Course Description

Parents often feel overwhelmed and frustrated by the entire process of special education.  There are so many people, too many acronyms, way too much paper, and too many meetings.  

Parents often feel worried. They sense that their concerns about their child’s needs or lack of progress are getting lost in all those details.

That’s because no one has told them how much power they have in the process.

This course changes that.

I hope to even the playing field a bit for parents feeling outnumbered at a table full of educational experts. During 15 years of successfully advocating services for both my son and for advocacy clients, I developed a simple formula that I will teach you in this course.

This formula will provide you with a structure that you can use to develop your own laser vision that will cut through superfluous details to get to the heart of the matter.

This course will be broken down into 5 modules. Each module is packed with strategies, case histories, forms, letter templates, and exercises that get you up to speed on what you need to know to be an effective advocate for your child.

There are 5 modules timed to take a week to go through.  Feel free to connect with me in my FaceBook group for questions relating to your child's situation.

Parent Mentor & Trainer

Cynthia Singleton

Cynthia has worked in the field of advocacy for over 15 years. She advocated successfully at the state level--writing the rules for services for Texas students with autism as a member of the Autism Rule Study Group (2006) and getting autism insurance reform passed (2007) and expanded (2009). At the school level, she effectively negotiated school services for both her son and her clients. Because she saw first hand the struggle that parents have getting their children the services they need, she became passionate to help as more parents than she could as a 1:1 advocate. She loves empowering parents and helping them feel confident as they take their seat at the ARD/IEP table.

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Know Who to Know

    • Finding Your Allies

    • Keeping Track of Who to Know

    • Review Of The Fabulous Four

    • Dealing With People, The Art of Negotiating Effectively

    • When to Work Over, Under, Around, Through

    • Overcoming Common Objections

    • Techniques for working with difficult personalities

    • The Ins and Outs of Complaints
  • 2

    Supercharge Your Child's IEPs

    • ​ Purpose of IDEA

    • What is an FIE according to IDEA?

    • The Top 5 Common FIE Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

    • Assessments Commonly Used in FIEs

    • Requesting an FIE and additional re-evaluations

    • Requesting an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE)

    • Roadmap to the IEP Document

    • Writing SMART IEPs

    • IEP Goal Red Flags
  • 3

    Tap Into the Network of Experts

    • Challenge: Create YOUR Personal Network

    • Connect to Experts on the Law & Your Rights

    • Connect to Experts on Related Services

    • The Special Ed Categories

    • Focus: Autism

    • Focus: Deafness/Hearing Impaired/Auditory Impairment

    • Focus: Deaf-Blindness

    • Focus: Emotional Disturbance

    • Focus: Intellectual Disability

    • Focus: Multiple Disabilities

    • Focus: Non-Categorical Early Childhood--Texas Only

    • Focus: Orthopedic Impairment

    • Focus: Other Health Impairment

    • Focus: Specific Learning Disorder

    • Focus: Speech or Language Impairment

    • Focus: Traumatic Brain Injury

    • Focus: Visual Impairments Including Blindness
  • 4

    Stop the School's Delay Tactics with Timelines!

    • ​ Why Timelines Matter-- The Importance of Procedural Safeguards

    • Prior Written Notice

    • Evaluation Timelines

    • ​ ARD/IEP Meeting Timelines

    • Notice_of_Invitation1

      FREE PREVIEW

    • ​ Annual ARD Countdown Checklist

    • IEP Meeting Planner
  • 5

    Taming the Document Dragon

    • Overview of Keeping Records

    • Telephone and In-Person Meetings

    • Managing E-mail

    • Managing Other Electronic Documents

    • Managing General School Paperwork

    • FOIA- Freedom Of Information Act Request

    • Module 5 Homework Checklist

Reviews

4 star rating

Speak Up For Your Child Bootcamp

Josefina Alcala

I truly enjoyed taking Cynthia Singleton's "Speak Up for Your Child Bootcamp". This course takes you meticulously step by step through the special education...

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I truly enjoyed taking Cynthia Singleton's "Speak Up for Your Child Bootcamp". This course takes you meticulously step by step through the special education arena. As a mom of twins with special needs, I have been exposed to many special education advocacy courses. However, this course is like no other. You will learn all the facts and details that will empower you to become a better advocate for your student. In addition, Cynthia is always available and willing to support you through this journey. I highly recommend this course to anyone with a special needs’ student. JAH

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