Negotiating the Special Education Maze: A Guide for Parents and Teachers

I work for a nonprofit agency whose mission is to provide information and referral services to families and professionals raising children with disabilities. I read a lot of books about special education and the laws, regulations and procedures that parents and teachers must follow to make sure the child receives the best education possible. This book is extremely easy to use. It starts the Table of Contents with "Beginning the Journey and ends with a review of the process. The format of the pages is easy to read well-spaced type font. It uses many understandible sample letters, charts, bullet points and topical questions to focus the reader. I also find the Glossary of terms, the Resource list and the alphabetical Index very helpful when I need to renter the Maze to clarify a step in the Maze. I encourage parents of children with special needs; who are accessing the school district for the first time, to purchase a copy of the new 4th Edition. It is excellent for a return trip down the Maze too.

As a parent of two special needs children I can honestly say that this book is a must have for any parent who has special needs children in school. I found this book to be a lifesaver when it came to dealing with the school system. It is written in an understandable, practical way that makes it easy to use the information. Whether you are a family member, parent, or just a friend of a person with special needs this book is a must read. If your child has an IEP or doesn't have an IEP but does have special needs this book covers it all.

Although this book was written for parents, it provides a clear explanation of the steps to become eligible for special education services, developing an Individualized Education Plan, and making sure that services are received.This review appeared in the Annotated Bibliography Section of Learning A Living; A Guide to Planning Your Career and Finding A Job for People with Learning Disabilities, Attention Deficit Disorder and Dyslexia by Dale S. Brown

If you are the parent of a child with special needs, and she is a student n public school, be ready to do some big-time advocating to ensure that she gets the special ed. services she needs. As a special education teacher I am amazed at how little parents know about their rights under the IDEA '97 legislation, and how little they advocate for their child at IEP meetings. This book is a good start to get you, as the parent-advocate, in the frame of mind you need to be in when "negotiating the special education maze." My brief experience in the field has taught me that the most frustrated parents are those that are the least informed about what their rights are. Like trading stocks on the stock market, operating within the criminal justice system, or living in a foreign culture, the domain of special education has a culture, and rules all its own. If the parent does not know how to "play the game," you will be rolled by school districts that pay a lot of lip-service to providing an "education for all," but in practice are only concerned about the "best and the brightest." I would also highly recommend doing two things if you are a parent of a special needs child, and you are just about to enter "the maze;"(1) I would look in your local phone directory for a special ed. advocacy group, or some type of parent group, where you can join with other parents and learn about the special ed. field, and what is available in your area. (2) I would also join the Council for Exceptional Children as they are an excellent source of special ed. info. re: legislation, parent rights, advocacy, etc. I hope that this review helps in inspiring you to become better informed about the "system" so that you can obtain the best for your child. I want to stress again how important it is to (a) become as informed as you can regarding your rights as a parent, and your child's rights to a free and appropriate public education as stipulated by federal legislation such as IDEA '97. One of the frustrations I have had as a special ed. teacher is seeing how much lip-service school districts pay to special needs children, but how little is done for them in actual practice. I call special education "the last bastion of discrimination in the public schools." I want to write a book about this some day and call it "Separate and Unequal." ;) And I also want to stress (b) how important it is to become actively involved in a local parent advocacy group. There is strength in numbers, and there are battle-scarred veterans of the special ed. wars who have had to go at it with recalcitrant school districts hammer-and-tong to get even the bare minimum services for their child. I don't mean to be "negative," but I know what I am talking about.

~If for any reason your child is in or entering special education, this book is beyond value. It explains the processes involved, what the schools are and are not permitted to do, what they and you must do, to achieve~ This book gives you the base you need to fight back on behalf of your child's future. No parent facing a school's 'child study team' should be without this. You'll be amazed at the rights you and your child actual