At long last, this year marks my complete immersion in the public school system. That’s because my youngest is starting kindergarten, so I will no longer have one foot calmly rooted in private preschool while the other tries to dance through the intricacies of public school.
Not that our experience with public school has been negative. It’s just that there’s a lot more going on in the vast public school system than there is in the sweetly small confines of a preschool.
Few of us realize this when we send our kids to kindergarten at the school down the street. We naively assume that all eyes will be focused on the academic, social and emotional development of our beloved offspring; that every teacher will be as passionate as we are about ensuring that our child gets whatever he or she needs to make his academic career a success.
That’s not reality.
Public school teachers these days are overwhelmed with the hellish task of making sure every single kid who walks in their doors can perform sufficiently on the high-stakes tests mandated by the state. If they don’t, their schools get sanctioned, or even closed.
What this means is that teachers have to teach to the vast middle of the academic spectrum, paying closer attention to children who are below the curve so that they can perform better on the tests that are the lifeblood of school districts. As a result, some kids —notably, those who are gifted or have learning disabilities— can get left behind, despite the so-called No Child Left Behind Act (which now is called the Elementary and Secondary Education Act).
Of course, there are programs and even laws in place that spell out what these kids should receive in school. But in these tight-budget times, schools simply cannot afford to provide every mandated service to every kid who needs it. They won’t tell you this, but it’s a fact nonetheless — just ask attorneys who advocate for the academic needs of kids with disabilities.
That’s where parental advocacy comes in.
It’s our job as parents to push schools to provide the services our kids need. Sadly, too many of us just don’t know how to do this.
You’d think that, as the editor of a parenting magazine with access to both school and government officials, I’d have some sort of inside knowledge on how to advocate successfully for my own kids. But I don’t — something that became painfully obvious when I tried to advocate for my own child. The fact is, each of us is an island when it comes to school advocacy: we’re out in the middle of nowhere, without directions or a map, and nobody in sight to help us figure out how to get where we want to go.
There’s a reason for this lone-wolf scenario: school districts know that, by making parents feel like they’re the only ones asking for special services, parents will probably back down. And all too many do exactly that.
This does not serve our children well.
Our government mandates a free and appropriate education for all children. Yes, all children — including those with expensive special needs. It is patently wrong that education officials hire attorneys and lobbyists to fight, rather than provide, this basic right. In researching this month’s cover story on school advocacy, I was astounded to learn that the Texas Education Agency spends tens of millions of dollars a year on private attorneys, some of whom are being used right this very minute to prevent parents from weighing in on the proposed revisions to Texas Administrative Code governing special education services.
Let me be very clear: your child has a right to the best education possible, and you have a right to advocate for it.
Doing so begins with your child’s teacher. She’s your partner in your child’s education — but she’s also likely overworked, underpaid, and exhausted. So it’s up to you to make her understand that you want to assist her in helping your child. You can do this through polite emails and telephone calls, offering to volunteer in the classroom, and face-to-face meetings.
If your teacher cannot, or will not, provide the assistance your child needs, then you need to move up the food chain — beginning with the principal and continuing up as far as you need to go to get what you need for your child. A professional education advocate can help you navigate the way. If your child is in the Austin Independent School District, you also should contact the ombudsman and enlist her help, too — bearing in mind, though, that she’s paid by the district and, as she says in this month’s cover story, she “cannot wave a magic wand and give people what they want”.
And that, I think, is the hardest thing for most of us parents to grasp: that despite all of the policies, laws and advocacy, we may not get what our kids need to be successful in school.
For that very reason, more of us need to be squeaky wheels. We cannot back down when schools tell us we’re the “only” ones with a particular problem or concern. There is strength in numbers. And as parents —and taxpayers— we have the numbers; we just haven’t massed our strength yet. But if enough of us speak up, we’ll be harder to ignore, brush aside, or fight.
Our children deserve no less.
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