When you’re a parent, learning your child needs some sort of accommodations at school can be confusing, and what’s more confusing is trying to figure out how to get services for your child and what the law guarantees them. This can be even more challenging for those parents with children whose special needs are not immediately evident, but now, in Holliston, all parents of kids with special needs have a resource. The parent volunteer members of the Holliston SEPAC, Special Education Parent Advisory Council have put together a Welcome Kit.
“Basically, we are a parent-driven organization that supports advocates and provides advice for the special education community in Holliston,” Deb Sweet, the new chair of SEPAC. She says the idea was borne from two parents who were running the SEPAC for about a decade.
“They were still carrying it on, because there wasn’t anybody to take it over,” says Sweet. “There was some negativity regarding special education in town, and it was their idea to do a welcome kit, but it never got off the ground. We carried that to fruition and made that our first really big product.”
The booklet took about a year in the making.
Allegra Denehy, fundraising coordinator for SEPAC, says it gives parents the sense that “not only are you not alone, but these are your rights and these are the things that you can advocate for your students. For parents who have children newly diagnosed, it’s overwhelming. You get thrown a ton of papers from the doctors.” The binder, she says, is a nice way to keep papers and to have something to reference and use the resources.
She credits SEPAC member Marcy Randall with a lot of the legwork in pulling together definitions of certain terms used in the special education world that might be elusive to parents.
The toolkit is currently available in three languages, English, Spanish and Portuguese.
“We’re (SEPAC) trying to reach parents who don’t know to look for us,” says Sweet. The booklet not only defines terms, but it contains important phone numbers and other resources.
The welcome packet is being provided to all new families in Holliston who receive special education services. There will also be a packet available at the Holliston Public Library.
And the best detail about the whole endeavor might just be that it’s some of the special education students who put the packets together.
“My students and I create all of them,” says Ann King, a special education teacher who incorporates the creation of the packets into her curriculum. “Deb gave us all of the originals; we have a copy machine in our classroom. The SSA tells us how many we need, students figure out how many they need, read the order form, and copy them. I holepunch them all, and we (the students and King) deliver them.”
“Talk about it coming full circle,” says Sweet. “Now, here these special education students are, 18-22, helping other families put it together.”
With the help of Meg Camire, Director of Student Services in Holliston, the process became part of vocational training for these students.
“The whole idea behind this was transparency,” says Sweet. “On the parent end, it’s ‘I don’t even know what’s offered, and when they offer, I don’t know what it means, and I don’t know what my rights are.” She says she believes there are plenty of “intelligent free thinking families” who are not going to ask for more than their child needs. However, whereas some parents of students with an overarching need might receive an overwhelming amount of support, the “ones we struggle to reach don’t have a diagnosis they’re identifying with, but they also don’t want their child to be stigmatized,” says Sweet.
Sweet says she hopes the Holliston SEPAC will reach all families of students with special needs, including those whose needs are not as visible. The group has been working to provide roundtable discussions, and informational events featuring speakers, and they will provide one this month.
Holliston SEPAC has a Facebook Page, (Holliston SEPAC) and they’re currently looking for a website designer to make the site they have more user friendly.
Throughout November, Holliston SEPAC will hold a fundraiser through b.Luxe Salon, 165 Main Street, #208, Medway. (508-321-1624) With mention of the Holliston fundraiser at the time of the appointment, b.Luxe will offer 10% off any purchase, including hair, makeup, eye brow wax, products and gift cards, and that 10% will benefit the Holliston SEPAC.
Issue Date:
November, 2016
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