 Exceptional
Education: Getting Parents Involved
Parental Advocate's Self-Profile
Answer all of the questions in this profile to assist you to prepare yourself to enter the Exceptional Education Process for your child. Use this profile to help you identify areas you will need to gain more information on so as to be better able to advocate for your child's needs at school in a more effective and efficient manner.
1. Description of my child:
My child is:
What I love most about my child is:
What worries me most about my child is:
My child has the following characteristics which impede learning or every day
functioning:
My child's strengths are:
My child has problems with:
My child needs the following tools for the future:
2. Description of my child's exceptionality
My child has this educational exceptionality:
My child has the specific condition called which means that this causes my child to
have problems with:
This is how we the child's parents and family members have handled the reality of this
disability or exceptionality:
The exceptional education program my child is currently enrolled is:
At this school:
With these teacher(s) and/or therapist(s) involved with my child:
My role in my child's education is to be:
I would rate myself on how well I advocate for my child's lifelong needs as:
3. Future Needs of My Child
Looking into the future, this is how I would describe how I hope my child will have met
the following basic human needs in fifteen years from today:
career training or employment:
- advanced education or training
- specific career or job training
- employment
housing:
- group home
- supported living facility
- own apartment with supports
- own apartment or home
food:
clothing:
- purchase
- cleaning and care of
finances:
- earning
- budgeting
- planning
transportation:
- use of public transit
- self transporting
medical-dental care:
legal advocacy:
4. Parental Advocate's Self-Rating Summary:
This is how I would rate how my child's current school-based education and home
based training is preparing my child for the bigger picture in fifteen years:
I believe the job of seeing that my child is receiving life skills preparation belongs to:
I believe that the person who is in the best position to be my child's advocate to ensure
that my child is capable of having all those needs met in fifteen years is:
I need to learn more about the following in order to become a better advocate for my
child's lifelong needs:
My child's exceptional education program can help me to help my child become
prepared to meet these future needs by:
This is the reason it is important for me to get more involved in my child's educational
program:
This is how I would rate how well I do in following up with my child's
teacher(s) and/or therapist(s) in:
- communicating about my child's strengths and weaknesses:
- monitoring my child's progress in the program and classroom:
- carrying over school taught behaviors into the home environment:
- positively asserting for appropriate and needed services for my child:
- representing my child at all staffing and IEP meetings:
- identifying my child's and my rights under IDEA, PL 94-142, other Federal Laws,
State Statutes and State Board of Education rules
Circled below are the feelings I experience when I deal with my child's exceptional
education program and staff:
- angry capable frustrated adequate peaceful happy
- tense helpful mad zany uneasy nervous
- frantic left out valued overwhelmed knowing certain
- glad calm satisfied determined scared excited
- ignored confident awed talkative organized confused
- worried fearful
Note to myself:
As a result of completing this profile, what have I learned about the necessity of my
involvement in my child's exceptional education program?
| 
Coping.org:
Tools for Coping
with Life's
Stressors
Coping.org
is a Public Service of James J. Messina, Ph.D. & Constance M. Messina, Ph.D.,
Email: