TPP 148: Advocating for School Success for Kids with Special Needs
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
53 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 12 hours ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What should parents know before their first IEP meeting?
Just as a word of advice to parents, in most cases, you're going to still be in that school after the IEP meeting. And you want to maintain your relationships. You want to have as positive a relationship as you possibly can with all the school staff. Whether it's an advocate or an attorney, you want that meeting to be as collaborative as possible. Even if you've had some problems or some things that you don't think have gone right, you want to try and mend those differences rather than exacerbate those differences.
Welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. My name is Debbie Reber, and I'm the host of the show. And today we're going to do a deep dive into the subject of advocacy. Specifically, advocating for our unique learners in school. To talk us through this big subject is former educator and now current special needs advocate Rich Weinfeld. Rich and the 25 educational consultants who work with his Weinfeld Education Group. provides direct special education consultation services to families of students with special needs, as well as provides extensive parent and staff training and consults with schools about appropriate programming for students.
Before founding the Weinfeld Group, he served as the first full-time coordinator of programs for students who are simultaneously gifted and learning disabled for Montgomery County in Maryland. When I knew Rich was coming onto the show, I reached out on the Tilt Parenting Facebook page and asked for questions you had about advocating for your children in school. Thanks so much to the many of you who sent in great questions. Rich was really generous with his time and we actually got through just about all of them. Thank you so much. And now here is my conversation with Rich. Hello, Rich. Welcome to the podcast.
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Sure. This is such a great topic to talk about for our audience today. And I actually posted in the Tilt Parenting Facebook group that I was going to be speaking with you and asked parents if they had questions about advocating for their child in school, and I got a whole bunch. So we're going to do our best to get through those. But before we get to that, just as a way of getting started, could you just introduce yourself, tell us about who you are and the work that you do and kind of your role in this conversation?
I'm glad to. My name again is Rich Weinfeld, and I'm currently the executive director of Weinfeld Education Group. And we are a group of advocates or special education consultants that help families who have children with special needs help to make sure they have appropriate services and school placements. And we do that by interfacing with the schools and attending meetings with parents and, again, making sure kids are getting what they need. And would you like me to go into my background a little bit? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I'm actually in my 44th year as an educator. Started off long ago as an elementary school teacher. Spent 30 years in Montgomery County Public Schools right outside of Washington, D.C. in a variety of positions, mostly in special education, teaching, instructional specialist, some administrative work.
Finished my career as the director of programming for twice exceptional students, which was a fabulous position. Got to work with really interesting students and their families and Montgomery County is one of the few public school districts in the country that has special programs for these students. So that was a great experience. Retired from career one now about 15 years ago and started doing advocacy work, which has led to the development of this wonderful group, Weinfeld Education Group. And also in the process of the past 15 years, I've co-authored six books that relate to special needs students, do a lot of training, talks, participation in conferences related to those special needs topics.
So that's kind of it in a nutshell.
So fascinating.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What should parents know before their first IEP meeting?
0:00–6:31
2
How does Rich Weinfeld describe his role and background in special‑needs advocacy?
6:31–14:26
3
What are the key steps an advocate takes when evaluating a child’s needs?
14:26–21:47
4
When should families consider hiring an attorney instead of an advocate?
21:47–28:50
5
How did the 2017 Supreme Court decision (Andrew F. v. Douglas County) change IEP expectations?
28:50–34:21
6
What strategies help parents address behavior that stems from a disability?
34:21–39:51
7
How can parents effectively request a paraprofessional or other supports despite cost concerns?
39:51–46:32
8
What resources and events (like the Diamonds in the Rough conference) are recommended for learning about twice‑exceptional students?
46:32–53:11
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
TPP 266a: A Conversation with Poet and Advocate LeDerick Horne
TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
TPP 091a: A Conversation With Steve Silberman About His Book “Neurotribes”
TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids