Meg Flanagan

Mon, Feb 06, 2023 4:58PM
1:13:13
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
child, iep, moving, school, work, military, military families, parents, teacher, called, support, students, district, special education, family, education, state, school district, kids, public school

Welcome to the show. I am excited to chat with Meg. Today we are talking about military families, and specifically IEP s and finding your voiceand incredibly important and powerful stuff we are going to discuss. So I'm excited that you can join us. Welcome.
01:15
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
01:17
Absolutely. Mate. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background and kind of how

y y y,ygyou came to be a supportive advocate for our students with IEP s and specifically, militarystudents with IEPs?
01:33
Absolutely. So I'm a teacher by trade and by passion. I love teaching. I love learning, I love engaging with students. However, when I was first licensed back in 2010 2009 2010, there weren't a lot of jobs, where I was living in California, and my husband is active duty military.And so I looked around and said, Well, gosh, I have a lot of families here who are needingtutors, for their child, but they can't afford to pay the market rate in Southern California, whichis a very, it's a very wealthy population in many areas. And so I started offering tutoring services to children. And I have a degree in Special Ed, I'm certified in special ed. And so I ended up just having a wide base of children with a lot of different learning disabilities in mypractice. And so that kind of naturally led to parents asking me well, can you give me someinsight or write up a anecdotal report. And then through the process of several moves going inand out of the classroom, I realized that military families have a struggle with specialeducation, and 504 plans and even gifted education, really anything that's outside of thetypical, like lane of education, anything that's divergent at all, it's very challenging, becauseevery state has different laws. And so I got mucked around and said, Well, I have a master's inspecial education, I move all the time with a military spouse. Well, let me raise my hand and Iwill start a small business to provide some insights at a price that is reasonable, but still on parwith market. The market range, because I want to make sure that we're accessible, that I'maccessible to military families, but also to honor the fact that this is a professional job. And it's just kind of naturally evolved from there into a thriving practice.
03:34
I love that. I love that. That is fantastic. Can you give us a big picture view on advocacy?
03:45
Yes, so there's a couple of different when you talk about advocacy, there's a couple of differentways that work can be used. So the way that I use it is a very personal, individual base, one family at a time role. I take on a case I take on a client, I deep dive their paperwork, and then Ishow up at the meetings and provide professional insights into what might be happening andhelp bridge the gap between home and school to make sure that that one child has theeducation plan that fits them best. The other definition of advocacy is on the legislative tolegislative and policy side where you are going to state governing bodies, federal governingbodies, and really pushing for policy and legal changes. That is not the kind of advocacy that I practice, although I fully support it. And I have connections with several military organizationsthat are pushing for changes for military kids with disabilities. I don't really handle the legislative side
04:56
and I love that you have this year unique perspective, because you have the training andspecial education you've moved around as a family And so you kind of understand what that

special education, you ve moved around as a family. And so you kind of understand what that feels like. For families. What are some common barriers you see that military families face thathave students with challenges? Absolutely. So there's,
05:23
um, this is really for any highly mobile family. So any family, whether it's due to beingunhoused, or State Department, military, anyone that works for the federal government can bemoved between offices usually. But one of the things that is most common is figuring out howto request evaluations for your child, and so that they are both timely and able to be completedbefore you move. So if you're thinking about anyone that's familiar with public educationknows, especially for kiddos that are that do have challenges or are not succeeding on par withtheir typically developing peers, you know, you usually kind of look at it and you take somedata, and then you might do an intervention, and then that might take six to eight weeks. And then if that doesn't work, you might try a different one. At which point, you know, even if this isstarting in, say, November, at this point, we're already like, well into March, April, timeframe.And then it's the end of the school year, and if that child is moving, when they get to their newschool, they're starting the process fresh, with brand new eyes on everything. And so it's goingto take a full quarter to that first progress report for the school to once again, take action. So a lot of this is about timing it out for military families, and providing that document trail of atschool a my child is getting interventions and x and y. They were unsuccessful. And so now I'm at school B, how do I document this in a way that's meaningful so that School B is spurred totake action earlier. And so if you're not getting assessed until this timeframe, by the time thoseassessments are done, there's not enough time necessarily to evaluate them, do eligibility,create a plan forward implement the plan, like it's a timing issue. And that goes for, you know,children with five oh, fours, IEP and gifted education, which gifted education is honestly,because five offers an IEP are protected by federal law. There. I don't want to say easier. But there's more recognition when you're moving between public schools in different states andlocations. But because gifted education is not federally protected. And every state implemented differently. Some states have gifted IEP, some states don't have gifted IPs andevery school, every district implements gifted programs differently. If they have them at all.There's no national standard, it makes it more challenging to move with a gifted child. Wow. Wow.
08:03
And, you know, I'm thinking just for a family that is in one place. You're absolutely right, you know, your time, the timing is essential. And I think it's even challenging for folks that are inone place to really understand that scope of tiny. So could you share with us for folks that arelistening, that are have a struggling student at home, and they are wanting to start thatprocess? Whether they are a military family or a family in place? What is yourrecommendation? So can we just kind of give like a bird's eye view of that timeline? To put thisall into perspective? And then I want to wrap it back to how do we help families that are movingconsistently, time this out?
08:54
Absolutely. So usually, if you have any concerns about your child at all, what you're looking for hbli ihi dShI' id iIh hl dhild I'll lk

