7 Ways to Immediately Identify a Strong Special Education Advocate

A Comprehensive Guide for Parents: How to Spot a Great Advocate When Navigating the IEP Process

Navigating the world of special education can be challenging for parents and guardians, especially when it comes to advocating for their child's needs. A strong special education advocate can play a critical role in ensuring that your child receives the support and resources they need.

Let’s explore:

• 7 Key Qualities and Characteristics to look for when identifying a capable advocate, empowering you to make informed choices.

• Tips on what to ask an advocate to discover their strengths and motivations.

BUT WAIT! Isn’t the whole point of SPED Code to help parents become advocates for their children? Why are you telling us how to find a strong advocate?

Great question. Two key reasons:

1. Some situations are complex and you may benefit from seeking out an advocate. Either your child has unique needs, you are managing a complicated IEP, and you need a sounding board who has done this before, or your relationship with the school team is so strained that a third party can act as a mediator.

2. This framework is an actionable guide for you in developing your parent self-advocacy skills. Everything that makes someone a strong SPED advocate that you would hire is exactly what you want to embody as an advocate for your own child.

If you are a parent just starting on the IEP journey, or you feel lost in all the acronyms and jargon, here are this week’s resources you need to get unstuck:

Weekly Resource List:

• 10 Compelling Reasons Every Parent Should Understand Education Code Before Their Next IEP Meeting - Last week’s newsletter

• Effective Communication Strategies - Templates and scripts for working with school teams. Copy, paste, edit any of these templates to streamline your communication with your child’s school team.

Use the EMPOWER Framework

As parents navigate the special education system, having the right advocate—or becoming the right advocate—can make all the difference. Use the E.M.P.O.W.E.R. framework to assess if an advocate can effectively support your journey.

1. Ethical and Professional Conduct

A strong advocate maintains high professional standards and clear ethical boundaries in all interactions. Here's what to look for:

• Professionalism: They maintain a professional demeanor in IEP meetings. Advocates that yell at and insult team members during meetings are not supporting you in your ultimate goal to arrive at a consensus and build a positive collaborative relationships with your child’s providers.

• Transparent Communication: They're clear about their role, fees, and what they can/cannot do. If they are a parent of a child with special needs, they are honest about what training in SPED law and advocacy they have beyond their experience advocating for their own child.

Pro Tip: Ask potential advocates about their code of ethics and how they handle situations where they disagree with school personnel.

2. Mentoring Ability

The best advocates don't just solve problems—they teach parents how to become effective advocates themselves. Here's what to look for:

• Knowledge Transfer: They explain their reasoning and strategy behind each recommendation. They can clearly articulate a short- and long-term advocacy plan with an ultimate goal of consensus and collaboration with the school team.

• Parent Training: They provide resources and tools to help you advocate independently. You should be learning through the process—if you’re not, your advocate’s main focus is on your money, not your success.

Pro Tip: During initial conversations, notice if they take time to explain concepts or just tell you what to do.

3. Persistence in Problem-Solving

Effective advocacy often requires sustained effort and creative approaches. Here's what to look for:

• Follow-Through: They persist until appropriate solutions are implemented. They follow up after meetings to check on action items. The critical part of the IEP process is not the meetings—it’s everything in between when the IEP is being implemented.

• Strategic Thinking: They develop multiple approaches to address challenges. The beauty of an IEP is that it is individualized and it needs to adapt as the student grows and progresses. A one-size-fits-all perspective is counterproductive—an advocate should be a thought partner in coming up with creative solutions.

Pro Tip: Ask for examples of how they've handled complex cases and what strategies and solutions they have helped clients come up with.

4. Objective Analysis

A good advocate maintains professional objectivity while advocating for your child. Here's what to look for:

• Data-Driven Decisions: They base recommendations on facts and evidence. Any advocate who defaults to, “You know your child best,” is using emotion to mask a lack of knowledge, experience, or ideas. Would you make a decision about what carseat is safest based on a gut feeling over safety reports and reviews?

