Tag: special education
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504 vs IEP: Which Does My Child Need?
504 plans and IEPs sound similar but are very different legal tools. Here’s how to tell which one your child actually needs, what each one provides, and what to do when the school pushes one over the other.
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How to Read Your Child’s Special Education Evaluation (Without Getting Talked Past)
Every single standard score on a special education evaluation has measurement error baked into it. If you get a report with a score of 81, the 81 isn’t a single fixed point. It’s the middle of a range. Depending on the test and the subtest, the actual ability the score is trying to capture could…
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The Special Education Paper Trail Schools Don’t Volunteer (And How to Find It)
The first time I sat through an IEP meeting where I felt completely outmatched, I left the room thinking the same thing every parent has thought at some point. “I have no idea if any of what they just said is actually true.” The school had a process. They referenced their process. They said things…
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Decoding What Your Child’s School Is Actually Telling You: From Vague Labels to Real Information
Schools use vague labels like “struggles with phonemic awareness” in IEP meetings, but most parents don’t know what those terms actually mean. Here’s how to decode the jargon and ask the right follow-up questions so you can actually understand what’s going on with your child’s reading.