What to do when school supports fall short

What can parents do when the school falls short in providing the right support for their child’s learning differences? How can parents avoid burning bridges while still advocating for change for their child?

In this episode of Opportunity Gap, host Julian Saavedra talks with Jamilah Bashir. Jamilah is an education consultant and IEP coach. 

Listen as Jamilah explains why a school may not be providing adequate support. And why having a detailed record of a child’s struggles is key when meeting with the school. 

We love to hear from our listeners. Email us at opportunitygap@understood.org.

Related resources

• Jamilah F. Bashir, MEd, The IEP Coach LLC

• Master the IEP Course by Jamilah F. Bashir, MEd

• Unilateral placement: Moving from public to private school

Timestamps

(02:23) Ways to tell if the school is providing the right support

(04:34) Ways to tell if your child needs more support

(07:40) Reasons why a school may have trouble providing support

(11:28) Why documenting your child’s struggles is important

(15:46) How to communicate with the school effectively 

(18:14) What do you do when you’ve exhausted all efforts to get your child the right support?

(28:30) What is unilateral placement?

Episode transcript

Julian: Imagine a ten-year-old student named Jamie who struggles with reading comprehension and writing. At school, the support is minimal. An occasional check in with the special ed teacher, but nothing really consistent or tailored to Jamie's needs. Jamie's parents begin to grow really frustrated with the growing gap between Jamie's potential and the school support. They know something needs to change, but they aren't sure where to start.

What can parents do when the school falls short in providing the right support for their child's learning disabilities? How can parents avoid burning bridges while still advocating for change for their child? What's going on, OG family? Welcome to a new episode of the "Opportunity Gap." I'm your host, Julian. Joining us today, we have a friend of the show. I'm so excited she's back. So. Let's give a welcome from the OG family to Jamilah Bashir. Welcome back.

Jamilah: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.

Julian: Oh yes yes, yes. You are a definite friend of the show. Please come on as much as possible because your expertise is needed. So, audience, let's listen to all about Jamilah first. She's a special education leader with over 20 years of charter, public, and private school experience. Yes, she was a classroom teacher, so she has lived this life and now she's an educational consultant and an IEP coach. She helps parents navigate the complex IEP process with peace and ease.

And she's from good old Philadelphia, stand up. So, we're really excited to have hometown in the building to talk about how we can get some of these special education problems and issues together. So Jamilah, welcome back to the show.

Jamilah: Thank you again, Season 4. So excited.

Julian: All right, so let's get right into it. You know thinking about Jamie and his parents really trying to figure out how they can support the child with concerns with how the school is progressing in terms of their individualized education programming. I'm wondering, can you start identifying some common signs a child's school might not be providing adequate support?

(02:23) Ways to tell if the school is providing the right support

Jamilah: Well, I would say from one, parents, always make sure you have a physical copy of your child's IEP because that will list the programming that they're supposed to have. It will list how many times they're supposed to see their latest service provider, how many times they're going to get their support, what type of accommodations and modifications they're supposed to receive.

So, make sure you always have a physical copy so that way you can kind of just check yourself. You know, you can be like, "OK, did my child get speech this week? Did they did they get pulled out or is the teacher pushing in?" Or however the programming is going to be?

I will say one of the first signs that your, the school may not be properly servicing your child is if they cannot answer any of your questions that you have regarding your child's IEP. That will be an immediate red flag. If you're constantly getting passed off like "Oh, I'll call you right back." And when they do call you right back, they can never answer your questions or you're getting passed off from one person to the next person to the next person that it possibly is a red flag that…

Julian: That's a red flag, like not having a consistent person to answer questions?

Jamilah: Right. Because when you when your child has an IEP, they have a case manager. They have someone who is responsible for making sure that their IEP, that other teachers are following their IEP, and they're the ones that will do your child's paperwork any time it has to be updated or anything, the case manager is going to do it. So, if your case manager cannot answer any questions, it's possible that case manager is new to special education, and it's possible that their school is not supporting them in a way that they need too, so that way they can answer your questions.