• Balanced Perspective: They consider all viewpoints while maintaining focus on student needs. They don’t let ego get in the way—to be a strong advocate, they don’t have to be correct every single time. If they discount every idea the school team has, what they’re really doing is breaking down your trust in order to continue profiting off of your “need” for their advocacy.

Pro Tip: During your consultation, notice if they ask detailed questions about both what is working and what is not working.

5. Well-Informed About Rights

Deep knowledge of student rights and current special education law is essential. Here's what to look for:

• Current Knowledge: They stay updated on legal developments and case law. They attend conferences and complete trainings on a regular basis instead of relying on what has worked for them in the past.

• Practical Application: They can translate legal rights into actionable steps. They can summarize landmark cases and discuss how and why particular case law is relevant to your child’s situation.

Pro Tip: Ask about recent special education law changes and how they might affect your child's situation.

6. Empathy for Families

The best advocates combine professional expertise with genuine understanding. Here's what to look for:

• Active Listening: They take time to understand your family's unique situation. If they don’t ask about your child’s background and history of interventions, they are going to apply a generic solution rather than one individualized to your child’s needs.

• Emotional Intelligence: They recognize and respect the emotional aspects of advocacy. They focus on building relationships and improving outcomes, rather than dollar signs and “winning.”

Pro Tip: Pay attention to how they respond when you share your concerns and frustrations.

7. Resourceful Solutions

Effective advocates have a toolkit of strategies and resources to support families. Here's what to look for:

• Creative Problem-Solving: They find innovative solutions to complex challenges. They can distinguish between concerns that should be addressed at school and concerns that you should address at home. They aren’t afraid to push you to be consistent with strategies at home.

• Network of Resources: They can connect you with additional support services when needed. They understand that the school’s job is to address concerns that impact a child’s ability to access education at school. When there is an area of need outside that scope, they know where to refer you for outside services.

Pro Tip: Ask about their approach to solving common special education challenges and what resources they typically recommend to families.

*Bonus Criteria*

As a public school district administrator who has helped families (in my former districts—don’t worry, not a conflict of interest) advocate for their students’ needs, I have two other very specific personal criteria I use in evaluating the strength of an advocate:

1. Fade Plan: They have a time frame for graduating clients. In special education, we typically build in a fade plan for any support that addresses or impacts independence. An advocate should have the same perspective on their services.

   Remember, advocacy is a business first. It is easier to fracture ties between parents and the school team in order to retain a client forever than it is to constantly market and acquire new clients. But is that the ethical thing to do?

2. Likes the Child: They get to know your child. This is more of a personal pet peeve—as an administrator, I go into our classrooms and I get to know the students. Just the other day, I walked into a special day class and a student waved at me and said, “Hi Megan, I have cheese puffs,” and showed me the package of cheese puffs she was eating. (Yes, they call me by my first name.)

   I love the students and that’s why I work in education. When I meet an advocate who has never met the child and knows nothing about the child’s interests, immediate red flags go off. How can they say with any certainty what will work for that family if they don’t know the child?

Remember, a strong advocate should demonstrate all these qualities while maintaining focus on your child's unique strengths and needs. Take time to interview several advocates, follow this framework, and trust your instincts about who will best support your family's journey.

Here's what you learned today:

• The most effective advocates foster positive relationships with IEP school team members

• The right advocate will not only support you in navigating the complexities of special education but will also empower you as a parent in advocating for your child

• By focusing on these seven actionable qualities from the EMPOWER framework, you can make a well-informed choice

Remember: The goal isn't to "win" against the school—it's to secure appropriate services while building productive partnerships that benefit your child.

Take Action: Download our "EMPOWER Framework for Advocacy" graphic to evaluate potential advocates using these criteria. This practical tool summarizes what we discussed today and helps you make informed decisions about your advocacy support.

Keep an eye out for a BONUS email on Friday about 7 RED FLAGS to watch out for when choosing an advocate.

All the best,

Megan

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