- Hello, and welcome to an Ohio Learns 360 Family webinar.

I'm Amy Juravich from WOSU Public Media, and we are here today to discuss advocating for your child.

We all want to give our students the best education possible, but how do we advocate for them when challenges arise?

Family engagement in schooling is a key indicator for student success, but knowing how to collaborate with your child's school can be daunting.

So joining us for this discussion is Lisa Perez, the founder and executive director of Ohio Parent Advocacy & Consulting.

Welcome to the program, Lisa.

- Thank you for having me.

- And also joining us from the Ohio Department of Education, is Latisha Humphries, a family and community engagement coordinator for ODE.

Welcome.

- Thank you.

- And Lisa, I wanna start with you.

You saw a problem with families and schools working together, and you saw that problem so clearly that you decided to create a business to help.

So, Lisa, can you tell me why you started a business to help with parent advocacy?

- Well, I am a mother of three children, and my oldest is 29 years old now.

But when he was in elementary school, I was receiving a lot of feedback from the school that there were some issues, and he was not being attentive, just different things going on.

And I was really just kind of frustrated, and I thought, "You know, I need to get some help for him.

How do I do that?"

And I kept reading and going to some seminars, and just really trying to educate myself on what I could do and what the district was responsible to do to help my son get his free appropriate public education.

So, that kind of morphed into me leaving my corporate job, and I worked for the Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities for about three years.

Learned a lot from them about IDEA, rights of a child with a learning disability.

And from there, I decided to start my own business because so many parents tell me, "I just don't know.

I don't know what I can do.

I don't know what I can ask for."

So you don't know what you don't know.

And I felt there was a need to just help bridge that gap.

Like, let me be your kind of trusted advisor to help you get through this process, get something in place for your child that's appropriate for their needs and work with the district to make sure that hopefully, your child has a successful school year.

- Okay, and Latisha, let's go to you for a minute.

You work for the Ohio Department of Education, but you have a background in teaching and as an administrator.

So, what Lisa was talking about, whenever you have that moment where you know your child, is not succeeding the way you would like them to in the classroom.

From your perspective, Latisha, as a former teacher, is that the best place for the parents to start?

Is it with the teacher to start that conversation there?

- Right, so I would say that parents approaching teachers is an excellent strategy.

And I think it's one of the best places to begin often because one of the jobs of a teacher is to maintain that or build that relationship with the student and also the student's family.

And part of getting to know our students is by knowing the family, by having an understanding of what the family's goal is for their child, having an understanding of what the family's relationship is like with that child, getting background information, it helps teachers to plan for those kids.

So, I believe, I'm a relationship person, and part of the reason why I went into teaching and in education is because I know and I've seen the value of relationships, and I've known and see the value of building trust, between families and between schools.

And it oftentimes comes from the teacher relationships.

And I was saying before I got all choppy, one of the reasons why I decided to become a teacher is because of my own experience with my own education.

My mother was my biggest advocate.

She fought for me every step of the way.

So, there were a ton of resources that existed that she dug and dug to find them, and to basically open up those opportunities to me.

And something that I can remember, not vividly, I probably remember it more because I hear the story often, but in kindergarten, so there used to be educational tracking.

So, kids get placed in a class and then they move forward within that same track.

And so when I was younger, there was intelligent and gifted class, and then there were all the classes below that.

So IGCE1, E2, E3, and then E4 was a special education class, or inter-collaborative team class.

And so in kindergarten, my teacher pushed me to, I was in K1 and then she was going to move me to 1E3 and my mother questioned that, and she looked at my report card, and the teacher has that needs improvement for every single category on the report card.

And so when she brought me into the parent-teacher conference, my mother looked at this woman and she said, "Do you know my child?

Do you know Latisha?"

And she said, "Because you said needs improvement for alphabet."

And then she made me say my alphabet.

You said needs improvement for handwriting that she can't write her name.

She made me write my name.

