1.  What is a Special Educational Needs Consultant (SENC) or Educational Strategist & Consultant?

Counsels students and their families on educational strategies and provisions for an appropriate IEP or 504 plan and/or Transition plan based on the student’s unique needs, individual learning and work styles, strengths, abilities, talents, and potential.  An Educational Consultant & Strategist or SENC has a strong legal research background as well as training and professional development in advocacy, mediation, conflict resolution, assistive technology, IDEA, Section 504, K-12 CAMS, ADA, and socialization skills.  The Educational Strategist & Consultant or SENC focuses on both the parents and the student through interest-based technical assistance, collaboration, consultations to help you prepare for your next school meeting, professional advocacy skills, individual needs assessment protocol, K-12 CAMS assessment, socialization sessions, and assistive technology consultations.

 

 

2.  Should I choose a non-attorney advocate, attorney, Special Educational Needs Consultant (SENC), or Educational Strategist & Consultant?

Before you consider hiring an attorney or lay advocate consider the cost effective services and benefit of hiring a Special Educational Needs Consultant to provide you with private training and instruction for you and your support team.  With this comprehensive approach clients are able to successfully advocate and participate at IEP, 504, and other school meetings without additional costs, frustration, and loss of precious time for their child.

The Educational Strategist & Consultant or SENC assists you in becoming an effective parent advocate and knowledgeable member of the team.  The SENC introduces you to practical strategies that take you beyond drawing the Bell Curve and reciting the law.  In order for you to have meaningful participation in the process you need to know more than your child's diagnosis and what the law may say.  You also need to know the school's position regarding your child's education and placement and how that impacts you and your child. 

At your discretion the Educational Strategist & Consultant or SENC can also work with your child in key areas of the process--  educational strategies, socialization, assistive technology, Transition, and student-directed IEP and 504 plans. 

The Educational Strategist & Consultant or SENC can help you prepare for any school meeting (i.e. IEP, 504, SST, SARB); consult on educational options, services, and strategies for the student and parent; help you understand and communicate your child's unique needs (not just the diagnosis) , and consult on judicious exercise of your due process rights.

 

3.  How much does it cost?

Not much considering what you can gain in the long run-- increased knowledge, informed decision-making, meaningful participation in the process, and a child that is experiencing educational benefit and appropriate services.  The complexity of the case generally dictates the cost.  A more complex case takes more time and expertise.  Many families have limited resources (time, energy, and/or money) so Claudia offers retainer options that can help get parents and students off to a good start.  When you look at the fee consider all you will gain in addition to support, knowledge, piece of mind, direction, expert guidance, practical tools, and strategies.  

 

4.  What services are provided? 

 

Claudia's professional consultant and parent training services are provided on an as per needed basis or as a retainer client.  This affords the opportunity for you and your support team to acquire cost-effective and timely services to meet essential educational timelines for your child within the IEP or 504 process.

 

Services are designed to be case specific and may include some or all of the following... 

  • Consultation appointments* by person, phone, or e-mail
  • Individual Needs Assessment Protocol (INAP)- comprehensive and critical diagnostic assessment of your child’s records
  • Assistance in drafting appropriate communications to the school
  • Assistance in drafting appropriate student and parent attachments and reports
  • Preparing you and your support person(s) to attend school meetings- IEP, 504, SARB, SST, etc
  • Attending* school meetings with you- IEP, 504, SARB, SST, etc
  • Consulting with your child's care-providers- doctors, therapists, counselors, tutors, etc
  • Case specific recommendations
  •  A parent workbook
  • Additional services individually designed to meet you and your child's needs- advocacy skills, K-12 CAMS assessment, Socialization Skills through Acting and Drama, Transition Coaching, Student-directed IEPs and 504 Plans, Assistive Technology Assessments 

  

 5.  How do I make an appointment?

 

 If you are interested in making an appointment to talk with Claudia about your child...

 

1.  E-mail or call to set up an appointment and request the appropriate forms to get the process started.

 

2.  Claudia has two office locations or other meeting arrangements will be made such as home visits.  Payment options include cash, check, money order, PayPal.  

 

3.  New clients are accepted on a referral basis only.

 

 

6.  Should I choose Claudia to help me?

 

Claudia has her doctor of jurisprudence, extensive legal research training, and over 25 years of experience as an advocate.  She has worked with and assisted parents both in California and across the United States, including Japan.  She is a professional speaker and has presented at numerous conferences and parent groups on Section 504, IDEA, FAPE, Transition, IEPs, 504 plans, ADA, and more.  She has also taught continuing education workshops for attorneys, educators, administrators, psychologists, social workers, advocates, and other professionals.  She has been a legislative advocate, attended trainings provided by school attorneys, and has participated in school, district, county, and CDE committees, trainings, and workshops.  She is also working on a special project for parents-- Beyond the Bell Curve I: Learning Workshop for Parents and Beyond the Bell Curve II: Anatomy of a School File.

