| Action | Revisions to comply with the “Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004” and its federal implementing regulations. |
| Stage | Proposed |
| Comment Period | Ended on 6/30/2008 |
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As a parent I constantly struggle to advocate for my child's education and if my rights were to be reduced or taken away I shudder to think what kind of education my child would be receiving. If they take away parental rights who then will be the watchdogs to make sure our children do not fall even further into the cracks? Instead of trying to take away parental rights they should be finding ways to include participation from more parents, they need to be coming up with more ways to monitor the schools, classrooms and the curriculum for our special needs children.
Without my parental rights I can’t imagine what kind of education my child would receive. Even with my parental rights it took me years and filing a state complaint to get a reading evaluation scheduled for my child who is 16 and doesn’t even have a base level for reading and this is only one small area I could go on and on about other issues that I have had to advocate for my child. I do not have the school calling me up and saying we think your child would benefit from this or that. No, it is I, the parent who has to request the needed services for my child.
You know it isn’t the children receiving special education that creates a financial burden it’s the schools who are willing to spend unlimited amounts of money to decline providing the needed services and often the needed services are much cheaper than the cost of the lawyers used to deny services.
I would think that Virginia would want to be the leaders in special education being a model that other states could learn from. These are our children and future adults who depend on others to make sure they are protected, educated, trained and given every opportunity to be as independent as possible and who most of the time have no voice of their own and depend on their parents to advocate for them. Why would Virginia want to deny them their voices?
Instead of trying to remove the rights of not only the parents but of the child/young adult themselves why isn’t someone using the energy to find ways to provide secondary education for those students who are not able to attend college but still need additional learning and who may benefit from the structure that the school environment provides for them. Why just dump them once they leave IDEA? What about establishing an IDEA part 2 for our children so they can continue their education (many of whom by the time the parents have fought for years are just finally starting to get the education they should have gotten from the start and by the time they get it, it’s time for them to leave the public school.)
Instead of asking to remove parental rights, why not ask for more parental involvement?
To me, I would have more trust and confidence in someone who wants my expertise on my child rather than one who wants to shut me out of the decision making pertaining to my child.
I can attest to you that should/when my child reaches a point in her life that she doesn’t need special education I will be rejoicing and celebrating not pushing for something she doesn’t need. I can honestly tell you, that it would be so much less stress, frustration and aggravation not to have to deal with special education that I can’t imagine many parents who would want to go through this year end and year out other than the fact that their child needs it to receive FAPE and isn’t the goal for all student’s including special needs students to prepare them for life after school? Thank you, Carol Villars
Trisha's mom
She isn't typical, She's Trisha!