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Assessment Plans
What is the assessment plan, and why is it important? The assessment plan is a document provided by your child’s school when the IEP team...

Sarah Tira
Dec 7, 20202 min read
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Manifestation Determination
Has your child’s teacher or principal ever called and asked you to pick up your son or daughter early from school because of a behavior...

Sarah Tira
Nov 30, 20201 min read
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Thankful for Teachers!
In special education advocacy, I hear much more about what school districts are doing poorly than what they are doing well. It’s the...

Sarah Tira
Nov 23, 20201 min read
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AAC Modeling
When a child requires an Augmentative or Alternative Communication (AAC) device, it is so important to include modeling the device as a...

Sarah Tira
Nov 17, 20201 min read
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Behavior is Communication
As a professional in the world of special education, the phrase “behavior is communication,” comes up frequently during discussions with...

Sarah Tira
Nov 10, 20202 min read
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Self Advocacy
In most cases, if your child has a disability, it is going to impact them in some way for the rest of their life. Because of this, it is...

Sarah Tira
Nov 2, 20203 min read
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IEP Goal Progress Reports
IEP goal progress reports are an essential piece to ensuring a parent’s participation in the IEP process. As the parent, you have a right...

Sarah Tira
Oct 26, 20201 min read
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Present Levels of Performance
Arguably, one of the most important parts of an IEP is the present levels of performance (PLOP). Without this section, the IEP team...

Sarah Tira
Oct 19, 20202 min read
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Diploma versus Certificate of Completion
Part of the conversation IEP teams have in high school involves whether or not a child should work towards a certificate of completion or...

Sarah Tira
Oct 13, 20202 min read
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Assessment Timelines
With all of the uncertainty surrounding education at the moment, it is reassuring to know that the federal government did not grant any...

Sarah Tira
Oct 7, 20202 min read
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California OAH Decisions
The California Office of Administrative Hearings recently finalized some cases related to distance-learning. These cases are a positive...

Sarah Tira
Sep 29, 20202 min read
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“But his grades are fine.”
One of the most common reasons I’ve heard school districts give about why a child doesn’t need special education assessment is because...

Sarah Tira
Sep 21, 20201 min read
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Camping
We are camping this week! As a mom with two young boys, when we go to a new campground I naturally have some worries: will the campground...

Sarah Tira
Sep 14, 20201 min read
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Telehealth Waivers
I have seen this waiver and others like it circulating through social media. While it looks harmless at first glance, there is no need...

Sarah Tira
Sep 7, 20201 min read
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Welcome Back!
Some of you have been back at school for a while now, but many of my clients are just now starting up the new school year. School looks a...

Sarah Tira
Aug 31, 20201 min read
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Transition Planning
While I was teaching high school, I became well-versed in transition plans. I wrote them yearly for my students, and I figured out ways...

Sarah Tira
Aug 24, 20203 min read
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Why Advocacy?
In light of the current educational climate, advocacy is more beneficial than ever! Most parents don’t have time to do all of the...

Sarah Tira
Aug 17, 20201 min read
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IEP Goals
As the school year begins digitally, many children will need to be explicitly taught different skills than they are used to using in the...

Sarah Tira
Aug 10, 20201 min read
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SB 98
Make sure to pay attention to what your local educational agency, most commonly the school district, is doing over these next couple of...

Sarah Tira
Aug 4, 20201 min read
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Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
As a parent, you have probably come up with a great system over the years to understand your child. But, as your child grows and becomes...

Sarah Tira
Jul 27, 20201 min read
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