needing advice on how to get advocate

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Are there any parents with aspergers on here that have a child with aspergers and you seem to hit a brick wall when it comes to advocating for your child? I have been trying to get an advocate to help me get the needed services and most appropriate school placement for my son. He is currently in a level 3(most restrictive learning environment) and has the abililty to learn. At the end of last year, he was at mid first grade with his achademics( he was in first grade that year). Now, he is finishing second grade, and he is just finishing up with mid year first grade work, AGAIN. His current school is only focusing on behaviors, and not achademics. I found out last December that they ditched his IEP for their own "plan". It only contained behavior goals. I had to demand that they put his needed achademic goals on it, and they did, but are not working on them at all. I am so frusterated. Any ideas please?

I have no kids so I can't help with your question, but if I were you I'd say where I am. The way through the maze might be different in different countries, or states/districts/whatever your area is divided up into. Maybe it's even different from one city to the next, I don't know.

I am in the U.S. and we have school districts. some cities have more than one district. Our current city has one district, but we are part of a new "learning community"where school districts from 2 counties ( a county is an area within a state that contains several cities) My main thing is dealing with my own district. My son is at a level 3 school(which the district pays for) and is mostly comprized of kids on the autsim spectrum. ( its where the local school districts send their autitic kids that with difficult(disrupting) behaviours. Its great as long as you aren't looking for an education for your child.

[quote="FrogGirl"] ( its where the local school districts send their autitic kids that with difficult(disrupting) behaviours. Its great as long as you aren't looking for an education for your child.

Oh, that stinks. I'm sorry to hear it. We didn't have the AS diagnosis when I was in school so I was in the classes with the NTs. I can't recommend that since I was bullied unmercifully through Jr High & High School, but the aspie school should certainly be educationally challenging, especially since some aspies are quite smart.

YES!! ! We can't play the social game and the purpose of school is socialization. Bullies are created by the school system and no matter what people like to think the bully is a key player in the social order, anybody who doubts this needs to come to a school meeting with me.
I have instinctively avoided socially complicated situations because I am no match for the bullies who always gang up against me.
I have NLD and wasn't aware of it until my son was in eighth grade and things got so bad that I consulted an attorney and she advised me to have him evaluated and then I found out that he has NLD which is a mild form of Asperger's.
When my son was young and would have problems at school I would listen closely to him and be able to figure out what was going on and I could explain to him what to do to avoid further problems. Finding out that we both had NLD explained a lot because the older he got the more complicated it became and now I am way out of my league.

I can't deal with the teachers or the IEP Team. I don't know what they expect, they will not listen to me at all and my son is in constant trouble at school. I can't find an advocate in my area and I have been totally lost.
I have started taking my son to a phsycologist who understands that my son's mental health depends on a positive learning environment at school and he is working to bridge the gap between us. I know some doctor's will write a letter but this is a whole lot more than that.
I think what really helped is that I explained my own difficulty to him. He has requested my son's records and is keeping in close contact with the school on a regular basis and this is part of my son's therapy.This seems to be a very positive step and the first positive step I feel I have made in this long and lonely process.
I have filed complaints in the past and that only makes things worse and the school system takes it out on the child. I have talked to several attorneys but Due Process is really just crap. Parents hardly ever win and if they do there is still no one to enforce the law. The bottom line is if they don't like you, they probably aren't going to be very nice to your kid. Telling them about your own disability could very well backfire, I suspect they know and use it to their advantage anyway.
My son gets very depressed when he is not with other kids or I would homeschool.
This has been the most stressful experience in my life. The irony of my situation is that I am a special education teacher myself and I teach in another system. I understand my students and work well with everyone in my role as a teacher but one time my son attended the same school I taught at and it was a total disaster.
I am sorry that I couldn't be more help to you but I think this is a real problem to be brought to the attention of disability advocates and our lawmakers.
Maybe someone here can give us some ideas.

FrogGirl,

From what you've said, your school district is in violation of IDEA, the federal law that governs special education services to children with disabilities (which includes all children with IEP's). The school is obligated to implement the IEP - it is a legal document. When you were given the IEP, you should also have been given something called "procedural safeguards" or something like that. It is supposed to tell you what your rights are, as a parent, in enforcing the IEP. You should read them, and possibly file a complaint. You might have a right to "compensatory education" for your child. In addition, if this school will not follow the IEP, you have a good argument for changing the placement.

WrightsLaw has a lot of information about children's rights to special education. They also have a section, yellow pages for kids, where you can look for resources (organized by state) that might be helpful to you/your child. Unfortunately, other than being organized by state, it's not very well organized - it's not broken down by type of resource (advocate, OT, PT) nor by geographical area of the state, but you might still be able to find someone who would be helpful to you. The site can be a bit overwhelming because it has so much information, but it's worth sifting through it - Pete Wright is a lawyer who specializes in this area and his wife is a social worker who works with him. They are an amazing team with tons to offer.

if you are in the united states
read the WHOS IDEA IS THIS
pamphlet