Julian: Got it. So, just for those listening, Jamilah's named a couple of really important terms that everybody should know. One, IEP or Individualized Education Plan. That's the legal document that outlines all of the different supports that your child should be receiving in school. And then secondly, a case manager. And that is normally a special education teacher assigned to your child to manage the programming of that individualized education program. Jamilah, can you tell us a little bit about like, what are some signs that you might notice from your child?

(04:34) Ways to tell if your child needs more support

Jamilah: I would just say, parents, you know, you talk with your kids all the time, so like your kids will tell you, "Oh, my teacher is this person. Oh, I went to see this person," or whatever. And you can say, "Well, who is that? What do you do with that person? What do you do with that teacher?" Make sure you get the names of the related service providers.

Julian: Yes.

Jamilah: And these are the people who will, related service providers are physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech counseling, hearing therapy. Those are related service providers. So, they're giving your child a service in relation to their IEP. So, all children may not require related service providers, but make sure you know who is providing service to your child. So, like who is the case manager for your child? So, who's going to be handling all of your child's special education paperwork?

If they do get related services, who are those related service providers? Get their names. Get their emails. And this way you can also ask your child about, "Oh, did you go see miss So-and-so today?" Or "Did you see Mr. So-and-so today? Oh, how are they doing?" You know what I mean? Because kids will tell you. You know what I mean? What happened in school. They're going to tell you who they saw. They're going to tell you something new.

"Oh, I went to this room today." You may say, "Well, what room?" And they're like, "Oh, we did, we was reading in that room or whatever." And you might put two and two together and say, "Oh, they might have got pulled out for whatever," but you can still even send an email to the case manager, say, "Oh, hey, my son or my daughter said they was at some room doing reading today. Oh, was that part of your programming?"

You know, you can send a follow-up to ask that, you know, if you're not 100% sure it was that an intervention they were getting? Is this part of their special education program? You can do that.

Julian: That's a great tip, right? To really one, have that running conversation with your child about how school is going. And you know, we had a whole episode about different questions you can ask your child that's outside of that "How was your day today?" Because, you know, if you say that you might get "Good" and that's it, right? There's different questions you can ask, but the tip of asking for specific people and specific experiences really is going to give you that insight as to what's happening in the school day.

A couple of other things I would put out there is, you know, you notice that your child is just struggling academically, like if your child's grades are dropping or if their homework grades are not getting where they need to be. If the child's behavior is changing.

Jamilah: Right, because that could mean a lot of different things.

Julian: You might see a little frustration, you might see that they're avoiding. They might see that the word "can't." If you start hearing a lot of "can'ts" when you talk about school, then those are all red flags for, continue conversation. Maybe you need to investigate right a little bit deeper. All right, so.

Jamilah: Because children are going to show you in their behavior. They're not going to always say, "Oh my God, I'm stuck." They're going to show you through their behavior.

Julian: Exactly. We want to make sure we give the schools the benefit of the doubt. And we want to make sure that they're clear and our listeners are clear. There could be a host of reasons why the school might not be providing that adequate support. What are some of the reasons why some schools might not be providing that adequate support?

(07:40) Reasons why a school may have trouble providing support

Jamilah: Because I've been a SPED teacher myself and I've been in situations, a lot of times it is the lack of staff, especially when it comes to special education, they could have had their special education staff cut. I mean, I remember one year we went from eight to 7 to 5. They was like, "Well, you don't need eight special education teachers." And we're like, Yes, we do," you know. So, I'll say one, is the staff.

Two, it could be, "Hey, that staff is not getting the training and support that they need." I can tell you that a lot of times that is the reason.

Julian: Yes.

Jamilah: Because you get pushed into everybody else's professional development. You know, you have your AP or a person might come in check on you, but there's no one that I'll say focuses on special education to be like, "Oh, we're gonna have a PD on progress monitoring, make sure everyone knows how to progress monitor. Make sure you are progress monitoring these IEP goals correctly." There's no one coming to say, "Oh, let's do a refresher, making sure we're writing thorough IEPs. Let's make sure section 2 is really thorough."

You know and doing a refresher like "Oh, what needs to go in this section?" Or when it comes to transition plans, you know, there's no one coming to teach you that, to model that, just like for students, you need modeling. You need to, you have to show, you have to show them how it needs to be done. And the same thing is with adults. But there is no special education PD, there is no special education coaching, none of that.