are the blips in their grades. So when I'm considering I have school aged children, so I'll talkabout my kids as an example. So if I'm looking at my child's report card, and I'm or even theirwork samples coming home, and I'm noticing, okay, we're in the zone A's and B's, amazing,amazing. And all of a sudden, there's a D in there, there's something that is outside of thenorm, that raises a red flag for me. And so I document it, and I might, it might just be like anote on my phone or an email to my spouse and email to the teacher just so I have somethingdocumenting it with a timestamp of hey, I noticed that, you know, multiplication in the 12 tablewas really challenging. Can on you know, November 11. Can you talk to me about what this looks like? Then you're looking for a pattern of Blips. So let's say that it starts in November withyou know, multiplication being a blip and math and then it continues there continues to be thatdownward trajectory or trend in grades, that's when all of my senses kind of go on high alert.And I am emailing the teacher and saying, what can you tell me about math? And I'm just usingmath in as, as an example. You could be, it could be any subject, what could you tell me about this. So it starts with communication to the teacher, if they have an explanation of like, well,we're doing small groups, and you know, I'm shortening their work. And we're reteaching. And, you know, I'm implementing I excel or Khan Academy. And, you know, they're getting pulledtwice a week with the math specialists, that tells me that they're doing a lot of interventions formy child and are still not succeeding. The first step. And this is an important right for parents,any parent in American education, public education to know about is that your child has a rightto something called Child Find where the local education agency, your public school district,wherever you are located has the requirement to locate any child that is that has a disability, ordiagnosed disability, or any child that is suspected of having a disability that impacts theireducation,
and test them. And the way that you mom and dad grownups at home can initiatethis is with a email, a written email or a letter sent to the principal of your child's school. Or if you are a home schooler, or private school family, you can also access this by just sending it toyour child's local, school, whatever school you would go to, if they went to public school, send itin and say I would like my child tested for x because and you list out the reasons why there's aconsistent pattern of low grades, they're struggling, the teacher has already tried all of theseinterventions, something else is going on. So the timeline from there does vary by state, butwithin usually one to three school weeks, the school does have to come back to you and eithersay, Yes, we're going to test or no, we're not going to test if they say no, you can appeal it inmany cases, and submit again, with stronger evidence or more insights into supporting it.There's no limit to how many times you can request your child to be tested. And eventually,sometimes it's it's the, you know, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, if if you make yourselfhave enough of a nuisance, and kind of not new sense. But like, you don't speak up enough,the school district takes notice it's like well, we're just gonna test to pack in the back whotested Gregor great. So if they say yes, then they will obtain your consent, which means youwould just have the sign of AI consent that they're going to test, they'll tell you what testingthey're going to do. The testing usually has to be done within about two months, usually 60. It's either school days, business days or calendar days. But usually it's somewhere in like the 60s range. After they're done testing, they'll share the results with you, hopefully, beforehand, theyhave to have a meeting to review the results, determine eligibility at that meeting based on theresults. And then then you move to the IEP meeting. So the whole process can take upwards of four calendar months. And if we do the math, we're already in February.

