in Flushing and speaks Mandarin - has struggled to understand why her requests for feeding therapy went unheeded at her Queens school and physical therapy services were reduced, and even why her daughter has come home with bruises and bite marks. Since her daughter is nonverbal, communicating with school officials is one of the only ways Liu can understand her daughter's experience there. And even when translators are provided, the quality can vary widely. "The [education department provided] interpreter over the phone is not familiar with the school system," she said through an interpreter. "I'm feeling so bad - hopeless."

Marcela Hernandez has also struggled to communicate with school officials, routinely receiving communications from her daughter's school in English, even though she filled out paperwork that says she primarily speaks Spanish.

Information about flu shots and half-days came in English. So did the notice informing Hernandez about the meeting to discuss her daughter's special education services, which wasn't delivered until after the meeting was set to begin, according to the lawsuit. The school held the meeting without her.

Eventually, with help from an advocate, school officials agreed to conduct a new meeting (though the translated notice included the wrong date). When the IEP meeting finally happened, the school asked a paraprofessional staff member who is fluent in Italian - not Spanish - to translate. The staff member mostly translated Hernandez's comments, leaving her out of the loop on what others were saying. Finally, school staff attempted to "expedite" the meeting to the paraprofessional "could return to her job duties," according to the lawsuit.

After that meeting, it took six months for Hernandez to receive a partially translated copy of her daughter's IEP. The section listing her daughter's goals remained in English.

"Because I speak Spanish, I don't get the help I need to help my daughter," Hernandez told Chalkbeat through an an interpreter. "They think that because I only speak Spanish I don't understand the laws and the rights my daughter has."

The education department has previously come under fire for failing to provide interpretation services to parents who don't speak English, prompting a civil rights complaint in 2012. That case is still open and U.S. education department officials have not offered a timeline for completing it.

This week's lawsuit calls on the education department to provide universal and free interpretation services, including special education documents; expand training for school staff on parent rights; create a system for tracking complaints when services aren't provided; and award unspecified monetary damages.

City education department officials launched a pilot program this school year to centrally translate special education learning plans in some cases, relieving individual schools of the responsibility. So far, that program includes just three districts (including District 75); advocates have said the pilot doesn't go far enough to require translations of all documents in all cases.

Paola Jordan, who co-directs Sinergia, an organization that helps Spanish-speaking families navigate special education services, said she believes the education department is taking steps in the right direction, but worries whether changes are trickling down to schools.

"It's a really comprehensive problem," she said, "and I hope with this lawsuit it brings attention and accountability."

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Lawsuit blasts NYC translation services for special education families

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One parent was told to bring a teenage nephew to translate her daughter's special education meeting. Another mother struggled to decipher a phone call explaining that her daughter had a seizure and was taken to the hospital. A third parent, who requested an interpreter for a meeting, was asked, "Why don't you learn English?"

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Xandir White and Least Restrictive Enviroment

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Xandir White and Least Restrictive Enviroment