And it's like unless you have an administrator in your building perhaps, who used to be a SPED teacher and they know some things, so they will look out and make sure the team has certain things or has time to do what they need to do in regards to the extra paperwork that they have, you're off to yourself or you're relying on your other SPED colleagues to help you, and that's if they're willing to help you.

Julian: Or you can always listen to the "Opportunity Gap" in all of the podcasts in the Understood Podcast Network to get all the information you need, teachers, if you're listening. I mean I adjust, but in reality, you're exactly right. Like we're in a crisis right now across the country, right? It doesn't matter what demographic you're talking about, whether it's in the cities, whether it's in the suburbs, whether it's rural.

We have two factors happening, right? The number of students who have diagnosed learning and thinking differences. That number is increased. The number of certified special education teachers is decreasing the number of certified teachers is decreasing. So, the number of kids is going up, the number of teachers is going down. And schools are trying to scramble as much as possible to support their students.

And then, like Jamilah said, there's not designated training for teachers across the country. And so, we can hopefully appeal to those that hold the purse strings...

Jamilah: Yes.

Julian: To provide more funding for schools to get training, to get staffing, to get all the things that are necessary to support our students.

Jamilah: Or reach out to us at coach at "The IEP Coach," because we can definitely provide that for you.

Julian: Please plug. Please plug, because yes it's true. So, let's thinking about, documenting your child's needs, right? So, let's think about we know that there's a number of red flags that can come up. We know that there's problems and reasons why our schools are struggling. But as a parent or as a parenting adult, it's really important to have a detailed record of the struggles that your child is having when you're trying to advocate for support.

Jamilah, can you explain to the audience why is it so important to have that written, documented record of your child's struggles?

(11:28) Why documenting your child's struggles is important

Jamilah: That's very important because that will help, it kind of paints the picture of what your child really is having trouble with. Because think about it, if you say, "Oh, my child is struggling and reading," you might and it's like, "OK." But if you say my child struggles with decoding, sounding out letters, and here are some of the letters that they have trouble with, and my child has trouble with understanding what they read, when we do da da da da. When you go in detail is like, oh, OK. It really helps narrow down specifically the areas that you have trouble with.

That's just like, you know, you go to the doctor and you say, you don't just say, "Oh, I'm in pain." You say, Listen, my back is killing me. It's my lower back, is right in this area." So that way it helps the doctor pinpoint exactly how they're going to help you or service you. You do the same thing with your children when you have needs.

I always tell parents like, "Every school year, just have a notebook dedicated to your child, and use it. Like put the date and the time, and whatever you observe your child struggling with or doing, write it down.

So, whenever you have these meetings with the school leaders or the team at the school, you can say, "Listen, my child is having trouble in reading. Here is specifically what I'm talking about. And you can just read off like, listen, they can't. They have trouble sounding out words. They struggle with it. They struggle with trying to understand what they're reading. They read so very, very, very slow. I'm noticing that or something like that."

"Just having that detailed information helps the school figure out, 'Well, what kind of support can we give this student?' Because by you going in so much detail is like, 'OK, you may need an intervention.' Or it could be, 'Oh, we just need to do some more practice in these particular areas with these skills.' So, that really helps the school to pinpoint what your child is really struggling with."

Julian: So, you know, having like a notebook with the date, the time, the really brief observation. Anything else that families should be documenting?

Jamilah: Any communication you have with schools. I always tell parents like, "Listen, just sent an email because it has the time. It has the date. It documents who you talk, you know who you was emailing. That's an easy way to do it." When I was teaching, they would say, "Don't create no paper trail." But for me, being a SPED teacher, I needed a paper trail. Because yes, people get amnesia sometimes when you are reaching out for help.

Some people get amnesia like, "No, you did." And I'm like, "Yes, I did, and I can pull up their receipts of the emails. Yes we did. Yes, this parent did request XYZ". So, I always tell parents, "Send emails and also like I say, you have your notes, whoever you speak to on the phone, document who you spoke to on the phone and anything you've done at home with your child.

