Taking the Mystery of Special Education for Parents

New local DVD helps parents see they’re not alone

By MARK STEIGENGA
Daily News Staff Writer

Laurie Bush remembers feeling totally lost at her son’s first IEP.

“I had no idea what an IEP was. The call from school was a big surprise. They told me my son was struggling in reading and he was falling behind. I just agreed to everything they said. They send you this big packet of stuff and it is overwhelming.”

That was first grade. Now that her son is a freshman at Ludington High School, Laurie Bush is well acquainted with Individualized Educational Plans. She knows who will be present at the annual IEP meeting. She knows she can take someone with her. She knows she can call other parents for ideas and support.

“If I had only had the material available to parents now when my son was in first grade, it would have answered so many questions,” says Bush.

“Our goal is to empower parents,” says Dick Bourgault, Mason-Lake Intermediate School district coordinator of monitoring and quality assurance, introducing a video released by MLISD this fall. “We want parents to know that the things they are feeling are normal. Above all, we want them to know that they are not alone.”

For many parents, including Laurie Bush, entry into the special education process begins with a referral from a teacher.

Bourgault describes the process.

“Once a referral has been made for a student with disabilities, a letter goes out calling the child’s parents to a meeting. In the past, the letter would go out with a booklet filled with legal jargon describing such issues as the Impartial Due Process Hearing, the Placement in an Alternative Educational Setting, Referral to An Action by Law Enforcement and Judicial Authorities, and the Authority of a Hearing Officer.

“The reaction was, ‘Oh, my God.’”

According to a study published during the summer of 2006 in EC, an official journal of the Council for Exceptional Children, the parental rights booklet distributed in Michigan requires a reading comprehension level of grade 15.9 — high college. Along the way the reader is expected to recognize a barrage of acronyms such as IEP, FERPA, FAPE and MET.

“It was pretty overwhelming — not something you cuddle up and read on a Saturday night,” Bourgault says.

“A long time ago we realized that there had to be some kind of a supplement to this that was in a more user-friendly format.”

So, 10 years ago Bourgault put together for MLISD a version of the legal booklet that went through the material step by step in a series of questions and answers.

“It was meant to be more parent friendly, but it was still an augmentation of the legal material.”

Then came the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997.

“When IDEA took effect in 1999,” explains Bourgault, “there were a lot of significant changes in the law that our current book didn’t cover. We were waiting for the dust to settle before re-doing the parents’ rights booklet, which was probably going to be a re-do of the old version.”

Enter the PAC.

Meeting at each of Michigan’s 57 intermediate school districts is a district’s own group of parents known as the Parent Advisory Committee — one parent of a child with disabilities from each school district served.

It was this group at Mason-Lake that Dick Bourgault approached two years ago with an idea.

“I came in and said, ‘Hey, there has got to be a better way to communicate this stuff and I think we should look at a multi-media production.”

PAC President Melissa Wagner describes the reaction.

“It wasn’t like we had this vision immediately. I think at first we had this idea of a PowerPoint. Then it really morphed into something much bigger.

“Being a parent group, it was the perfect kind of project for us to grasp on to. It is right up our alley — it helps parents, it helps administrators and teachers, and we believe it can have a lot of impact.”

During 2004-05, the PAC met once a month to look at the charts Bourgault would put up on the wall.

“I would ask, ‘What do we want to say in this project,’” Bourgault remembers. “So they started going through the old handbook picking out the most important things they knew from experience parents wanted to hear.”

“We didn’t think parents needed to hear about mediation in the beginning phases,” says Wagner. “We wanted to start the video by trying to solve learning and behavior problems without special education. We wanted to get the message across that there are better ways to deal with kids, and we wanted parents to be aware of that.”

The DVD offers a new message to parents.

“The message in the old handbook,” says Bourgault, “was this is really heavy stuff and if you don’t like what we are saying about your child, you can take us to court. It did nothing to embrace parents. We needed something that would take the shock and awe out of special education.

So, the group decided on a video portraying that parents are not alone.

“They are not the first ones on earth to have a child who is struggling. In fact, probably 35 percent of children fall into that high-risk zone.

“We wanted to show empathy to them that they do have feelings and we need to have respect for that.”

“In fact, the special education process is more of a collaboration between schools and teachers and parents,” says Wagner. “It is not schools against parents. We want to break down the old barriers and let people know this is really about trying to do what is best for their child and doing that without maybe having to jump right into special education.”

The new special education process video highlights just how much education has changed in recent years, according to Bourgault.

“Ten years ago when a student was struggling everybody automatically thought, ‘That’s going to be one of those special ed kids.’ We have had to retrain people to realize that there are a lot of kids who struggle for a variety of reasons, and it may not mean special education. If we do the right things early enough and work together, most problems can be dealt with successfully.”

And even when special education is required, the process, says Bourgault, is much more inclusive these days.

“Special education used to be sending the student down to the resource room. Now it’s far more about what can be done in the child’s classroom rather than having to pull them out in special classes.”

The special education video outlines much of the process.

“People are given a step-by-step heads up on just what will happen,” say Bill Mueller, director of special education at Mason-Lake.

“We identify all the people who are present at an Individualized Educational Plan meeting so parents are not walking in blindly. We tell parents what these people will be talking about at that first meeting.

“So, before they even walk into the IEP, they know why everyone is there and what they can expect will happen. After all, it is intimidating. That’s your baby they are talking about, and to know ahead of time is to reduce anxiety.”

The video goes on to show the forms that parents are asked to sign.

According to Bourgault, it also shows parents that there are a lot of other things schools should be doing before just putting students in special education.

“It holds the schools more accountable. Nowadays, all the educational pieces must fit together. You can’t just put kids across the hall. You have to find ways to help these kids connect better to the general curriculum.”

“For parents to find out a lot of things their school should be doing, that’s huge,” says Wagner. “It puts parents on an equal playing field.”

At its end, the video wraps around to the positive results possible through good teamwork between parents, teachers, administrators, and special education staff.

“Most of the time people work out great programs for kids and kids are successful,” says the narrator. “Remember all those dreams and hopes you have for your children? Well, these kids do end up graduating.”

Bill Mueller hopes that in the months ahead his PAC members can be invited to each local school building to show the video to the entire staff in order to share these concepts.

Two weeks ago, just such an event took place in Baldwin.

At the end of the showing and subsequent discussion, Baldwin Schools Superintendent Randy Howes said. “Three years ago an attorney came to present much of the same material and the staff became very defensive. After seeing this video staff reaction was, ‘This presents us with a whole other way of dealing with problems.’”

“If I had only had the information this DVD presents when my son was first referred for special education,” says PAC member Laura Grabowski. “I saw one mom burst into tears when she discovered she was not alone.

“When you first receive the word, you feel like you are the only one out there. Then you learn that there are many others and that parents really do have a lot of control.”

Grabowski’s first recommendation to parents is to get the DVD and watch the video if they have any concern that their student may be struggling with learning or behavior issues.

“This is a presentation from a parent’s perspective,” adds Dick Bourgault. “It is by parents for parents, and anyone who asks can get a copy.”


NOTE: Here is how to obtain a copy of the DVD.

From - Dick Bourgault - Ludington

Wednesday, October 18, 2006 - 2:50 PM


I am thrilled to see so many people interested in the PAC DVD for Parents. Please contact me at the Mason Lake ISD in Ludington, Michigan. (231) 757-3716 to inquiry about copies. Thanks.