You said she needs improvement for parents signing homework.

I signed her homework every night.

And after that I was moved into IGC and I was there for the rest of my life.

So, that moment for me shows the power that parents have because oftentimes, there are decisions being made because there is like a lack of awareness, so people just don't know.

And sometimes, you know, it is mal-intentioned, but having families really speaking to the teacher, that pretty much opens up communication for bigger conversations if they need to happen.

And sometimes, it's an easy fix in just talking to the teacher.

- Okay, and Lisa, let's go to you.

Is that how you recommend starting these conversations, or by the time the parent comes to you and your business, they've already been through the teacher discussions and they having problems?

What's your experience there?

- Typically, by the time the parent gets to me, they've had some conflict in some way, like, "Hey, they're trying something and it's not working, or I've asked for this or that or the other thing.

And it hasn't happened yet."

So, I do agree with Latisha as far as a parent, if you feel like there are some concerns that you have, absolutely, bring that up with the teacher, start there and keep advocating.

You know, if it's not getting better, it's not gonna get better in a day.

It's not gonna get better in a week, but give it a couple weeks, give it maybe four weeks, if you feel like they're still not getting it or something's wrong or you're not getting the communication or whatever you've asked for to change and it's not happening, go back to the teacher and have that conversation.

And perhaps make a referral.

You know, I think we need to go ahead and evaluate my child to see if they qualify for special education services.

- [Latisha] I wanna echo at least the set about giving it some time.

So, I do think, when you're coming as a parent to advocate for your child and you maybe have established, here's gonna be the plan moving forward, setting a deadline for yourself of when you will follow up or even working with the teacher to set up some deadlines of, can we follow up about this in another three weeks?

Can I give you a call in another four weeks so we can see where we are with this?

By giving yourself a deadline to see things happening, I think, is really weird.

- And if you are just joining us, this is an Ohio Learns 360 webinar.

We're discussing how parents and caregivers can advocate for their children in schools.

We would like to thank Ohio Learns 360, and the Ohio Department of Education for their support of this initiative.

The Ohio Learns 360 Initiative is a partnership, between Ohio's eight PBS stations with support from the Ohio Department of Education.

At a statewide level, Ohio Learns 360 will be supporting families, educators, and students through community events, afterschool programs, summer programs, and virtual programs like this one.

You can learn more at ohiolearns360.org.

And for our audience at home, we want to hear from you.

Please use the Q&A function in the webinar to ask a question.

Parents know their kids best, so what questions do you have as we dive deeper into this topic of advocating for your child?

With us tonight, again, is Latisha Humphries, a family and community engagement coordinator for the Ohio Department of Education.

And also, with us is Lisa Perez, the founder and executive director of Ohio Parent Advocacy & Consulting.

And I wanted to just get to the idea that there is a legal component to this.

The individuals with Disabilities Education Act means that parents and students have certain rights.

So, could we talk for a minute about those rights?

What do parents have the right to when it comes to their child's education?

- [Latisha] So, parents have the right to participate in especially, all decisions made for their student related to educational opportunity, related to curriculum, and related to the student's wellbeing.

So with that said, with parents who have children with a disability or a suspected disability, the parent has the right to inform the school that they would like to proceed with an evaluation.

And the school has to follow that.

Anything that goes onto an IEPs or whatever those goals are, a parent has to agree to those things, and the parent has a right at any point to make amendments to the IEP, so that they feel as if the goal is not relevant anymore, or they feel that there is something that needs to be added in order to enhance that student's learning, they have a right to request an amendment.

And again, because they have the right to participate in all that decision making, nothing is final until a parent has signed off on those things.

So, that's a huge right and responsibility, because they're essentially the person that is giving the green light for that educational setting to go forward with these interventions.

- And Lisa, if you wanna just jump in here, do you have parents coming to you who don't understand those rights or don't know about them, or maybe they're coming to you because they feel like those rights are not being held up on the school district's end?

