Education Experience Unlocked: What is an advocate and who may need one? You're not alone.

Having been in education for so long, I hear about families who retain advocates to help them fight for their child’s right to an "appropriate" education ( I don't care for the term nor how it's implemented but that's another story for another day). For much of my career, the connotation of this concept of having an advocate was negative. Schools didn’t want advocates to be at meetings, and teachers were told not to say certain things during the meetings. Now, I don’t know about you, but for me, as a parent, just be honest with me. There is nothing more frustrating than having my time wasted, especially when the topic of discussion is my child. I don’t want the “right” answers or fluff just because you perceive that it will cause me to stop asking questions. Yet, when I speak with families now, it seems that they are only given certain information, the information that schools want them to know, and not all of the information.

Many parents are asking the right questions but they hesitate to ask more questions for fear of retaliation. I can say this from experience. Several years ago my high achieving, advanced child was suddenly failing writing. Everyday was another iteration of “the teacher hates me” or “I’m just not good at this, nothing I do is right”. After several conferences, it was clear that something was off, way off. It wasn’t until I saw firsthand how this teacher interacted with my daughter that I confirmed my worse fear as a teacher and mother: this teacher really didn’t like my kid. So much in fact that the teacher advised me to remove my child from the class. My mom hat was ON FIRE. To be told that an adult didn’t care that my child felt this way, and that they had no intention of mending the relationship was mind blowing. My teacher brain flew into overdrive as I recalled the way that the more challenging students I had taught over the years, were in fact some of my fondest memories and greatest lessons. My daughter was removed from that class the next day. Don't play with my babies!

Fast forward a few years, and now my youngest child is sitting in a class with a teacher who hands kids a laptop and expects them to teach themselves math. Pleas to administration for support go unheard. Kids continue to suffer and are unable to grasp the concepts and even me, as a teacher, hit roadblock after roadblock when trying to rectify this situation. Other families were voicing their concerns and still no action. It became evident that the problem was not going to be addressed.

If any of this sounds like your situation, you may need an advocate.

Advocacy in today’s education environment are much needed. Schools are more pressed than ever to meet the demands of their district and state. Teachers are then handed never ending lists of one size fits most requirements. There is no longer freedom for teachers or students within the classrooms. This creates deficiencies in student skills. Kids aren’t met where they’re at with the information they need most. The concept of an “appropriate” education as required by federal law under FAPE has become far too subjective.

Advocates serve to educate families on the possibilities of the educational system and support them in conversations with schools. This need is exactly why I left the classroom to support families. You may be thinking, ok, how do I know if I need an advocate? First, do you feel your child is receiving a quality education? Do you see them struggling and feel that the school is not acting to help them? Do you receive timely feedback from the teacher/school regarding academic progress? Is your child showing academic growth over time? If your answer to any of these is no, then you could benefit from advocacy support.

At this point, I view advocates as a bridge between families and schools. Where schools speak in lingo and acronyms, advocates speak in both school language and parent language. They know what’s legally required of schools, even when a school isn’t ready to admit it.

Experiences should be learned from and should be used to benefit others. What good is fifteen years inside of public, private, and charter schools, if I keep my experiences to myself? What good are the struggles that we have endured as a family navigating through the education system if we don’t use them to help other families? My answer: no good. So, that’s why Illuminated Futures exists. It’s why I’m completing national board certification courses in advocacy. It’s why I write this blog. This is why my free resource focuses on questions parents should be asking and the reasons for asking them! (It's automatically sent when you Sign Up on the home page btw! Totally FREE) Hopefully someone, somewhere, who is feeling frustrated or overwhelmed, like so many do, will realize that there is hope. Together we can fix education, one conversation at a time.