Keeping Vigilant...

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Keeping Vigilant...

I have been trying to capture the right words to describe my week up in Virginia's William and Mary College of Law, for the ISEA (Institute for Special Education). While the week was both inspiring and informative, there is no doubt every parent, every family, every community will need to continue to be vigilant to assert their rights, if their child is to receive a fair and appropriate education. After meeting attorneys and a sprinkle of advocates from across the United States, the theme across our Country is disparaging – bordering on egregious. If you have a child with special needs, you MUST understand YOU WILL HAVE TO PURSUE these rights for your child.

One of my goals from the training, is to make sure I provide you with a road-map and resources. Having an active Advocacy and Educational Consulting practice, kiddos come first and the blog the least important on the to do list. I now realize, to help as many as possible, I need to drop in more often. We are in this together, you are not alone and you can learn how to work with your School or District. And if that is not possible, you can learn the best remedy you have.

Along with keeping the blog current, I am bringing back quarterly workshops. I am sincerely grateful for the overwhelming demand for the return of my workshops. I will be including both previous workshops (please remind me if you were on the waiting list) as well as a series where we dive deeper into individual groups. Next week I will post a calendar of subjects and dates. However, we will launch in September with the infamous "Binder Workshop". Managing your child's paperwork NOW and not when when in crisis. This workshop tends to be an eye opener, and where parents find out what evaluations their child is missing, or out of date. How to manage all the work samples you are saving and also how to build an effective communication log. This workshop is relevant to parents of children with special needs - as well as parents who have their children in a private school setting, and are looking to transition back to public school.

Remember to Keep Calm and Advocate! Robin

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Recommendations:

I highly recommend Robin Lucas for anyone seeking an advocate for their child. Robin helped us navigate the extremely difficult IEP process. She is very knowledgeable and explained the laws and procedures so that we were better equipped to engage in IEP meetings. She not only made us feel at ease but she also spoke with our child on the phone and helped her to understand that her learning disabilities made her unique. Our child became proud of her strengths and saw weaknesses only as areas of growth due to Robin's nurturing and kind words of support. If you choose to have Robin Lucas become part of your IEP team, I am confident that you will be more than satisfied with the support and expertise she brings to the process.

MJS - Cobb County, GA 1/17/2014

If you are having difficulty getting your school system to cooperate in the areas of identifying needs or disabilities, I highly recommend Robin Lucas. Robin attended our son's eligibility meeting with school and county level personel and was a tremendous help. She stepped into a stress filled room and kept the meeting focused on the needs of our son, in a lighhearted tone. I have been in many of these meeting over the years and have never experienced one go so smoothly. Robin's knowledge, experience and carefuly placed comments, made sure that our side was fairly represented. In the end we left the room with the eligibility my son needed. I truely appreciate the help she gave us and give her a double thumbs up!!”

August 30, 2011 Kellie Meckes

Robin has been my guardian angel! She has been helping me every step of the way with a very difficult IEP and I could not be more pleased with her professionalism, knowledge and accessibility. She has a no-nonsense, consensual style that really works! I highly recommend her to anyone needing advocacy services. - Michelle Stern Simon

Dear Fellow Parents,
I am writing this letter to acknowledge my positive experience with Robin Lucas.
Two years ago I was given custody of my eleven year old nephew. In addition to John’s issues regarding his mother, he was significantly behind in school and did poorly in social situations. When made to do work John felt incapable of doing, he would shut down and retreat into himself. If confronted with his behavior, he became angry. John’s special ed teacher suggested that he might have a conduct disorder.
As his therapist got to know him better, she felt that he might be on the autism spectrum and suggested that he be evaluated at the Marcus Institute. Thus began my journey to finally get some answers. After their initial evaluation, the Marcus Institute referred John for further testing by a neuropsychologist. The neuropsychologist diagnosed him as having Asperger’s Syndrome and a processing disorder.
While grateful that I finally had a diagnosis, I was overwhelmed with the responsibility of finding the best school for John and the best occupational therapy. I was in unfamiliar territory and felt very alone. Thankfully, it was at this difficult time that I was introduced to Robin.
From the beginning, Robin instilled in me the confidence that I could make good choices on John’s behalf. She brought me up to speed about how to go about finding the right resources. With her help, I felt prepared to call prospective providers and ask the right questions. When I narrowed my choice down to a specific provider, Robin accompanied me to the introductory meeting. She asked questions that only a person with her experience knew to ask. She has also guided me through the process of obtaining funding for John’s education beyond the SB10 dollars.
Despite all of the professionals who have evaluated John during this past year, Robin was the only person who suggested that he should be evaluated by a pediatric developmental ophthalmologist. Again I was in unchartered waters. Imagine my surprise when I learned that John had a significant vision problem.
So in addition to having Aspergers and processing difficulties, the child had been trying to learn all of these years with this undiagnosed vision disability. John has been in vision therapy for the past couple of months and is showing appreciable progress. Again, I was dumbfounded that while dealing with the best providers and resources for John, after reviewing all his evaluations, Robin was the only person I met who suggested his vision may be compromised.
I am grateful that I met Robin and that she has done so much to aid me in helping John.
Sincerely, Courtney S.

Saturday, August 23, 2014