|
This
committee addresses the needs of diverse learners in the school
population by fostering communication and awareness of special education
between the district, school, parents, and children. Exceptional
children include the gifted and talented, as well as students with
mental retardation; physically disabilities; chronic illnesses;
visual disabilities; hearing disabilities; speech disabilities;
social and emotional disabilities; learning disabilities; and in
some instances, disadvantaged and deprived students. Each local
unit is strongly encouraged to have this committee. This committee
recognizes and promotes each child's abilities rather than disabilities.
It is not designed to be a sounding board, but is organized to help
assist in the education of all children.
Special
Services Programs: Provide current information about support
groups and meetings to families, assist with and promote awareness
of legislative issues relating to special education, conduct educational
workshops for parents about services and strategies related to special
services, raise awareness among all students, parents, and staff
about the needs, talents and uniqueness of all children, encourage
students, parents and community members to mentor children, and
work within the community to encourage businesses to provide employment
opportunities for children receiving special services.
National
PTA Launches Special Education ListServ
Realizing that PTA members
with children with disabilities are often geographically dispersed
and, in some cases, isolated from other parents facing similar issues,
National PTA has created a listserv to facilitate the sharing of
information and resources. The listserv also will provide National
PTA a public forum to keep PTA members informed on issues affecting
students with disabilities and will help National PTA staff effectively
respond to issues facing this segment of our membership. This listserv
is the most recent development in local and National PTA efforts
to provide support to families of children with disabilities. To
join the listserv, go to www.pta.org/specialed and fill out the required fields. If you have any questions
regarding this listserv, contact Melina Wright, National PTA's federal
lobbyist on disability issues, at mwright@pta.org , or Shahenaz Chhipa, the listserv administrator, at schhipa@pta.org .
Non-profit
Resources
One of the best resources
available to parents, teachers and community members is Parent-to-Parent
of Georgia. They can provide information or put you in touch with
someone who can help you. The following organizations can also be
helpful and are not listed in any specific order. They are provided
as a resource only and their listing here does not constitute an
endorsement of any agency or organization.
- Council for
Exceptional Children - the largest international professional
organization dedicated to improving educational outcomes for individuals
with exceptionalities, students with disabilities, and/or the
gifted.
- DisabilityResources.org - provides links to many online disability resources
- Internet Resources
for Special Children (IRSC)
- Internet Special
Education Resources
- National Association
for Gifted Children - Provides lists of experts, programs,
testing centers and parent support groups in your state.
- National Information
Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities (NICHCY)
- Parent Advocacy
Coalition for Educational Rights (PACER)
- Parents Helping
Parents
- Parent
to Parent of Georgia - provides comprehensive information
about the governmental, medical, educational, social, and therapeutic
services available to families in Georgia
- SchwabLearning.org - Information about identifying disabilities, supporting
your child's social and emotional needs, working with the school,
and more. The site includes a bulletin board for connecting with
other parents.
- ourspecialkids.com - a virtual community for parents of special needs kids
Governmental
Resources
Other
Georgia
Parent Mentor Partnership
Division
for Special Education, Services and Support
The
Parent Mentor Partnership is now celebrating its fifth anniversary
of working together to increase parental involvement in special
education. The partnership, which started as a small group of parents
and administrators, now collaborates with more than 60 local school
systems and over 140,000 families raising children with learning
and/or physical challenges.
Created
and partially-funded by the Georgia Department of Education's Division
for Exceptional Students, the 62 Parent Mentors are moms and dads
hired by local school systems to work with special education directors,
parents, school teams, teachers and the community. Their goal is
to build a bridge of communication between home and school. Together,
they collaborate to increase parent involvement in solving concerns
and gaining ground on targeted goals to improve all children's achievement.
The Partnership, which meets 2-3 times a year statewide and four
times a year regionally, is locally driven, which makes each program
unique to meet the needs of the individual area.
Mentors
build connections for families in the community, concentrate on
transition needs of high school students and young children, lead
task forces, organize training sessions, collaborate with teachers
and increase parent involvement activities in schools. Most importantly,
the mentors listen to both parents and educators and use their unique
knowledge of both worlds to solve communication issues.
Who
are these parents?
Parent Mentors come from many backgrounds. Some live in the north
Georgia mountains, while others live on the Georgia coast. They
come from the cities, the suburbs and the rural areas of our state.
The mentors' resumes include experience from corporate America to
the family farm. One mentor served as a Major in the Army, while
another served as a juvenile judge. Still other mentors taught school
and ran stores, while others stayed home with their children.
While
their personal histories varied, they shared many of the same challenges,
frustrations and joys in navigating the education system while raising
a child with a disability. Parent Mentors' accountability
is measured in part on the local district's comprehensive improvement
plan. Collecting quantitative data is helpful in explaining mentor
activities but does not tell the complete story of improved student
performance. This year Parent Mentors are stepping into the world
of cumulative data by writing anecdotal stories to go along with
some of the data each district is striving to improve.
In
this effort to increase parent involvement, Parent Mentors also
team with other Georgia DOE divisions, particularly the parent initiatives
in the Title I division. They also look for opportunities to combine
efforts with local parent and community groups. The Partnership
collaborates with Parent to Parent of Georgia, a statewide nonprofit
team with a vast database. They act as a first stop for family information
on special education services and resources.
The
Parent Mentors lead activities in line with the Parent Teacher Student
Association's National Standards of Parent Involvement which are
evidenced-based, family involvement indicators. The 17 Georgia Learning
Resource Systems also play an important role in supporting the training
of the mentors as do the Division for Exceptional Students' district
liaisons. In addition, a parent of a child with a disability leads
the parent mentor effort at the GaDOE and is partnered with a staff
education consultant.
Georgia
Parent Mentor Partnership is modeled after a similar program in
Ohio and began in five county districts: Catoosa, DeKalb, Fayette,
Fulton and Grady. Most parent mentors today work 20 hours a week
during the school year while some districts ask parent mentors to
work fulltime and year-round.
To
read more about parent mentors, visit the parent mentor website
at www.parentmentors.org or for more information on special education services and resources
go to "FIRST STOP" www.parentoparentofga.org.
Click
here for Georgia Parent Mentors contact information.
|
