Tips for a Successful School Year

You may have noticed our brand new website. From time to time, the staff of Therapeutic Options publish blog entries on topics of interest. Please let us know what you think, and whether there are any topics you would like us to cover. You may do so by contacting us at info@therapeuticoptions.net. The topic of this blog post is what you can do to help your child have a successful school year.

September can be an especially stressful month for many parents, especially for parents of special needs children. Many parents have concerns about:

Here are some strategies for how to optimize your child’s successful transition into a new year at school.

• Will the teacher be a good fit for my child?
• Will my child make friends?
• Will my child be a target of bullying?
• Will my child stay on track academically?

1. Establish a collaborative relationship with your child’s teacher

Introduce yourself. Make a plan to meet them early in the school year to share information about your child, including both strategies that have been successful in the past and those that have not.

For children with learning differences, it's important that parents meet with teachers early in the school year. This way, they can confirm that the teachers are familiar with the terms of the IEP (Individual Education Plan), and to provide them with the opportunity to discuss your child in detail and share experiences from previous years.

Share information with the teacher that will help them to be most effective with your child. For example, does your child have sensory difficulties? Do they have trouble with unstructured time on the playground? Are they more of a visual or auditory learner? Do they attend better if seated in the front of the room?

2. Schedule regular meetings with the teacher

Frequently, schools provide for only once-a-year meetings, which is usually inadequate for ensuring your child's success. Regular meetings provide the opportunity to address new challenges as they emerge rather than learning about them only after they've become problems. Emergent issues are usually easier to deal with than entrenched ones.

For children with learning challenges, it is important to have beginning and end-of-year evaluations to determine the degree of progress. For children with social difficulties, it is important to have a plan that ensures that child is included during unstructured activities such as lunch and recess. For those children with emotional regulation difficulties, the teachers need to understand their behavior plans.

3. Establish an understanding about communication.

It is in your child’s best interest for you to have a good rapport with their teacher. Talk to the teacher about the frequency and manner of communication. Will there be a daily communication book? Emails? Weekly updates? Don’t be shy about asking for the amount of communication that you believe is necessary for your child’s well-being.

When kids have multiple teachers, the best person to communicate with is often the case manager – use them to help with the communication flow. When children enter middle school, parents are taken aback by the dearth of communication. When teachers are responsible for multiple classes, they are less inclined to have frequent communication.

4. Know your child’s IEP

The IEP is the place where your child’s needs are identified and where the accommodations are spelled out. It is the teacher’s responsibility to implement the services that are stated in the plan, and it is the parents' job to monitor the implementation.

Parents are their child’s best advocates. Provisions in the IEP may not be followed for a number of potential reasons. When you see a problem, call a meeting. If something is not working, insist that it be changed. It is your right to ensure that your child is getting what he needs in order to be successful.

Wishing everyone a great start to a new year!

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