- Well, I would say everything that you just mentioned.

- Yeah, yeah.

- You know, it's kind of a variety of what I get.

Most of the time, I would say the bulk of the phone calls and clients that I work with, they don't understand the rights.

And sometimes, working with some of the people in the district, I don't think things are always malicious, but I think sometimes they don't understand IDEA either, and the components within IDEA and procedurally what needs to happen.

Because sometimes, I hear parents tell me, and I mean, in meetings, and districts will say things that are just not correct with respect to IDEA.

So part of my role in that meeting is to question that like, "Well, you know, that's not my understanding of IDEA.

Could you expand a little bit on that," or that kind of thing just to make sure that we're all following the same regulation, the same guidelines.

And it's a federal guideline, so all states should be following IDEA.

Ohio has their own way to implement it, but it can't be different than what the federal guideline is.

So, if a parent moved from Ohio to Texas, that IEP would follow them, and Texas would have to follow the same federal guidelines.

They may have a couple little nuances that are different.

So, most of the time, parents are getting misinformation.

And part of my role is to help educate parents and help sometimes educate the district like, "Well, let's take a look at that.

Could we rephrase that or do something differently or what have you in order to give that child?"

Ultimately, it boils down to a child's free, appropriate public education.

And the key word is appropriate because in IEP individualized education plan, it's exactly that.

It's appropriate for that student.

So, that's a big word, appropriate.

They do not have to provide the best, you do not have (indistinct) The districts do not have to do that.

They have to provide what is appropriate.

And the IEP team determines what's appropriate for that student.

- There are several different ways to identify a student for a disability.

There's different types of assessments.

Latisha, can you talk for a minute about the different types of assessments that a school can go through when they're on their way to creating these IEPs that Lisa was mentioning.

- [Latisha] There is a psychological evaluation process.

There are also IQ assessments.

- Lisa, maybe you could just jump in and talk about the different types of assessments.

- [Lisa] Sure.

- So Latisha just mentioned there's psychological, and then there's an IQ, is that what she was saying?

- So, there's an education team report.

There's a planning form that goes that most districts will fill out.

It's not a required form by ODE, but most of the districts that I work will use this actual form.

And part of the IEP team determines what areas of need do we think this student needs to be tested in?

And most of the time, I always suggest there's a psychological, like an IQ, an achievement.

Then you get into, if you've got some concerns about hearing, vision, communication, fine motor, PT, physical therapy, gross motor skills, those are all different things that would be checked on the form for the district to go ahead and evaluate that student in those areas.

So, that meeting's very important because the parent is part of that meeting, of course, and the parent can provide input, like, "Yeah, I do have concerns about fine motor skills or social pragmatic skills or executive functions, reading, writing, math."

And those are all different areas that can be evaluated to determine if a student qualifies for an IEP.

- [Latisha] And I would just add to that, with that planning form, the teachers that teach that student are also adds for almost anecdotal information.

So, all of those narratives factor into the decisions that are made if IEP is determined appropriate.

And similarly, the parents are also giving that anecdotal information about their student as well.

So, providing a background almost from birth to the point where the student is now.

So that's also part of the process.

- And this initial meeting that we're discussing right now where all of these boxes are checked and different assessments are going to be made, is that normally a district or a teacher initiated meeting or is it a parent initiated meeting or does it go both ways?

- It can go both ways.

The district does have a duty to, and there's a provision in the regulation called Child Find, and the district, so when I say the district, it's typically a teacher, has a duty to bring forward a student that they believe may need individualized services, special education services, that's the child fine provision.

So that the idea behind it is that a child, you know, the teachers know the students the best as far as their academics go, and how they are operating in a classroom.

So, the teacher can bring forward, "Hey, I've tried this, that, and the other thing with student A, and they're still not responding.

I wanna talk to the parent and ask the parent about moving forward with an evaluation.

You know, are they okay with that?"

It also, most of the time, the people that I work with, it's the parents are requesting, "Hey, I've got a problem or I'm seeing this with my student, or I just went outside privately and had my student evaluated by a psychologist in the community or children's hospital or what have you.

And they were given this diagnosis, and I believe it's impacting them negatively in school.

I'd like to see if they qualify for an IEP."

- Okay, okay.

Well, this is in Ohio Learns 360 webinar, and I'm Amy Juravich, and we're talking about advocating for your child.

And to our audience at home, we want to hear from you, have you had to contact your child's school about the learning environment or what questions do you have about the process?

Please ask your question in the Q&A portion of this webinar.

And Bill Mooney from WOSU classroom, will deliver your question to our guests.

And there's Bill, and we have a question.

- Yes, we do.

It says, "Should I worry about my child being labeled if I ask for special help?"

- Okay, who would like to take that?

Latisha, do you-- - [Latisha] I would say no.

- Okay, yeah.

Latisha, do you wanna take that?

- [Lisa] It's a pretty easy answer.

- [Latisha] Yeah, I would say no, and I'm not even speaking as an educator or an administrator or the role that I'm in currently.

I'm speaking as a parent, I think that there is so much value in having an IEP.

And so I have always told parents because I've heard this as a concern that their children or them not wanting their children to be labeled or to be picked on or maybe isolated or separated from other members in the class or any of those things.

And I get that, but I always tell parents, "Anything that you can get, any service that your child needs that will help to enhance and support their learning, get it, and take it, take advantage of it."

And so, you know, for myself, my oldest when he was younger, he's extremely bright.

He was reading since he was three years old, all these things, but his social emotional was a big concern for me.

And I felt like he had some delays in terms of his development in that area.

And people were like, "You're crazy.

You're only thinking this way because you're a teacher."

Because my immediate thought, and the thing that I did was I was like, I want him to be evaluated for autism.

I was like, "I see these things and I feel like he might be on the spectrum.

I wanna move forward with this."

And everyone thought I was crazy, and there was nothing that really came up that could identify him as being on the spectrum.

But that was important to me.

I didn't care what the label was gonna be, I just wanna know if he is facing this, I need to know for myself so that I can find the resources I need to support him.

And I want every single person that he is encountering in his educational settings to be held accountable to servicing him the way that he needs to be.

So, I don't think any parent should ever worry about a label.

I think, at the end of the day, it's just about securing the things that your child needs.

- Okay, and Lisa, would you like to add anything to that about maybe the power behind the IEP?

- I think, first and foremost, a special education is a service, it's not a location.

So, if a student qualifies for special education services, that does not automatically mean they go to the classroom down the hall, around the corner, whatever, with other kids with disabilities.

That does not mean that out of the gate.

The team painstakingly works towards what does that student need, what's appropriate for that student?

And sometimes, they're in all general education classrooms, but they're just getting supports in various ways, whether it's in the classroom or at a study hall or what have you.

It's very, very individualized.

The second point that I would make is, I sit in hundreds of meetings a year, and there is so much, I think, the label thing, like people, we need to get off that because I can assure you, you are in the grocery store, you are working with other people, what have you, that have some type of learning disability.

They're everywhere, I mean, it's not an uncommon thing.

It's not a shame thing, it's nothing.

It's just the way the brain is wired, and that is a unique brain that needs something unique for that person to get their free appropriate public education.

So, there are so many kids in the meetings that I go to that when if they don't get the service and support, they hate school, school becomes a terrible place for them.

It's hard, it's difficult.

They don't know how to manage, they don't know how to be a student, whatever their issues might be.

So, that anxiety and the depression and those things start manifesting.

And that is much worse in my opinion, than making sure a student spends 30 minutes a day or whatever it might be with someone to enhance their reading skills.

- And Latisha-- - [Latisha] Yeah.

- I wanted to add for this.

This webinar is geared toward parents of kindergartners through fifth grade.