Like if you may say, "Oh, I've working with my child, document what you do at home. So, you may say, 'Oh, we do this three days a week. I read with my child for 20 minutes and I do,' you know, go in detail of what you do with your child or whoever helps your child with homework. Document who helps your child with homework. Put that in your notes too, because it helps the school as well."

Because sometimes, you know, as parents, your children react differently to you versus a sibling or versus maybe another family member, when you're helping them with homework, you know, so also document what you do for your child. If you get your child tutoring, communicate that with the school. Give them, is it OK for the teacher to communicate with the tutor?

Sometimes that's great because the teacher and the tutor can communicate and the teacher can directly tell the tutor, like, "Listen, this is what we're doing. This is we have upcoming in class," and they can give the tutor exactly what the skills they're going to be working on. So, whatever type of support you do for your child outside of school. Document that too.

Julian: Got it, got it. So, it sounds like, you know, you're basically telling anybody it's important to have the information that you want to communicate with the school, but also having a record of everything that you've communicated. And the whole idea is having effective communication with the school. We don't want to have tension. We don't want to have beef with the school. We want to be partners. And it's really hard sometimes to figure out how to effectively communicate these concerns. Can you give us an example of what it might look or sound like?

(15:46) How to communicate with the school effectively

Jamilah: Something that I always — and I've said this so many times on LIVEs that we have done — I'm just like "Parents, in the beginning of the year, it's OK to call a meeting with your child's team, their teachers, or whatever, because this can help you put names with faces. This can help you to say 'This works for my child, doing x, y, z.' You might even say, 'Listen, I can't help my child with homework. I don't have the patience.' Like you can just be honest to say that you know and just say…

Julian: I've heard that before, I've definitely heard that before.

Jamilah: I have parents that tell me that. So, they say, "Listen, my child has a tutor or my child's siblings, they help them with homework because I know I don't have the patience. I understand," and it's just like, it's just a great way to foster that communication with the school and especially with your child's teachers. So, they also know that they have your support and you know that you have their support. You know what I mean?

And it helps to foster that village because it truly takes the village to educate our children. And then also as the parent, understanding that the quickest way to communicate with the school is an email. It may not be a phone call because no one has time to, I want to say to stop, get on the phone, and call you.

I said, now a teacher, teachers know their schedule. They can say, "OK, I got 15 minutes. I can call you." So, you need to be clear what it is you need. What's the goal you trying to get out of this conversation because you can't be long winded. Like you need to know exactly what it is you need. And then also, you know, communicate that and via email because you're more likely to get a quicker response.

Julian: Great advice, great advice. And again, as an LEA, a local educational advocate, or an administrator myself, I always appreciate when a family reaches out through email and they give their time availability because then we can match schedules and then it gives us a chance to really be specific about what we're meeting about. So, that great, great advice.

So, let's say we have the meeting, right? We have the meeting with the school. We have the child. We have the teachers. We have the conversation. And, you know, we hope it goes well. But there are times we all know where it might not be the way that we want it to be, and it's not working out. And we still walk away from the meeting feeling like they're not getting the adequate support that you believe they deserve. So as a parent or a pending adult, what do I do?

(18:14) What do you do when you've exhausted all efforts to get your child the right support?

Jamilah: What do you do? OK. Because I have been, I've been in some heated meetings. So, one, if you are finding that, before I even get into that, I want to say parents, be clear on if it's a need that your child has or if it's just something you want. Be very clear on that, because sometimes as a parent, you may say, "Well, I want my child to have this program and that program, but your child may not present needs for that too." So it's like, be clear on "Is this a need that my child has? Or is this just something that I want?" Be clear.

Always focus on your child's needs. And I always say lead with your child's needs. Always lead with that. But if it is a situation where you're like, "OK, I had the meeting, I talked with the team and the school is still not, and it may not even be the school. It could be leadership on above the school because it's like in regards to like any programs or anything that has to be anything that's already not at the school, that is above the teachers at that school.

You know, that's something where, hey, you may not need to speak with the school team. You may need to have a meeting with the actual SPED director for the district, or your network leader for that particular, if you're in a charter school or something, it may not, it may be beyond the school, and that's who you need to meet with.

