Consultation
You are your child’s first teacher and strongest ally. Trying to do what is best for your child can be a daunting task, especially when your child has a disability.
The law provides each child with a right to a free and appropriate public education. But what is an appropriate education for your child? How do you know if your child’s educational needs are being met?
A parent advocate can help steer you through the special education process. Our work is built upon a trusting partnership with parents, and this partnership is vital to effective advocacy. Together, we can ensure that your child receives the education he or she deserves.
The Process
At our initial meeting we will discuss your reason for seeking an advocate. What educational needs your child has both in and out of their school environment and specifically what is keeping them from accessing their education.
We begin all of our clients with a case analysis. This allows us to better get to know your child and help us to get a course of action in place right away. The retainer fee is a one-time payment that will provide a broad scope of needed services, allowing us to get to know your child better and help us to get started right away procuring said services based on immediate need.
Provide copies of the following documents. Please do not send original documents.
- Current and previous two IEPs, if available. Include any other official documents from the school, such as eligibility records for Prior Written Notices, and all testing results (e.g., psychological, educational, speech, occupational or physical therapy, etc.) you may have.
- Current and previous progress reports and report cards - all previous progress reports if available
- Any correspondence between you and your child’s school (e.g., email, letters to and from school faculty).
- A parent narrative, which is a critical component of the Case Analysis. It gives us an outline of your child’s educational history and a good idea of what you hope to achieve for your child through working with us. Include your home and billing address, the best phone numbers to contact you (e.g., home, cell, work), and your preferred email address.
- A $500 check made payable to The Chatfield Advocacy Group should be sent with your information files. If you prefer to pay by card, an invoice will be sent to you and payment will be expected in full within 30 days of receipt.
Please note that if payment is not made in full without further communication from you, work on our end will not begin, and we may choose to not accept you as a client in the future.
We understand that life and circumstances happen. We kindly ask that you reach out to us immediately if you are unable to pay. We have a sliding income-based scale for clients upon request in addition to 10% off hourly rates for educators, health care workers, and veterans.
The average turnaround time from when we receive your files to the day of the Case Analysis meeting is 10-14 days.