I Florida, we do have people trained as parent advocates, other parents
trained to help parents through the IEP process.  Our county has some great
ones, the next county has no one.  If you are Autistic you can have someone
from CARD sit down during the IEP with you to give you advice.  I've sat on
IEPs with parents ( I used to work for the school system and now work for a
local non-profit).  I usually can't say much at the IEP, but, I can guide
discussion, ask questions, and be there for the parent.
We are lucky here in that we have a clearinghouse with information for
parents, Learning centers for parents, etc.  It often takes awhile to get
into the sytem of finding out what's out there in you community.

Beth t the OT

-----Original Message-----
From: St. John's University Cerebral Palsy List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Anthony Arnold
Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2002 6:49 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Living On Own


To add to what Beth said (and Beth or somebody correct me if I'm wrong
here), there's some place also called "Protection and Advocacy" which offers
free conciliations to anyone with a disability and/or their family members
to learn about rights and basically to friendly look out for them.  I have
worked with mine here before with different issues, and I'm sure if they
were asked to, they would go accompany a parent to their child's IEP.
Speaking of IEP's, that's also one of your parental rights, you can invite
somebody to accompany you to the meeting.  But however I would suggest
taking somebody respectable and not a lawyer.

Thanks,
Anthony