And there have been times I've had to tell parents, I'm like, "I don't make those decisions. I'm going to give you the name of the person who makes those decisions, who can give you better answers than I can, and I will even connect you via email. So that way them, because they may be more likely to open my email versus seeing you," you know, seeing the parent, you know, they're like, "Well, who is this person" or whatever.

Julian: Yeah, yeah.

Jamilah: And then also on my end having a conversation with that leader to say, "Listen, this parent has valid concerns of bom bom bom bom," so then that way, that's SPED leader or whoever can give the parent whatever type of questions they may have, they'll be able to answer it. Now, in that case where it's like, "Listen, I've gone through all of that. And I have proof. I have documentation that, listen, my child's not getting their programming. My child's IEP is not being followed." All of those things.

I tell parents, I say, "By all means if you have to — and I always say, this is your last resort — if you have to seek legal counsel, you go ahead and you seek legal counsel because it's a shame. But sometimes when legal counsel gets involved, that's when schools magically sometimes it's like, "Oh my gosh, here's some money. Oh, here's this, oh, we forgot about this other program we had." You know what I mean? And that is a real experience.

Julian: Right.

Jamilah: I've had that happen to me a couple of times, you know, and I've had some parents say "Ms Bashir, I'm not trying to make war work for you." And I always tell parents, I said, "Listen, you do whatever you need to do for your child. You always focus on your child. Don't worry about what I have to do, or if I have to do another meeting, or if I have to do another document for your child. Focus on your child's needs because ultimately, that's what we're here for. We're here to support your child, to help them thrive in their education, so that way they can have the best quality of life."

"That is the ultimate goal. We want to make sure your child is more independent than what they came, and ultimately you want to make sure they can have a great quality of life when they finish school. So, by all means, if you have to bring an advocate, if you have to include an advocate in this conversation, if you have to seek legal counsel to advocate for you, and so that your child can get what they need, by all means you do what you have to do."

Julian: Thank, thank you, thank you.

Jamilah: But then I also explain to parents that, "You know, when you do get legal counsel involved, our communication may stop because then our school lawyer is getting involved. So, you communicating with me may stop. And it'll just be your lawyer and the school's lawyer communicating." So, I will bring that to, you know, parents' attention.

Julian: Yeah. And, you know, I think a lot of what you said around the idea of one having somebody that's a trusted resource at the school to kind of walk you through what it looks like from the school zone really helps. So, building that relationship with the case manager or an administrator, or somebody at the school that can really explain step by step what it looks like. Especially like an administrator, because we know exactly what that process looks like. It's not new.

And if for families, if you're nervous about it or you know, you feel that you don't want to break a relationship with school, it's OK. Like, we, and I'm speaking as an administrator myself or I've been in legal meetings and I've gone through all of these things. It's really important to understand that ultimately, like Jamilah said, your child is your child and you do what you have to do to support your child. And schools understand that, right?

And so, there's one thing I wanted to throw out, where you might hear the word mediation as something as an option. Before you get to the formal like due process, a portion where you're bringing legal counsel in, like Jamilah said.

Say you've had a meeting with the special education teachers and the IEP team, and you don't feel like you're getting what you believe your child needs, then the next step would be you're having a meeting with maybe a special education supervisor at the school level, or maybe you might even have a meeting with the special education supervisor at the school district level.

And at that point, if you're still feeling like you're not getting what the child needs, then that's when you can formally apply for something called mediation, where an outside mediator hired by the state will review your case. You'll put an application in, they'll review the case, and then you'll have a chance to have a conversation with the school or a representative of the school district, and you and the mediator will be there, as, you know, somebody that's supposed to be completely objective.

Like they're not, they don't know everybody. They don't have a relationship with anybody. They're just objectively reviewing. And then if that still doesn't result in the thing that you want, then that's where, again, the legal process can start. And know that you don't always have to pay for a lawyer.

Like mediation is free. It's a provided service. You don't have to pay for that. And there's many advocate agencies that are out there in whatever state you're in that you can reach out to that are free. So, don't think that this is a cost to you. In some cases, it can be, but there's ways that you can work around that with advocates or educational consultants like Jamilah.

Jamilah: Can I explain one more thing? Is that OK?

Julian: Oh sure, sure. Please.