Whenever we're talking about this idea of advocating for your child, does a lot of that advocacy happen in the kindergarten, first grade area?

Is this something that teachers and parents pick up on right away?

Or can it happen anytime during elementary school?

- [Latisha] I think, it can happen during any time in elementary school, in my experience.

So I've always taught middle school, I did work in an elementary school for a portion of time.

And I know that sometimes, and what I've noticed just among communities of parents is that some things that they might see in the younger ages are not things that are necessarily of a huge concern for them because they might fit developmentally in where kids are going to be.

And it's such a huge range where we're talking about reading skills, where we're talking about math or quantitative skills.

There's such a huge range in kindergarten for what could be considered concerning or not.

So, I think that it can happen at any time.

And I think there's nothing wrong with the parent being hypervigilant.

So from, I have a kindergartner now, and he's very different from his brother.

So his brother was reading at three years old, my kindergartner wants nothing to do with reading.

And something that shows up is that he is having a harder time with phonics and letter identification and things of that nature.

And so, he is receiving some additional services at school, but I have not yet rung the alarm, which I probably would've done with my 10-year old years ago.

I haven't rung the alarm yet because I do believe that there is some growth that's gonna happen, and part of it is just his own learning curve.

So I think whenever you feel concerned as a parent in kindergarten, first grade, it is fine for you to raise those concerns to the teacher, even if it just means, you know, the teachers or the team of teachers teaching your child are gonna say, "We're gonna try doing these things, these additional things, that are not necessarily, mandated special education services, but just techniques and skills."

Because the truth is, every child learns differently.

And so, there are a lot of kids who are in general education classrooms who do not have IEPs, who need different levels of scaffolding, who need different levels of support.

And really good teachers try to make those things happen for everyone.

And really good teachers really try to plan for different types of learners.

So, there's nothing wrong with raising your concern.

And then there's nothing wrong with also saying that, "Concern I had earlier that, you know, I didn't think was a big deal and we were doing some things to address it.

I feel like there's a growing gap, and so I want to kind of move forward with what the next step might be."

- And Lisa, in your experience with your business, at the elementary level, do you see more parents coming to you in the kindergarten first grade range?

Or is it like Latisha said where you know, maybe you notice it more whenever the kid gets a little bit older and get some of those kindergarten wiggles out of them?

- Yeah, I would say probably the bulk of my clients, they're first grade or beyond kindergarten.

You know, sometimes it's very evident there are issues, you know, and usually that's behaviorally.

Academically, there's such a range, like students who've bend to pre-K and not bend to pre-K or any kind of schooling before they set foot through that door.

Sometimes, they do just need to learn how to be a student.

And so that might take a little longer than other kids.

So there tends to be, I feel like, a little bit longer time to see if things will iron, you know, work themselves out to see where the student, if in fact the student does have maybe what we would consider like an issue or concern.

So I probably get more first grade, it depends on if there's a diagnosis, but maybe more second, third, when you're learning to read and then you read to learn at third grade.

That's kind of that big change, and see a lot of things happen in third grade.

A lot of phone calls of third graders because it's really evident.

They just don't have the basics down to make that switch of read to learn.

And so, but I have parents call me that their kids are juniors in high school.

And you know, it's just finally kind of that XY point of all the problems are just hitting and you know, they need some assistance starting them.

- And thank you, again, for joining us for this Ohio Learns 360 webinar.

We're talking about advocating for your child.

I'm Amy Juravich, and to our audience at home, have you had to talk with your child's school about the learning environment?

What questions do you have about connecting with your child's school?

You can ask your question in the Q&A portion of this webinar and then Bill Mooney from WOSU classroom, will deliver your question to our guests.

And our guests again are Lisa Perez.

She works as a consultant for Parent Advocacy, and Latisha Humphries is an education coordinator with the Ohio Department of Education.

