7 Tips to Win at Your Case Conference

Who is the winner?

If you thought of an adult or group of adults, you need to rethink.

Why two sides of that big table?

You are not on opposite sides of the table to indicate you are on opposite teams.
  A round table would be nice, but realistically, illustrating the equality of those at the conference table is surely not the best way to spend educational funds.
The photos below illustrate metaphorically how you see a different view of the wonderFULL kid.
  Two of the views are directly across from each other.  Two others seem totally unrelated.  One even totally misses the big issue.  There's even a lovely rainbow.  Many, many more views are possible, some similar and some different.

Four Views of Hundreds from
Around Kilauea Crater, 10+ mi across

Don't mistake someone's different style for disinterest/not caring/whatever.

Opposite side of the table, remember?  They have WonderFULL Kid to be concerned with, plus umpteen other WonderFULL Kids, laws, $$$$, the headache of a disrespecting system.  They aren't even going to tell you about their private issues.  They definitely do not need parents disrespecting  them too, even if you are right about whatever.

Plus, while MyGuy and i may know Max best at home, what's seen at school could well be, probably is, 180 degrees different.  (see LH photos above).

Keep talking, don't stop talking!

Every step of the way, all year long.  Sometimes i think Max's teacher is annoyed by how much i want to talk.
  Hey, Max sure isn't going to tell me what's going on.

This year has been busier than last.  Last year we had everything laid out before the conference and the meeting was just a matter of formalizing what we had been talking about for months.  

This year, we actually had a disagreement.

Be prepared.

Ok, after 17 years with a kid in special education, i've amassed quite a collection of procedural safeguards.  Actually, i don't even read them anymore.  i read the actual laws - much more useful to me.  But in the beginning, those procedural safeguards were way over my head.  Take them, study them, know your rights.  As Karen Rusk of IN*Source says, "Parents are a part of the Case Conference Committee.  Decisions should not be dictated to the parent but the parent should participate in the decision making. This is one of the six basic principles of IDEA."
IN*Source is one of the wonder-full support sources in Indiana.  You can also check out ASK. Indiana Resource Center for Autism has local resources, as well as online ones available from any internet connection.  While The Arc of Indiana, and its affiliates throughout the nation, are not specifically related to education, they are also a source of support. 

Ask anyway, but be nice.

Remember, we learned everything we needed to know in kindergarten.

In our abbreviated conversations, i told Wonder-full teacher that we wanted ESY (extended school year; feel free to think summer school, though it's technically different).  She  told me her data didn't support that.  It didn't look like Max would regress over the few weeks' summer break, from late May until August 1.  

i asked anyway.

State law does not require that the ESY be done by school staff or on school premises.  Previously, we had done a different program which worked very well for Max, at a cost of under $300.  (At one point, and my numbers are shaky, i was told ESY costs about $1500.)

i asked for this program again.

The answer was no.

i said, But what about these figures here, on the evaluation?  You have data; on our report, there is less data and where there is,  it's lower.  Doesn't that indicate a need?

Quickly, everyone moved in. Home isn't supposed to be as structured as school. But Max needs structure.
ESY, no. Structure, yes.
Let's look at other ways of finding that.

Within five minutes, we had the beginnings of a structured volunteer work program, to be implemented with caregiver support if possible, and possibly using bus transportation to the food bank.  

We have a PLAN.

We have responsibilities for attempting to implement it assigned.  

It will be better for Max than what i asked for.

It will be less $$$$ for everyone.

And no one would have thought of it if i had simply said, "Oh well, no ESY."

Keep talking nice, don't stop talking nice!  Remember who's the winner.

Please don't think i'm saying it's easy.  Sometimes it's harder than other times - i have HAD much harder experiences than this - sometime i'll tell you about it.
It's always worthwhile, though, to be prepared and calm.

Don't think, though that our conferences have always gone smoothly!  Take a look at Learning Pains for another view.
3/24/17 And tonight i'm blown away by the energy & diligence i showed then.  Wow.  Maybe because i'm older & less energetic, but that looks like some different person.