FOR EMPLOYERS
Special Education Advocacy as an Employee Benefit
Right to Read offers companies the invaluable benefit of special education advocacy.
Families of children who receive special education services invest significant time managing their child’s educational, social, and, in some cases, medical needs. This often impacts employee mental health, causing stress and anxiety while negatively affecting the employee’s attention and productivity.
Parents of students in special education provide upwards of 10 hours weekly to support their child.
Parents coordinate with:
School teams for individualized educational plan (IEP) meetings. IEP meetings, while mandated only once yearly, can be more frequent if a child has a complex learning profile and/or is not making appropriate progress.
Classroom teacher(s) to ensure that the IEP is being implemented and the child is accessing the curriculum in the classroom.
Special education teacher(s) to ensure that the IEP services are being delivered with fidelity and the child is making appropriate progress on IEP goals.
Related service providers such as physical therapist, occupational therapist, assistive technology consultant, counselor, etc. to ensure that the child’s services are being delivered and the child is making appropriate progress on IEP goals.
Parents also may need to:
Secure additional support from outside private providers such as neuropsychologist, speech therapist, occupational therapist, counselor, etc. These appointments often occur outside the school day, and often occur during the workday. Getting the child to/from appointments and coordinating care across all providers takes a significant amount of time.
Reinforce skills through homework, which is a time-consuming activity for many families. If the child needs math support then they may have more math problems to reinforce a skill or if the child has dyslexia, then reading homework may require extended parental support.
Reinforce executive functioning skills by helping a child chunk out homework, map out timelines, or follow up with teachers.
Advocate for the child’s unique educational needs, which is different for each family, and could include researching service providers, learning educational regulations, preparing for meetings, and researching specialized instruction or related services to support their child.
Did you know that about 15% of children ages 3-21 receive special education services?
There are over seven million children who are classified with disabilities and receive specialized instruction under the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Following are the 13 categories of disability:
1. Specific Learning Disability (SLD) such as dyslexia and dysgraphia
2. Other Health Impairment (OHI) such as ADHD, epilepsy, or diabetes
3. Speech and Language Impairment
4. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
5. Deaf-Blindness
6. Deafness
7. Emotional Disturbance
8. Hearing Impairment
9. Intellectual Disability
10. Multiple Disabilities
11. Orthopedic Impairment
12. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
13. Visual Impairment (including blindness)
Special Education Advocacy educates and empowers employees so they can better support their child’s special education needs while being present and productive employees.
Why wait? Let’s support our special education parents today!
Direct benefits include:
Decreasing the learning curve for employees as they navigate special education – Right to Read’s advocate members inform parents of regulations and available resources, reducing the time needed to research.
Demonstrating a company’s sincere investment in employees and their families – Advocacy can be overwhelming, time consuming, and frustrating for parents. By offering this employee benefit you are supporting the employee’s wellbeing.
Alleviating the stress of finding a trusted advocate – Right to Read’s advocate members are vetted and have specialized training.
Differentiating employers – The Right to Read Advocacy benefit is unique and personalized to the employees’ needs. Right to Read Advocacy is the only special education advocacy organization that offers this benefit. The offering can be further customized to include seminars, e-learning, and relevant resources.
Getting started is easy as 1-2-3
01.
Connect with Right to Read Advocacy to determine the appropriate level of employee benefit offered at your organization.
02.
Communicate the benefit to employees through our personalized video message and landing page.
03.
Enroll employees to take advantage of this benefit!
Right to Read’s Special Education advocacy services are customized to the employee’s needs and could include:
Review of the child’s educational records
An actionable list of recommendations for next steps
Written communication with parents, school personnel, or other service providers
Preparation for and attendance at IEP, 504, or monthly data review meetings
Get started today!
If you are interested in offering this benefit to your employees, please email Jennifer Bernheim at jbernheim@righttoreadadvocacy.com, call 203-293-8601, or complete the form below and we will contact you for more information.