13:21
And I'm glad you said that. And I'm glad we just kind of set the stage for folks that are listeningbecause that's for Kyle upwards of four calendar months of just the process that's not writingthe letter that's not documenting. And I liked that you use the word stronger evidence. And I tell my families as well, the more specifics, you can provide that outline what has been done,what type of support how is this different from the same age peers, anything like you said, youemail a timestamp, whether it's an email to a spouse or something on your phone. So you'rekind of have to be the super sleuth prior to so that you can have the evidence to build yourcase, which can be hard, right? Because that's your baby that you're talking about. And if you're not in a profession where you're around other kids, it's also hard to know, what is sameage and what is not.

14:22
100% Yeah, it is it is tricky. If you're if you're not working in a child focused field or you're not.You're not keenly aware of developmental milestones and learning milestones, it is very hard toknow what is normal or what is typical. And what is a typical on both ends of the spectrum, right. So whether it's a child that is significantly behind or a child that is significantly ahead. It's hard.
14:51
So how do you help the families that are having to move right so they've kind of knowsomething's coming, but then Alright, well, we're moving so how do we We, how do younavigate that?
15:03
It can be very tricky. A lot of the families that I work with already have a plan in place. And it's really more about refining the plan. However, a lot of the families that follow me on social media on my website are in the beginning stage process of, you know, trying to figure out whatis going on. All right, I have a senior dog down here who's fallen off his bed.
15:34
So so what happens is, I actually have several blogs about about like, what to look for at school,if you have a concern. And usually parents who are tracking their child at school already. So you're already highly involved, you're already the mom or dad or you know, custodial aunt,uncle, grandma, grandpa, whichever grown up as at home, is already on Blackboard, orSchoology, or canvas or whatever the the learning app is that they're using checking grades,emailing teachers, you're already a parent or guardian that is involved. So the first step tofiguring out what your child needs is to just be involved, just make sure that you know who thechild's teacher is make sure that you kind of have a general sense about how they are, the nextstep is to step up the involvement, and attend parent teacher conferences all of the time. So my kids are fairly typically developing, there's not a lot of red flags for them. But even with that being said, I always attend a parent teacher conference, even though I'm a teacher, eventhough I can look at them and kind of do my assessment of their progress. Based on the work samples I see at home, I still like to talk to the teacher because it's, it's a different perspectivethan me, mom sitting at home with them. Because kids behave differently at school, and with different grownups. So you want to have that secondary and tertiary insight into your child from someone else. The next thing that you're probably going to want to do is you're going towant to check in on their schoolwork. Look at those work samples are there as they're coming home look for. And the things that you look for are different based on the ages. So in the earlyyears, it's a lot of language arts focus, are they writing with? And can you determine whatthey're writing? Right? If they're writing Look, do you see? Oh? Do you see those sounds in theword, math? Are they able to look at the array of objects and count them up? And so you reallydo have to kind of inspect your child's homework like a spy? Look for these clues, these littlered flags? If something seems off, ask for ask about it. One of my kids consistently flips their letters B's and DS p's and q's. And so that's on my radar all of the time. Because it's going to nolonger be developmentally appropriate at a very, very quickly approaching deadline. So it's really just about being involved in looking what looks weird to you. What what looks different than what you remember at that age? And then asking, Is this okay? Is this normal? What typeof supports

18:26
do families require if they have children living with are children that are neurotypical?
18:35
So children that are neurotypical? I would say just the general supports means they needcaring adults in their lives. someone to talk to that's not the grownups that live at their house.have access to you know, a school counselor or a trusted teacher or even a friends grownups.That's wonderful. If they can have another grown up and talk to you you know, goodpediatrician dentist. And then you know, someone who cares someone who's looking
19:11
and then how about our neuro divergent friends?
19:13
Why are divergent frenzied all those same things? Yes. But also, they need more of a they needa more robust backfield in terms of medical and mental health support. So depending on thedifferences, the diagnosis, they might need occupational therapists, physical therapists, speechand language therapists and as applied behavior analysis analyst they might need neurologists,psychologists, psychiatrists, and neuro psych psychologists. You pick a medical profession andthey might someone who is neurodiverse or physically different, might need someone in thatfield. So how do we help
20:04
bridge that gap of system and support for families that are moving? Because that's just listed alot of professions? And if I'm moving, I mean, gosh, if I'm moving even from zip code, you'rethinking, Alright, how do you know? How do you find somebody? How does that carry, you know how to? How do we bridge that gap? If we have a student in a school that's changing schoolswith an IEP and requires a variety of folks on their team for the support, they need to besuccessful.

