Educational Advocacy
You: a caregiver who is trying to navigate a school system built for neurotypical learners. You've already made needed shifts at home, but you can see how difficult it is for your child to mask all day at school.
The system: gradually shifting from behavior management to emotional regulation support, simultaneously continuing to use outdated behavior management paradigms disguised as emotional regulation.
Me: 10+ years experience as a child therapist, who came to the realization that my efforts supporting kids in surviving a neurotypical biased world, could be better spent advocating for systematic change, one where the school system/environment equally contributes to meeting the learner’s needs, rather than placing the entire burden of emotional regulation on a student. I’m passionate about supporting caregivers in navigating the process of turning a 504plan/IEP/Learning Support Plan/Accommodations plan (i.e., plan detailing an agreement on what school supports and accommodations will be provided to a learner) from a symbolic piece of paper, into a dynamic document, that is functional, personalized, grows with the learner's needs, and aligns with neurodiversity affirming principles and practices.
Despite efforts by academic institutions to better meet the needs of a variety of learners, most standard accommodations are not effective in isolation. My goal in advocacy is to provide support caregivers and educators in making any accommodations plan come to life. For example, in order to access accommodations, a learner is required to request an accommodation directly from an educator and advocate for themselves on an instance by instance basis, rather than creating a system where the accommodation is consistently provided and only opted out by the learner when not needed. It requires additional mental effort for many neurodivergent learners to access information that is being taught in a manner best suited for neurotypical learners, and then the expectation is that they bear the additional burden of advocating for themselves every time they need support or an accommodation.
I've spent the majority of my career as a licensed child therapist with at least one foot in educational advocacy. When we know that all behaviors are information, it becomes clear that kids are not choosing their challenging school experiences. Rather, there is an undue burden on kids to enact all of their own supports, self-regulate, self-advocate, and then effectively communicate with us about how they can do things differently next time. We need to make changes in the environment and the outlook educators are viewing a learner through. Approach with curiosity, extend some grace, and then gift them with well laid out plans for how to actually implement accommodations that will effectively meet their needs
During our discovery call, you will have the option to choose between a guided advocacy experience, where in a coaching/consultation format, I provide you the resources, information, and help you build your sense of empowerment to do the advocating yourself. The second option will be a full service concierge style service, where I will directly do the advocacy work, writing request letters on your behalf, collaborating with school staff, advising on evaluations and professionals to utilize. The third option is a hybrid of the two, where we will flow between me being in the role coach/consultant and as needed fulfilling various needs and tasks on a fee for service basis. Regardless of where you are on your journey of navigating the accommodations process, you'll walk away from the discovery call with one (or more) immediate action steps you can take.
What Does Educational Advocacy Look Like:
Educational Advocacy General FAQs:
You: a caregiver who is trying to navigate a school system built for neurotypical learners. You've already made needed shifts at home, but you can see how difficult it is for your child to mask all day at school.
The system: gradually shifting from behavior management to emotional regulation support, simultaneously continuing to use outdated behavior management paradigms disguised as emotional regulation.
Me: 10+ years experience as a child therapist, who came to the realization that my efforts supporting kids in surviving a neurotypical biased world, could be better spent advocating for systematic change, one where the school system/environment equally contributes to meeting the learner’s needs, rather than placing the entire burden of emotional regulation on a student. I’m passionate about supporting caregivers in navigating the process of turning a 504plan/IEP/Learning Support Plan/Accommodations plan (i.e., plan detailing an agreement on what school supports and accommodations will be provided to a learner) from a symbolic piece of paper, into a dynamic document, that is functional, personalized, grows with the learner's needs, and aligns with neurodiversity affirming principles and practices.
Despite efforts by academic institutions to better meet the needs of a variety of learners, most standard accommodations are not effective in isolation. My goal in advocacy is to provide support caregivers and educators in making any accommodations plan come to life. For example, in order to access accommodations, a learner is required to request an accommodation directly from an educator and advocate for themselves on an instance by instance basis, rather than creating a system where the accommodation is consistently provided and only opted out by the learner when not needed. It requires additional mental effort for many neurodivergent learners to access information that is being taught in a manner best suited for neurotypical learners, and then the expectation is that they bear the additional burden of advocating for themselves every time they need support or an accommodation.
I've spent the majority of my career as a licensed child therapist with at least one foot in educational advocacy. When we know that all behaviors are information, it becomes clear that kids are not choosing their challenging school experiences. Rather, there is an undue burden on kids to enact all of their own supports, self-regulate, self-advocate, and then effectively communicate with us about how they can do things differently next time. We need to make changes in the environment and the outlook educators are viewing a learner through. Approach with curiosity, extend some grace, and then gift them with well laid out plans for how to actually implement accommodations that will effectively meet their needs
During our discovery call, you will have the option to choose between a guided advocacy experience, where in a coaching/consultation format, I provide you the resources, information, and help you build your sense of empowerment to do the advocating yourself. The second option will be a full service concierge style service, where I will directly do the advocacy work, writing request letters on your behalf, collaborating with school staff, advising on evaluations and professionals to utilize. The third option is a hybrid of the two, where we will flow between me being in the role coach/consultant and as needed fulfilling various needs and tasks on a fee for service basis. Regardless of where you are on your journey of navigating the accommodations process, you'll walk away from the discovery call with one (or more) immediate action steps you can take.
What Does Educational Advocacy Look Like:
- Scheduling *virtual* meetings with me at your pace and in relation to your learner's advocacy needs
- Choosing between consultant/coach services, concierge/ full-service advocacy, and hybrid approach
- Building on your existing advocacy experiences and defining clear actionable steps you can take in order to support your learner
- Option to delegate direct advocacy and communication to me. I don't mind being the nuisance in the school's eye :)
Educational Advocacy General FAQs:
- All services are virtual utilizing zoom for appointments.
- Educational Advocacy clients can be located anywhere! We’ll schedule based on EST, and you can set your client portal to reflect whatever time zone you are in.
- Sessions health portal emails come from: support@sessionshealth.com
- Appointment reminders come from: noreply@sessionshealth.com
- You’ll click or copy and paste the meeting link that comes in your email reminder into a browser page for session
- To access your client portal, use this link and login: https://cassidydemos.patientsecure.me/
