You were volunteering at school that day.

You weren't supposed to see it. You just happened to be walking down the hall at that time.
 

Your child was out there. With a paraprofessional. 
While the rest of the class was inside doing something together.
 

You didn't say anything. You smiled at your child, kept walking, finished your shift.
 

But you sat with it the whole drive home.
 

You were at that IEP meeting. You signed the document. You watched the team write down words like "included in the general education classroom." 

You asked questions. You tried to understand what the plan actually meant for your child's real day.
 

And still. Hallway.
 

So you might have done what some parents do. You went back to the IEP that night and read through it again. 

The goals were there. The services were listed. The accommodations had checkboxes. Everything looked official.
 

But you couldn't find the part that explained why your child was in the hallway while their class was together inside.
 

Here's what I want you to know.
 

You weren't misreading the situation. The IEP may have been followed exactly as written. 

And it still may not have been written clearly enough to keep your child included in their class.
 

That's the part that gets missed. 

A school can follow an IEP and your child can still spend their day separated from peers, pulled from the parts of the school day where learning and belonging actually happen. 

🔵 Because if the supports aren't written specifically enough, 
🟣 if the service minutes don't say where they happen or what the adult is doing, 
🟢 if inclusion isn't built into the document from page one, 
🔵 it becomes something that depends on whoever is in the room that day.

And that's not the kind of IEP you want for your child.

This week I'm doing 3 short videos, one each on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 10 am Mtn. Time, 12 pm ET, 11 am CT, 9 am PT.  

Each one shows you one specific place to look inside your child's IEP when something feels off but you can't name it yet.

The first one drops today.  I'll be live on my Facebook page, The Art of Advocacy. Hop on over!
 

The Art of AI Advocacy™ Tip of the Week

Use AI to describe what you observed, 

before the details fade.

After a moment like that hallway one, you may want to either push it down or replay it without finding the words to explain it clearly at the next meeting.
 

AI can help you get it out of your head and onto paper.

Try this prompt:

"I am a parent of a child with a disability. I want to describe something I observed at my child's school in a calm, clear, factual way. Here is what I saw: [describe it in your own words]. Help me write 3 to 4 sentences I can use when I talk with the special education teacher.

Then edit it before you use it. Make sure it sounds like you, captures what actually happened, and doesn't overstate anything. 

Here with you,