For parents who need to communicate clearly, document concerns, prepare for meetings, and push for support without losing the thread.
This article focuses on New York, where the Committee on Special Education, or CSE, is the team responsible for determining special education eligibility and developing, reviewing, or revising a student’s IEP. In New York City, many public school IEP meetings take place at the child’s school, while district CSE meetings commonly serve students attending private,…
You’ve requested the evaluation. You’ve documented everything in writing. You’ve built your binder, whether by hand or with help. Now comes the moment all of that preparation has been building toward: the IEP meeting itself. I remember my first one vividly, walking into a room full of professionals who all seemed to know each other,…
Somewhere along the way, you started noticing things. Maybe it was your child’s teacher mentioning a concern at pickup. Maybe it was your own gut telling you something wasn’t adding up, the meltdowns after school, the way homework turned into an hour-long battle, the way your child seemed to be working twice as hard as…
Nobody tells you this when you get the diagnosis, but an IEP meeting is a fight, and you are walking into the ring whether you feel ready or not. That is not me being dramatic. It is me being honest about what it actually feels like to sit across a table from a team of…
Imagine finally getting the courage to ask for help. You’ve watched the signs pile up, had the hard conversations with your pediatrician, and you’re ready, really ready, to get your child evaluated. Then you’re told the wait is six months. Twelve months. In some places, eighteen. Not for treatment. Not for services. Just for the…
You just got the diagnosis. Now what? Maybe you already suspected it, maybe it caught you completely off guard, but either way, here you are holding a piece of paper that changes everything. And then come the remarks. Your child does this more than that, “compared to other students in his or her class.” You…
If you are reading this, something probably brought you here. Maybe a teacher said the word “evaluation.” Maybe a report card stopped adding up. Maybe you have known in your gut for a long time that your child is working twice as hard for half the result, and someone finally said out loud what you…