This is an Ohio Learns 360 webinar, and it's a part of an initiative, between Ohio's eight PBS stations with support from the Ohio Department of Education.

At the statewide level, Ohio Learns 360 is supporting families, educators, and students through virtual programs.

This series is one of those, and you can find this series archived at ohiolearns360.org.

Now Bill, what question did you have from our audience?

- Yeah, the question came in.

"What if my child is having academic trouble but doesn't have an identifiable disability?"

- Latisha, do you wanna take that?

There's no identifiable disability, but there's academic trouble happening.

- [Latisha] So, I'm assuming we've gone through the process of evaluation for an IEP, and they determined that the student didn't have an IEP.

I'm going based off of that.

- [Amy] Yeah.

- [Latisha] So, as I mentioned earlier, and you see this in pretty much almost every education training program where people are going to become teachers.

We learn how to create scaffolded curriculum because we are teaching a diverse group of learners.

And so, if you do have a child who is having academic troubles, one, I would say starting off the conversation with teachers.

And so sometimes we have kids who might struggle in math or you have a kid who just struggles in the literacy things, so humanities work.

Talking to the teacher, one, that you find the child is having the most, I guess, kind of academic problems and issues with.

And then that conversation can spark a plan.

So, teachers essentially have the responsibility, not necessarily of making sure that every child passes, but making sure that they are delivering curriculum and content to students despite any barriers.

So, I think having the conversation with teachers about what's going on in the classroom, and I think that it's just kind of is an eyeopener, sometimes, for parents.

I have seen in many instances where parents are like, "My child is really struggling in your class, what can he do to improve his grades?"

And that conversation results in, "Well, you know, we are having problems with homework, right?"

So that become like an easy fix.

We're gonna come up with a homework plan, which is something that extends outside of the school.

Sometimes, it might be a matter of, you know, he's really struggling with staying awake in class, and so here are the things that I'm gonna do as a teacher, and maybe here are some things that we can work on at home.

But I do believe that regardless of whether there is a disability or whether it's an IEP in place or not, every parent has the right to communicate with the teachers, the teaching team, about their concerns and work towards a solution.

Whether that might be that you're asking for your child to perhaps receive a key.

So, I have seen in many situations where there are students who might take a longer time to take notes, and this is not necessarily related to kindergarten or fifth grade, I know that we're talking about a younger group, but you know, sometimes there are kids who benefit from having the notes or the things that a teacher's writing on the board, having a copy of it directly in front of them.

Sometimes, there are kids who benefit from having those things sent directly home.

Sometimes, kids benefit from having some kind of tracker, right, and some kind of incentive.

And so, in particular with my son who was struggling, he was a great student, but he struggled with math really badly.

He did not have a lot of confidence in that.

I worked with his teachers and one of the things that we had was an incentive program for him with math, facts, and things of that nature.

So I would say that the same kind of conversation that you would have if you suspected your child had a disability, those conversations should be happening or can happen at any stage of the process with your kid, whether it's he's struggling in the subject, I noticed that there are some behavior changes.

Those conversations can always open up another, just a plan for that student and that opportunity for you to follow up with teachers and the school to ensure that those plans are actually happening and those things are being met.

- And Lisa, the parents that you work with, I just have to say, you know, as a parent, parents are busy people, they often work outside the home.

They often have more than one kid.

The idea of all of these meetings and these tests and like staying on top of things and having a plan, can be daunting.

It can be overwhelming for a parent.

How do you counsel parents into making this a priority?

- Well, most of the time if someone's called me, you know, they know it's a priority, right?

So because their seeking assistance.

But I do a lot of telling them about working them through that here's the process, here's the procedure, this happens next, then we do this, then we do that.

And you know, teachers are only required of that.

The IEP teams only required to meet really during the confines of the school day.

And you know, sometimes I have parents say, "Well, I work until five, and I can't meet until after five."

Well, the district does not have to meet with you after 5:00 pm.