20:35
So it definitely requires a lot of coordination. The military has a couple of structures in placecalled, it's called the exceptional family member program. Spouses so dependents, they lumpus all into the category of dependents, whether you're married to the active duty, or theAmerican military member, or you're the child of a military member, you're just called adependent. So everyone, that's a dependent is required to register for exceptional familyprogram EFMP when they receive their diagnosis, and it can be for any diagnosis, right, somental health, dyslexia, dyspraxia, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, autism, ADHD, a diagnosisthat requires specialized medical care, or even medical care that's outside of general medicine,like if you need more than just an annual checkup, you're in EFMP at this point, and so thisservice is supposed to keywords posts to screen family members, as they're moving to ensurethat there is a medical match. So if I need a heart specialist, I'm not supposed to be sent tocertain places, because there's no specialty cardiology available. Does that make sense? It's supposed to. So now, the other issue is that while they're supposed to do this, in practice, itdoesn't always translate into the real world, in a meaningful way. So a lot of times are sometimes I should say not a lot of times, sometimes, families are sent places where there arenot medical specialists or an educational program in place to support their children. So with kids that just need that just not just that just have IEPs. It's a little bit and you're stayingstateside, you're staying in the continental United States, it's a little bit easier, because at thispoint, every public school has some level of ability to serve children who learn differently,right? Every school has special education, not just some school, that's every school, work getstrickier is that is when you're dealing with children that are already out placed or have a privateplacement in their current home district. And now they're moving and now. How do youtransfer that private placement to a new school? So for? I think we're both in like the Marylandthe DMV region. So if your child is at Kennedy, Krieger or, you know, Johns Hopkins and thegifted program, how do you translate that when you're moving to Nebraska? How do you? Idon't know. Or? And there's, there's also, or if they're placed at the say, the Auburn school, youknow, at on a school district paid placement, to a specialty Special Education School, andthey're moving to California. What are the legal requirements? And that's tricky ground.Because if you do transfer, but then But then
24:02
that then right, because you have a federal document, but now you're transferring from oneschool system to another. So do they have a place that is equal or greater to what you'realready in? And how do you determine what that is that aligns with free and appropriateeducation? And how do we talk to that school district to ensure they understand the necessityof a specialized placement?
24:34
Correct. And that is the tricky part, because every school district does special education a littledifferently because every state special education laws are written just a little bit differently. So

yyp jyI'll go back to an earlier example of I said school days, business days or calendar days. Everysingle state has the right to set their own timelines in order to determine the speed of profit.Nothing. So in Virginia, I want to say it's 10 business days that they have to respond to thatinitial IEP testing request. Now in Maine, it's 15 school days, if I read the law correctly, inFlorida, parents can make a request, but the school has to prove that they've done RTI first,before they can process that evaluation, which is, I think, the silliest thing in the world, butthat's a different story. And so how do you communicate all of these different needs to furthercomplicate that every school district has some special policies when it comes to where do Iplace children. So Fairfax County, for example, seems to have an A written or unwritten, I havenever seen documented proof of this. I'm waiting, where they will only give students with a medical need a one to one aid. Even if that child has an elopement risk, even if that child has aone to one aid written into their program, into their caught into their IEP that they're bringingin. Because the Federal law says the receiving school district has to provide only comparableservices. And they have it either 30 days or 45 days, depending on where you live, to look at the IEP. And suggest or recommend additional evaluations, they get to do their own evaluationsto determine eligibility placement and services after moving. And so you could walk in with areally great IEP that you have worked really hard to build for three years in Georgia, and you goto a school system in a different state, and they get to retest your child and decide if your childremains eligible for special education.
26:55
So how do we guide and support parents to kind of make this a little transition a little bitsmoother, it's already incredibly stressful when you're moving, and you're forming newfriendships and connections and like we just said earlier in terms of finding a physician that willbest support your child or service provider to support your personal your own child. And then now you have this other layer of you feel like you're on this heightened fight or flight to get thesupport your child needs.
27:36
Absolutely, yeah, there's so the way I work. So hiring an advocate is definitely one way that youcan support this, unfortunately, not everyone is able to afford or locate an advocate that is wellversed in military family needs. So when you are if you are a highly mobile family, it's superimportant to research where you are going. And then reach out to school districts and say this is my child. This is their IEP, this is what their services look like here in location A. What do children with this type of learner profile look like in your district? What do you offer them? Ifyour district cannot serve them? Do you know of a district or private placement that can servethem. And so the private placement option, I think, is super important. Because when we're considering public education, it all comes down to funding streams. And I hate that it's that way. But not every district has a depth of funding, in order to support a huge diversity ofoptions. We're also facing a national special education teacher shortage, people are leaving the field. And so being able to find a teacher that is well versed in your child's specific diagnosis iskind of hit or miss. Sounds so stressful. Stressful. It's very stressful with neurotypical children too. Yeah. So how do folks find?
29:10

