School Orginizations

There are a few things your school district offers that you probably don't even know about. Let me tell you about them.

Many not all districts have a parent education and training center.  This center is run by parents. Most of whom have a special needs child.  They can offer information about IEP prep. (They cannot come with you) They typically have a library that parents can borrow books about just about any disability you can think of.

A few districts have a Special Needs PTA. I believe our state has maybe 3 districts that do. SEPTA is pretty much like the regular PTA except for the activities they put on. While school PTA's are specific for their school. SEPTA serves the whole district. They tend to pair with the parent center to provide different training and events for the districts special needs community. They cover many topics specific to special needs families.

The third organization I am going to talk about ALL districts have. It is a federal mandate that they have Sped Advisory Committee. This committees main purpose is to find and advise the school board of unmet needs in the district. They also deal with parent concerns. The meetings are open to the public. I will tell you many limit the amount of time a non member can speak. The committee is made up of a school board adviser, a district adviser, parents, and other school staff. Only non district employees can be voting members. District employees only serve as advisers and may not out number voting members. Voting members are appointed by the school board. They advise the school board. Ours was integral a few years back in getting paras autism trained. While they did not make it happen they got on board with it and let the school board know yes this was something greatly needed in the district.

To find out about these organizations, what they do in your district, and how to contact: check out your districts website or call and ask. Not all district websites are user friendly. I know ours is multiple clicks to find anything on it. If you have a Parent training center call them and ask them what other organizations serve the special needs population of the district.