They could ask the teachers to show up then, or they could offer to pay them or what have you to stay after their contract.

But they don't have to do that.

So, you know, I have a conversation upfront with clients that work with me that this has got to be a priority.

You know, when I send you something that I need some information or the district is asking to, let's get a date set, we need to answer those emails in a prompt way.

You know, sometimes you might have to take some time off work.

I think, one of the great things that's happened with all these virtual meetings is parents no longer, you know, you can have that meeting virtually.

You don't have to come into the school building.

You can ask for it to be virtual, so you don't have to leave your job.

Maybe you can go to a private area, it's your company or wherever or if you're working from home or go into a conference room and just have the meeting that way.

So, it saves a lot of time that so you don't have to take off half a day or what have you to drive home and go to the school and all that kind of thing.

And I would like to just piggyback on one comment from the previous question of what my child doesn't have a diagnosed disability, but something about getting service or whatever for them or determining if they qualify for an IEP.

Just as a another point, 'cause I get this a lot, you don't have to come to the school and say, "My child has been diagnosed by clinical psychologist or whomever with A, B, C," whether it's OCD, ADHD, you don't have to do that.

That's not necessary to move forward with an evaluation.

All you really need to do as a parent is to say, "You know, I believe that my child's struggling.

Here's why.

You know, they've got these grades or I'm receiving this report from the teacher.

I see this at home, and I believe they may qualify for special education services."

And then you have a conversation with the district about regarding moving forward with an evaluation.

- And Latisha, I wanted to ask you, sometimes there is an issue with a language barrier.

You know, how can a parent communicate with the schools if English is not their first language?

Have you come across that in your experience?

- [Latisha] Yes, so oftentimes, schools do have the ability to translate or we might have to, my previous school that I was in, we had a family and engagement coordinator.

Most of our second languages were Spanish.

So, we had someone there who was able to speak Spanish.

But we have in the past had student or families request meetings.

And if we know that there is a family who doesn't speak English, and it might be a language that, so for instance, we've had people who spoke Arabic and we did not have anyone on staff who was able to translate, the families are able to request a translator.

And so we provide that as a service, that's something that we ask for.

So, I think that the onus is ultimately on the school and the school district to make sure that they can have that meeting regardless of language.

So, it's a barrier, but it's not a barrier when it comes to a parent requesting a meeting to discuss educational decisions for their student.

- And we do have another question from our audience.

So, I'm gonna turn to Bill from WOSU classroom.

And Bill, what is the question we have from home?

- We have a couple questions that came in just asking about how to best support at home, and how can I support the teachers?

You know, if I have that disability or not.

How can I support from home?

- Latisha, do you wanna take that just with, you know, you work for ODE but you have a background as a teacher and an administrator.

What can the parents be doing at home that can help the child with connecting with the school?

- [Latisha] Sure, yeah.

So I think, so my background as a teacher, also as an administrator, I think, that one of the best things that parents can do at home is essentially being consistent and trying to establish whatever routines work for them and being consistent in those routines.

So, I think oftentimes when, you know, and I'm guilty of it being busy working and having two kids, there are some things that might kind of fall to the back burner sometimes, and so I get that.

I think that's something that's really important is whatever plans that we establish.

So if we come together as a team, and I've done this before in behavior planning for students and behavior planning associated with, you know, hopefully, kind of pushing them towards academic success.

If there is an agreement that we come on where we're asking a parent to review a behavior tracker at the end of the day and sign it, right?

Like those things that happening consistently, I think, is important, because I think it bridges that gap between home and the school for kids, especially.

Them seeing that there are these things that come from the school building inside the home that your mom or your dad or granddad or whoever is going to see, and they're also involved in that, I think, it creates a really impressive amount of support.

So, I think for families to be consistent with whatever plan that is that you have determined with the school, if there are additional things.

