Help for Parents:

Questions regarding the special education process are not uncommon. While websites and literature have the potential of providing  excellent information, your child is an individual. If you have a question about your child’s school performance, it is best to start with his or her teacher; he/she is most familiar with your child. A frank and open conversation can go a long way toward building the collaborative relationships with teachers that augment your child’s success in school. The next person to approach to help you to sort out what is happening with your child’s school performance is your child’s principal or assistant principal. He/she has a broad view of the school and its functioning, and a wealth of experience with children from many different classrooms and backgrounds; additionally. your child may be known to him/her in a different way or across a number of school years.

The websites linked below are intended to provide further information for parents.

Response to Intervention:

Academics:

This section will be updated in the near future.  

Behaviors:

Specific district resources will be updated in the near future.

Illinois Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)

Parent Home Page of ISBE’s Special Education section: offers links to a variety of specific departments that address parents’ question

This tends to address legal issues and can be used in conjunction with the Parents’ Guide (linked above), which offers a practical  understanding of the special education process.

Helpful general resources include the following:

The following resources are offered to assist parents' continuous learning.  Their presence on this page does not signify the District's endorsement.  

Rainbows – resources for children who are managing grief from trauma, loss, or other emotional upheavals

Parenting with Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility by Foster W. Cline and Jim Fay

The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder, Revised Edition by Carol Kranowitz and Lucy Jane  Miller

The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun, Revised Edition: Activities for Kids with Sensory Processing Disorder by Carol Kranowitz

“The Medicated Child,” a PBS presentation regarding children and medication.

Resources for parents with children who have Learning Disabilities:

Understanding Dyslexia - This ISBE site offers a plethora of information about students with specific learning disabilities

Resources for parents with children who have Other Health Impairments:

Council for Exceptional Children - This website contains direct links to a wide range of helpful sites for parents of students with Other Health Impairments including ADHD, Prader-Willi Syndrome, Epilepsy, Williams Syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis - MS for parents, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and more.

Resources for parents with children who have Emotional Disabilities:

National Institute of Mental Health - general resource about child and adolescent mental health

Resources for parents with children on the Autism Spectrum

Autism Speaks

Visual Strategies for Students on the Autism Spectrum

The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism and Asperger's by Temple Grandin.

Visual Strategies for Improving Communications: Practical supports for Home and School by Linda A Hodgdorn

Resources for parents with children who have Speech/Language Impairments:

http://www.speech-language-development.com/index.html - helpful information for parents about what to look for in children’s  speech/language development

http://www.asha.org/public - national organization dedicated to support for students with communications disorders

Resources for parents with children who experience deafness or impaired hearing:

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/ - informative site that includes research and health information

http://www.raisingdeafkids.org/ - support for parents who are raising deaf children

http://www.childrensmemorial.org/depts/rehab/resources.aspx

Resources for parents with a child who has an intellectual disability:

http://www.gigisplayhouse.org - a local support for families of children with Down Syndrome

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/dd/ddmr.htm - Facts about Intellectual Disabilities

Special Education Advocacy:

http://www.wrightslaw.com/ - special education advocacy for parents

You are welcome to contact your child’s teacher for suggestions of other books/resources for helping you with the responsibilities of parenting. In addition, our special education cooperative (Southwest Cook County Cooperative, linked off the Student Services tab) offers parent and teacher resources through their library systems.