As we all know, having a child with special needs may require a lot of effort at home and a ton of effort working with schools to ensure your son or daughter is receiving the services they need.
Peter was hazed into the special education world in 2007, and has been working for others since 2010, and full time since 2014 when he was laid off from his systems maintenance programming job. He is still debugging, but special ed problems now instead of computer code.
Amy Munera is the current president of Autism Society San Diego, and has served on the board of directors for the past seven years. She is the mother of three autistic boys, ages 11,14, and 17, and is an active volunteer in the local autism community in San Diego County.
Dr. Gunn is a licensed psychologist and owner of Gunn Psychological Services, Inc. His experience has included work in a pediatric hospital, teaching or supervising at various Southern California Universities and providing therapy and assessment services to children and adults.
Sandra Dixon Shove is a former elementary educator, a non-attorney special education advocate in private practice, and a longtime Autism Society affiliate leader.
“California Regional Centers are nonprofit private corporations that contract with the Department of Developmental Services to provide or coordinate services and supports for individuals with developmental disabilities. They have offices throughout California to provide a local resource to help find and access the many services available to individuals and their families.”
Ok, so that is from their website, but you might wonder what it is they actually do, are they any good, who has access to them and for how long.
Mishon Johnson, California native and mother of three boys first began advocating for her 2nd born son, Evan, who was diagnosed with Autism at the age for 2 in 2014. Evan was in early intervention at the age of 16 months when regression was noticed. The transition of advocating was helped tremendously by her extensive background in the child development field for over 15 years.
Leigh’s 25 years in special education advocacy began with her autistic son. He was in a low-expectation special day class with only four picture icons to communicate and now he attends a four-year university. This was due to extensive determination, persistence, and advocacy.
Anne has been a special education and disability resource lay advocate since 1991, a paralegal since 2005, and an educational psychologist since 2013.
Mediation is an opportunity for the district administrator (in many cases the special-education director) to sit down with a family and negotiate in the presence of a mediator. Typically, the mediator is an administrative law judge (ALJ). And the mediation usually takes place at the school district office.