Welcome
I am the mother of five beautiful children ranging in ages from 6 to 18. Just like all individuals, they are unique in many different ways. I have worked as a special education advocate for over five years both informally and formally. My own journey into the world of special education began when my son was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. At the time of his diagnosis, I was a stay at home mother and I was able to utilize my time to learn everything regarding autism and special education to ensure that he was receiving the appropriate services. During this period of empowerment, I became friends with many other parents that were starting the same journey. I began to assist them with understanding their rights and the rights of their child in all settings to ensure access to services in the home, community and school.
During this time, some of my other children started to receive special education services. One child was receiving gifted services; another child was receiving special education services due to an initial diagnosis of ADHD, later expanded to a Bipolar diagnosis; then my youngest child started to receive services in the birth to three program. As you can imagine, I took the same approach and started to learn and read everything that was available to ensure that I understood my rights and the rights of my children, learned how to access services and to ensure that they were indeed benefiting from the services they were receiving. As you know, this is a long, tiring and confusing system.
In 2004, I started to work as a Parent/Child Advocate at the Mental Health Association of Reading and Berks County. As a Parent/Child advocate, I provided direct services to clients in the form of providing them with information regarding services available in the school, community and home. Most importantly, I educated parents on special education regulations and laws while reviewing and explaining Individualized Education Programs (IEP), 504 Plans, evaluation reports, and other educational documents. A large role was to support parents at meetings in the school and community settings. Additionally, a large part of my role was to inform and educate the community by providing training, information and forming alliances with local service providers and organizations. I reported directly to the director to assist with funding streams, statistical reports and grant initiatives. The grant initiatives including: co-hosting a television program on BCTV “Talking Mental Health”; assisting with the Albright College Spanish Radio Program 91.3, and organizing a parent support group. My role at the Mental Health Association also consisted of providing training, support and case management to the other Parent/Child Advocates. I am currently still employed at the Mental Health Association, transitioning to leave at the end of the current school year. Currently, I am training the newly hired Parent/Child Advocate. Starting in July 2009, I will provide consultation services to the Parent/Child Advocate staff at the Mental Health Association.
Currently, I provide private special education advocacy services.