 

Claudia has not only worked with parents, families, and educators but has also worked directly with students.  Students with Autism, Aspergers, AD/HD, Tourettes, Bipolar, cerebral palsy, and other disabilities that impact learning.  She has learned directly from them about their challenges, hopes, dreams, and perspective. 

 

Lastly, Claudia has expertise and experience as a Transition Coach, Conflict Mediation Coach, and facilitator.  Her strength in helping parents and students comes from her use of interest-based technical assistance with a focus on collaboration and negotiation and minimizing conflict.

 

 

7.  The school tells me I don't need an outside support person and/or that they have their own parent support volunteers.

 

 

We like parent volunteers.  They should be commended for taking on such a caring and passionate position to help other parents.  They probably have some good practical information based on their own personal experiences and some basic and limited training offered by the school district.

 

One has to wonder, though, that if you are already at the point where you are reading this then perhaps your needs are beyond the expertise and training of a school-sponsored volunteer.  By all means, contact the parent volunteer and get support.  However, consider if s/he has more or less training than the school team members.  Consider who provided the training of this volunteer.  If the school provided the training can the parent volunteer be any more helpful than any other school-trained person sitting at your child’s school meeting?  Is there a conflict of interest?  What power does she have to influence the team regarding FAPE for your child?  If the parent volunteer is part of the school district then can s/he really be an objective unbiased third party?

 

8.  What is an advocate?

           An advocate can be an attorney, a certified or non-certified advocate, or any individual who has formal or informal training to support parents at IEP or 504 meetings.  There is no formal or standardized definition for a non-attorney advocate.  Some advocacy definitions you might find helpful are at "The Steps".  Each non-attorney advocate will define themselves based on their level of skill and expertise in particular areas.

In addition to an aray of critical services such as the IANP, an Educational Strategist & Consultant or SENC can also provide professional advocacy services.  The strength of what the SENC has to offer lies in the Individual Needs Assessment Protocol, interest-based technical assistance, and showing you how to be in charge of your child's education.

 

  

9.  Additional information...

 

There is no standardization in the field of special education advocacy.  Advocacy in its purest form is truly a grassroots effort and movement.  However, there has been a shift over the past several years.  School administrators, educators, school boards, and their attorneys have become a lot more aggressive in combating what they perceive as an encroachment of special education and students with disabilities on general education classrooms and school budgets (misguided but influential).  They have been working behind the scenes through organized efforts to limit the rights of parents and students with disabilities that impact learning.  For this reason, it is imperative that parents choose a well-experienced, knowledgeable, and well-educated individual to help them prepare for, understand, and advocate for their child’s right to a free appropriate education (FAPE).  And schools generally provide little or incomplete training to their staff.  Because of all these factors parents need to be knowledgeable, proactive, prepared, well-informed, collaborative, and choose the best support possible.

 

Some schools are recommending parents who have been trained by the school district or SELPA to act as parent advocates.  It is commendable when parents step forward to help other parents.  However, a school district will never have the same level of focus, commitment, direction, and follow though that a parent has when it comes to their child.  That’s why parents are such an integral part of the IEP or 504 team process.  And common sense would dictate that if the school is at the point where it is recommending support via one of their trained parent volunteers then something is really amiss.  Are schools providing these parent volunteers with more comprehensive and extensive training than what they provide their staff?  And if so, why or why not?

  

Some parents are concerned that advocacy means being difficult, fighting, angry, or not being nice.  Advocacy in its purest form is not any of these.  If you have these concerns about advocacy then express them as part of your interview process.  There is a difference between being objectively collaborative in your advocacy efforts and being subjectively nice, accommodating, or antagonistic.  Antagonistic efforts can block real progress, collaboration, and communication.  Being subjectively nice or accommodating to the school blocks real change for your child.  You want to be objectively collaborative when working with the SST, 504, Transition, or IEP team.  While you cannot control how any school team members will respond to your questions, statements, or concerns you can use the best approach which is objective collaboration. 

 

 

 

Knowledge is power.  Information and knowledge provide reassurance and self-confidence.  Knowledge and information, plus action, provides the foundation for effective advocacy and collaborative decision-making.

 

To effectively advocate for your child's educational future with an IEP or 504 plan or other school process please contact Claudia to schedule a consultation appointment or to take advantage of one of the retainer plans.

  • 916-939-3492 or iep504@yahoo.com.
  • Presently accepting new clients by referral only on a limited basis.
  • Request a FAPE packet for more detailed information.
  • Questions regarding your case/situation cannot be addressed prior to the appointment. 

 

 

 

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