Jamilah: And then also, parents, if you, if your child already has an individualized education plan, an IEP, you get something called procedural safeguards every single IEP meeting. If you don't get them you should request it. But the case managers should be sending you procedural safeguards and those procedural safeguards it basically is explaining all your rights as a parent. It gives you resources and the county of where you live, where your child goes to school. It lists phone numbers, it lists agencies.

It is literally everything you need to know about your rights as a parent and what you have the right to, what your child has the right to do. And as a parent, what your rights are. And unfortunately, a lot of parents don't go through that and read it. But when I tell parents I'm like "Please, take a couple of days, read a few pages a night until you're done. Mark it up because it's for you.

If you need to get, if you need to go the mediation route is information in there for you to help you. If you need to contact an agency, there's agencies listed in the procedural safeguards. It's not just given to you as a formality. I mean, it is I mean, you have to give them. But I'm like, you have to read it. Don't just throw it off to the side and it gets lost. It gets covered. Actually read it because that's like one I want to say that's like your first go-to for information. If you truly feel like your child's not getting what they need."

Julian: Agreed. And the last thing I must say on that is, you know, thinking about where it's really like a contract, right? Where you have to read the fine print and it's a lot of paperwork. It's a lot of packets, it's a lot of educational jargon. And sometimes it's like, how do I even understand what's going on?

That's where finding that trusted person, whether it's an advocate, whether it's families that you know, have a child with an IEP that you trust, if there's community resources that you can reach out to, literally you can Google it, like educational advocate near me and look for advocates that will help. And they'll explain it or break it down to you in a way where you can get what you need. But don't feel like you're by yourself with this.

Like it's really important to, you know, do that initial reaching out, but also, you know, do your homework, you know, really read up on everything you need to read up on. And there's tons of resources out there, including Understood.org, so that you can find information about what you need.

So, last thing is just really thinking about worst-case scenario or best-case, depending on what your perspective is. You've had all these meetings, you've met with the advocates, you've finally decided that the school really is not budging. And this just isn't going to work for us. Like we we have to make a decision that this is going to work for us.

So, thinking about that, say a decision comes where your family decides you want to move your child to a private school to get what you believe will be a better special education experience. And when that happens, when a child is moved from a public school to an approved private school, this is called unilateral placement. If that happens, do you have to pay for that, or does the public school district pay for that placement?

(28:30) What is unilateral placement?

Jamilah: So, when that happens, you know you're going through everything and they find that, "Well, you know what? This public school is not the least restrictive environment for your child." And they say, "OK, we're going to give you an approved private school for your child." So, normally, from my experience there, it's a list of schools. And sometimes parents will find a school like, "Oh, this is the school. I've researched it." They'll give the information to the district that the student is coming from, and the school pays for that.

Julian: Oh, say that one more time just so everybody can hear that. So, do you pay for it or does the school pay for it?

Jamilah: The schools pay for that.

Julian: The school pays for it.

Jamilah: But they have to have documentation showing that, "You know what, this school was not the least restrictive environment for the child. And this is why we have to do an approved private school. They need more support than what we can offer here at this school or in this district," because sometimes, you know, hey, your child may need a new placement, and they can say, "Oh, we're just going to transfer to another school. This school has that particular programming, that particular placement."

If it's a situation where like, "No, listen, this is beyond what we can provide," the schools pay for that approved private school. And so, I've have friends whose children attend approved private schools, you know, and it's working for their child. And like my friends who have it, they knew the public school was not going to work for their child. They knew it from the gate.

Julian: Right.

Jamilah: But it's like you have to go through this process. You have to have the paperwork to support and show why, you know that this public school is not working for your child. So, and I want to say this is completely different than a parent just feel like, "Well, I'm just taking my child to another school" and they just take them out on their own. I want to say, if you do that, you know, you have to understand that private schools don't have to follow an IEP. They're not obligated to.

So, if you just willingly take your child out, and let's say your child was getting services in a public school and you take them out, "Oh, I want to take them to this private school over here," they're not obligated to sound IEP at all. They don't have to adhere to the same regulations that a public school has. Nor do they get the funding that, the federal funding that a public school does. So, sometimes parents don't know that. And they're like, "Well, my child has these knees," and that, and they're like, they could be like, "Well, that's beyond what we can offer. You got to take your child back."