So, one thing that I always have tried to do as a teacher in having meetings with families, because I've heard that question a lot, what can I do at home is finding really accessible, maybe activities that are related to perhaps, the academic struggles that the student is facing or just things that help enhance that.

And so, presenting families with those things and then saying, "Hey, you know, every night, maybe if you guys are just looking at this for 10 minutes, or you could set a timer for him for 10 minutes and ask him these three questions."

Those types of things, I think, are really important.

So I think a family asking a teacher, what can I do at home is really important.

And then asking them more specifically, "Are there any resources?

Is there any website?

Is there any book?

Is there any type of activity that I can be focusing on or use at home specifically that's going to help to reinforce these things?"

- And Lisa, I wanted to get to you 'cause we're running low on time, but I wanted to ask you if when a parent comes to you and they want some help with advocating for their children, are there any resources that you turn to or you tell them that this is a good place to do some reading, this is a good place to do some research?

Do you have places where you tend to send parents for a little bit of help outside of your business?

- Sure, well, the Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities, provides free training for parents.

I think, they have some in person and some virtual.

And I think they're very helpful in good information, and a good way to just get more knowledge.

I also, as far as online, there's a website that I like.

It's, that has a ton of information in it.

It's wrightslaw.com, and Wrights, is Pete Wright is his last name, so it's W-R-I-G-H-T, Wrights with an S, law.com.

And it's got just about anything you could wanna ask about IDEA, how to write a letter, what does this mean, how to interpret data from the school as far as like if they're giving you data on a norm reference assessment, what does this mean?

You know, it's really a wonderful place to go and just kind of dig in and do some research.

- Okay, and Latisha, as I said, we are running low on time.

I wanted to know if there was anything else you wanted to add from in Ohio Department of Education perspective, just because, you know, we're talking about an individual student talking with a teacher at a school, but then there's the school and then there's the district, and then there's you at the Ohio Department of Education, kind of overseeing it all.

Is there anything you would like to add from that aspect?

- The only thing I would add, the Ohio Department of Education has laid out a framework, the whole child framework.

And so, one of the things that is a priority for us in education and implementing plans for students is that we're considering the whole child.

So, not just with, they know, not just academic content, but their health, safety, engagement, the supports that they receive, and also challenging, actually, having challenging curriculum.

But in all that, we view families as the experts of their kids.

So you know, it's essentially, it's a huge wheelhouse, right?

There's community partnerships involved, they're school and district leaders, but families are at the center of that.

And at the end of the day, I would just say from an ODE perspective, I would always encourage parents to not doubt their significance, their power, and even instinct.

Because at the end of the day, when we're looking at the whole child framework, we are looking to make those connections with families so that we can best support kids.

So that would be what I would say from the ODE perspective.

- Well, thank you very much.

I appreciate both of you for being here, and I appreciate your time.

And this has been an Ohio Learns 360 webinar.

Thank you for joining us.

I wanna say thank you to Lisa Perez, the founder of Ohio Parent Advocacy & Consulting.

Thank you, Lisa.

- [Lisa] You're welcome.

- And thank you to Latisha Humphries from the Ohio Department of Education.

Thank you, Latisha, for being with us, and I'm sorry that you had to turn your video off, but we appreciate your time.

- [Latisha] Thank you too.

- And please, you can provide your feedback on tonight's topic and help inform future topics by completing a brief survey.

The URL is on your screen right now, and if you're not able to take a photo, a link will be emailed to you in the next 24 hours for anyone who registered for tonight's event.

And please join us on Wednesday, January 11th for our next topic, which will be kindergarten readiness.

Thank you to Ohio Learns 360 and the Ohio Department of Education for this event.

I also wanna say thank you to Amy Palermo and Bill Mooney from WOSU classroom, and thank you to the television production team at WOSU for making this event possible.

You can watch other webinars in this series, and find more information about upcoming virtual events, including links to register by visiting our website at ohiolearns360.org.

I'm Amy Juravich, thank you for joining us and we'll see you next time.