Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy: The Special Education Survival Guide

I've been involved in advocating for my special needs son for 14 years and this is the BEST book I've ever read on the subject. A real "how-to." I just walked away from an IEP meeting with MORE than I asked for and it all happened in less than an hour. I was SO prepared. In particular, the chapter on the Rule of Adverse Assumptions helped me prepare. Thanks to this book, I had the confidence and the information that allowed me to effectively go to bat for our son. I'm using FETA in a parent training class I'm conducting now and it's SO helpful. From Emotions to Advocacy is a real treasure and should be the bible for every parent of a special needs child.

It is the night before Jessica's first big IEP Team meeting and her parents are scrambling to find something - ANYTHING - that can help them prepare for the meeting. Try Wrightslaw. Sally's advocate is packing her briefcase as she heads out the door for the IEP Team meeting. She checks for her most critical resource. Wrightslaw. Susan, a school district attorney, checks her bag before heading off to her next meeting. Yup. Wrightslaw. Is there no one who hasn't heard of Wrightslaw? Actually, we are sure that many readers have not, so today we review two new books from Wrightslaw. Both are second editions of books Pam and Pete Wright first released several years ago. The Wrights have updated both books to reflect the 2004 changes to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA] and its implementing regulations. We use both books in our regular course of business and highly recommend them to parents, educators, advocates, attorneys and anyone else who has a need for quick but comprehensive manuals on special education law. Wrightslaw: Special Education Law, 2nd Edition [Wrightslaw] is a wonderful and ready resource for all who want to be able to find and then quote chapter and verse of IDEA law and regulations. The book includes the complete text of all four parts of IDEA as enacted in December, 2004. Wrightslaw also contains the complete implementing regulations for IDEA that became effective in August, 2006. These texts alone are worth the cost of the book. But Wrightslaw does not stop with the IDEA statute and its implementing regulations. Wrightslaw also includes the complete text of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act [FERPA]; the text to Section 504 [the Rehabilitation Act of 1973]; and the text of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. These inclusions ensure that the Wrightslaw user always has the key educational laws right at her fingertips at a moment's need. We have cited our Wrightslaw at IEP Team meetings, due process hearings, client meetings and the like. Pam and Pete Wright make Wrightslaw even more valuable by including commentary on how to apply the included laws to typical special education circumstances. They talk about the No Child Left Behind Act and show how it fits into the special education law scheme. They cite and include the text of the major court cases that have shaped how special education law should be interpreted and implemented. And they have included a glossary of special education terms and acronyms with a user-friendly index. We regard Wrightslaw as an essential resource in our practice. We believe the book should be part of every parent's [and educator's, advocate's, attorney's] special education library because of its rich and vital contents. We also heartily recommend Pam and Pete's second book, Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy, 2nd Edition. The Wrights call this book "The Special Education Survival Guide." And well it is. The Wrights designed

The games you must play, the rules you must learn, the complex and confusing mazes you must navigate to get help for your child match the mythic mazes of antiquity, where people would wander, lost and hopeless until they died.The Wrights have created a book that, almost like magic, dispels the mists, casts bright shining light upon the dark recesses of the bureaucratic blockades the average parent, coach or advocate will find when trying to get help for a child. This is a superb book for parents. It helps them understand the laws, actually putting into print the actual legal verbiage, then interpreting it into plain English. Then they give you great advice on how to prepare for, go into and negotiate in meeting where your child's needs are being discussed. ... I bring together hundreds of health care practitioners who work with children with ADD, learning disabilities, neurobehavioral, developmental, sensory, medical and emotional disorders. It's always a pleasure to discover a valuable resource to share with colleagues and this is one of them. It deserves a space on the bookshelf of any counselor, psychologist, educator or other provider who advocates for children.

Six years ago, well after our son was illegaly expelled from his high school, I became an advocate for parents of children with disabilities. Over the years I have gained some national recognition for my work. But It wasn't until I found Pete and Pamela's Wright's first book "Wrightslaw", that I had one single place to learn what a parent needs to understand and secure their child's "legal rights". Their books are written in plain English and not legalese which for someone with learning disabilities, as I am, made my life easy. Now the Wright's have added what is the perfect complement to their first book called, "From Emotions to Advocacy". I know, first hand, how badly I personally performed when we found out our child had two disorders and was going to be tested by our school. Our child's school did everything they could to not provide our child with the mandated help found within IDEA and the Americans with Disabilities Act. What Pete and Pamela have done in this book, is provide "All" the answers to the hundreds of questions a parent of a child with disabilities have when entering the world of Special Education. For instance, what do those special education tests scores the school gives you mean? Or, when they tell you your child is not entitled to help because your child is passing their grades, Pete and Pam tell you why that may not be accurate or legal. It not only gives you the answers to your questions, it gives you questions to ask of your child's educators that force them to be honorable. They tell you how to write a letter to teachers, and administrators, that get results, not using anger which is most parents' biggest mistake when dealing with antagonistic schools. It is a soup to nuts book covering every base of information needed to be your child's best advocate. I write a monthly column that is read by hundreds of people on various web sites. The greatest complement, I can give to any author, is when I'm personally asked by the parents I help, what they should read, my advice is buy the two books by Pam and Pete Wright ("Wrightslaw: Special Education Law" and their new book "From Emotions to Advocacy"). One gives you the legal information you need to make sure your school follows the law, and their new Book, from "Emotions to Advocacy" teaches you how to deal effectively with the school after you get them to follow the law. Bottom line, My advice is rather simple, If you are to buy any books about the World of Special Education and securing the help your child needs and is entitled to under law, then these two books are all you will ever need. They are the end all be all of Special Education help books. From Emotions to Advocacy frees us, from the pain of not knowing what to do to help our kids in dealing with Special Education issues. These books are a "MUST BUY"Steve [email protected]

This is the book that parents of special needs children have been searching for!When a child does not "fit in the box", parents find that they must search for information on how to care for their child. Just when they have mastered the medical maze, the child begins school and the search for advice and knowledge begins all over again!Children with disabilities who succeed in school have parents who learn to set aside their feelings and clothe themselves in the armor of advocacy. "From Emotions to Advocacy" assists parents in the journey through the special education labyrinth by giving them a focus. Parents learn accurate documentation and record-keeping, productive communication skills, effective tactics and strategies, and Pete and Pam Wright have put it all together into an easy to read, understandable package. Parents who use the process and procedures outlined in "From Emotions to Advocacy" will avoid many of the pitfalls that entrap many parents of special needs children. I wish this book had been available in 1986, not only for my own use, but so that the hundreds of parents I have worked with since then could have benefited from it. If you are the parent or if you know of a parent of a special needs child, do yourself or them a favor. Buy yourself or them this book!