You know, so that's important for parents to understand that. But when it's an approved private school, this school can give your child what they need. And this is why they're like, "OK, we'll pay for your child to go here in this." And just because you're in a charter school, it applies to charter schools as well. That charter will pay for that approved private school if they, if the, and I have, I got friend, I got too many people whose children are going to a charter school and they have approved private school for their child because the charter school cannot service their child.

Julian: I really appreciate you breaking that down, because it's important to just clarify and have those brutal facts, like, the reality is that there are times where that might be the conclusion that the school you're currently in, you can agree that it's not the best place for your child. And so, there's a potential where there is a process for the child to be unilaterally placed in a different setting. And the key is that it's a approved private school.

Jamilah: Right. It's approved by the district.

Julian: And so, the district has to approve that placement for it to be paid for. But again, if you choose to move them to a different school, then that's something that you're going to have to figure out on your own. And that's just the reality of it.

Jamilah: That's something very different. You know, when you like, "Oh, I want to get a new job, or you're searching for a house, you do your research.

Julian: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jamilah: You're going to have to do the same thing when it comes to these schools and real quick. Also, sometimes you have parents, they love this school. And it's like, wait, but they can't service your kid and you have some parents just like you have a decision to make. Do you want your child to stay? And I can understand that because you're like, "Listen, I love these teachers. My child is safe.

You know, he's, they're doing well. But it's like, they don't have that additional support that your child may need. And there are a lot of parents that are dealing with this now, like, do I keep my child here or do I take them out and send them to a school? And it could be across town. It could be not with their siblings, not with their friends." And that's a dilemma that a lot of parents are facing to.

Julian: I could talk to you all day about this. And, you know, I hope that you come back on the pod at some point later this season because there's other questions we need to jump into. But I just want to say from the entire OG family, we really appreciate you coming on. I'm always just blessed to have your knowledge and your experience and just the way that you're able to break it down in plain terms so that families can understand what they're up against and how to advocate for their child and support the school, but also support their kids.

Jamilah: And I appreciate you guys. I love this platform.

Julian: Oh of course, of course. So, number one Jamilah, can you share your website and your social media handles so that people can connect? And we're obviously going to put it in our show notes, but just so they can audibly hear. Where can we find you?

Jamilah: Sure. You can find The IP Coach at theIEPcoachLLC.com. And then on our social media we're pretty consistent. We're @theIPcoachLLC across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook.

Julian: And LinkedIn. Don't forget LinkedIn.

Jamilah: And YouTube, too. So, like and we go live every Tuesday. We talk about all things special education, 6:30 p.m., every Tuesday. So, if you have a topic that you would love for us to cover, you can definitely send us a DM. You can email us and we will definitely do that topic. We are very responsive.

Julian: Awesome. I thank you. And so, listeners you can always follow Jamilah on the different handles that she's shared. We'll put this in the show notes so you can find it. Listeners, I always advocate to check out all the resources we have on the episode page on Understood.org. And please, we want to hear from you listeners. So, please email us at opportunitygap@understood.org.

And last but not least, you know families, we talked about some really intense things tonight. Navigating the educational system when it isn't meeting your child's needs can be really challenging, but with the right approach, the resources, a plan, a notebook with dates and times and communication — save all those emails — you can advocate effectively for supporting your child so they get what they deserve.

Thank you so much for tuning in to the "Opportunity Gap" podcast. Until next time, family.

Thanks so much for listening today. We love hearing from our listeners. So, if you have any thoughts about today's episode, you can email us at opportunitygap@understood.org. And be sure to check out the show notes for links and resources to anything we mentioned in the episode. This show is brought to you by Understood.org. Understood is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with learning and thinking differences like ADHD and dyslexia. Learn more at understood.org.

The "Opportunity Gap" is produced by Tara Drinks and edited by Daniela Tello-Garzon. Our theme music was written by Justin D. Wright, who also mixes the show. Ilana Millner is our supervising producer. Briana Berry is our production director. Neil Drumming is our editorial director. Our executive directors are Laura Key, Scott Cocchiere, and Seth Melnick. Thanks again for listening.