How, what is the best direction that you would give for parents during a move? In terms offinding, I think finding an advocate, whether it's just a consultation for an hour, if you could dothat to kind of be versed into what is available in that area? What are the laws in the area where you're moving? And what does that look like?
29:34
Absolutely. So for military families, you'll get a like a couple of weeks perhaps, or up to six ormore months, lead time into where you're going next. So I know when we moved from Japan to the DC region. We had about three months of prep time of lead time before we left Japan. And so I was able to do a deep dive into the air Yeah. And look at all the different school districts now for families that are perhaps not teachers. You every military family has what's called aschool liaison officer or a slow at every single duty station or base. And so you should reach outto the school liaison officer at your next duty station and say, Could you tell me which schooldistricts are in this area, and that will give you the starting point. You could, they also shouldhave a list of public schools, private schools, charter schools, all of the different school options,they cannot tell you which school option is best for your child, they can only tell you theinformation of what is out there. Once you have the information of what is out there, then youhave to kind of do your own family juggling act of what do you value more commute housingprice school, especially in the DC Maryland, Virginia area where commute time is long housingis at a premium. And it's expensive. So you kind of have to do your own juggling acteverywhere is different from North Carolina, what you're looking for will be different than whatyou're looking for in DC than Virginia than Maryland and Nebraska and California andMassachusetts, pick a pick a place and it will look different, what you are looking for. Once youhave the information of what's available, then I would go to every school should have what'scalled a school report card website. And it literally just tells you how a district a town so FairfaxCounty and a lot of other places, have small towns within a larger system.
It's like Loudoun is different. There's like Loudoun County, and then Vienna is a town but it's inside of FairfaxCounty, it can be very confusing, and it can be a lot. And of course, every state is organized differently. So knowing where you're going, and then look at the school report card website andkind of look and see, okay, what am I looking for, I'm looking to see longevity of teachers, howlong are teachers sticking around in this district, because of teachers are saying that meansthat they are happy there. That means that their pay is probably pretty decent, it means theyare able to feel professional and successful there. So you're looking for low teacher turnover.But you're also looking for a high rate of new teachers coming to the district. Because if you'regetting a lot of those first year called college grads applying, that means that the district isdoing something right, and they are attracting new talent, in addition to the veteran teachersthat are there are also looking at the Standards of Learning or the state testing scores you'relooking for in at your child's grade level, elementary, middle or high, you should be looking tosee what percentage of kids are passing this at the proficient level or higher. And so that's what the score. So if you see like, in ACPs, they'll tell you in Alexandria City Public Schools, they'll belike, Oh, 50% of the students in fourth grade, pass the math test at the proficient level orhigher. And so that tells you that about half the students are able to successfully show masteryof the fourth grade math content. So you should look at that. Some places you should alsoconsider the ranking websites but not as strongly as the school report cards, and then reachout to parents contact the PTA. Say we're looking at moving here. What would you say about it?If you could do it over again? Would you move here with your child?

33:39
A great question. I usually would say, what would you tell your sister to do? Right. And then I say assuming you have a sister and you love her. Yeah. But just asking, asking those questions and doing the research. So back to the IEP two goals are directives and an IEP ever get lost intranslation meaning from state to state or county to county when it gets moved?
34:05
Yes. So because there's that keyword comparable, written into Ida and there's also a secondarylaw called the Military Child Education compact. It's the military interstate MC three basically, MIC three military interstate child compact coalition. It basically is a backstop to all of the federallaws that require 504 plans and IEPs but it also makes three also encompasses gifted educationand general education. It helps children in military situations have more continuity. So in any event, yes, it can because of the word comparable. So comparable just requires a close match.So are our glasses calm? verbal, we're both wearing glasses. Yes, they both have lenses. Yes, they both help us see better. However, they're very different shapes, they're different patterns,I think mine are minor, all the way toward the shell, yours are only half toward a shell. Mine have metal on the sides, it looks like yours maybe have plastic on the sides. And they're very different styles. However, they are comparable. We both have access to glasses.
35:26
But my glasses may not work for you.
35:28
And vice versa. We both have microphones, I have an air pod and you have your fancy podcastrecording like they are comparable, I can hear you. And you can hear me and they're picking up sound. But they're not the same. They're not identical. And so the comparable means that they have to provide about the same services. So I'll give you an example of speech. What this could mean is, let's say your child is getting speech three times a week for 15 minutes each time.Right, that's their baseline, when they move to a new school, that could change to 145 minutesession. Or it could change to 130 minute session, or 220 minute sessions, or it usually or youknow, it could stay 315 minutes sessions or can say, you know, it usually goes down and not up. But all of those ideas, all of those different session and timing options are still comparable,is your child receiving speech? Yes, they are. Are they still receiving it for within let's say 20minutes worth of 45 minutes per week? They sure are. But it doesn't specify program. It doesn't specify content. It doesn't specify duration or frequency, it just is similar. And so the services is kind of where we see the breakdown. The other breakdown we see is in accommodations. So a line that I've heard a lot lately, or in the last several years is well that's best practice. And yes, that's the face I make also, um,
37:09
it's see me I've

37:13
raised eyebrows, a pursed lip. And so my liners Well, I'm really excited that your teachers are doing this. And you're right, it is best practice. But let's pretend they're going to a place whereteachers are not as well versed in what a Responsive Classroom looks like for a child withautism or a child with dyslexia. Great, I'm really excited that you're moving all of their stuff into this special dyslexic font. But what if the next school doesn't follow that guideline, and this childis moving, let's pretend that that's happening and put it in writing. Because best practice while it should be universal is not universally universal. Right? And so, and best practices interpreteddifferently based on socio economic and cultural norms of that school. So then how do
38:00
you guide parents to MIDI mitigate this,
38:04
everything that is different than the standard curriculum needs to be put in writing.
38:10
What in writing, they will receive it or not,
38:14
they should receive at least comparable services. So if it says that your child needs to havestructured breaks throughout the school day, they need to have structured breaks throughoutthe school that now in practice, what that looks like, might be different based on the classroomteacher based on the case manager based on the school based on the physical building basedon the staffing options. And what the classroom physically looks like. It could be you know, theyhave a beanbag in the back, that's their break space, it could be that there's a really great oton staff that has an assistant who is able to come and do some heavy work with that child. And that's the structure break. And so it will look different. And if you want your child to get aspecific thing, then you need to be very clear in the wording. So if you need a heavy workbreak, then you need to say this child needs to have at least four five minute periodsthroughout the evenly spaced throughout the school day to do heavy work parentheses.Examples of but not inclusive include stop squats, while push ups climbing up and down thestairs, doing Giant Steps doing medicine, ball, slams, etc, etc, etc. And so being hyper specific,not to the point of inflexibility or not being able to add anything, but setting the baseline of thisis the minimum that
39:39
is required. Have you ever heard of Karen the IEP boss? No, she calls it her purse. Her stuff perspective Nope I'm sorry prescriptive and puffy So your present levels should be

perspective. Nope. I m sorry prescriptive and puffy. So your present levels should be prescriptive and puffy. And so as you were describing Maybe not being very specific and clearin the IEP, which is a great practice for students, regardless if they are anticipating a move ornot anticipating a move. So it's very clear when they go from grade to grade or if that studentis transitioning from one school building to the next.
40:19
Yes, grade levels.
40:21
Mm hmm. How does this work for overseas? If I'm a military family, and I'm stateside, and nowI'm moving overseas? How does the federal law
40:32
get interpreted? So in in writing, the department Defense Education action or Department ofDefense Dependent school that's Dodds and DoDEA. They are the school division responsiblefor providing military children with their education services overseas. for military children who meet eligibility and criteria. They operate as the public school DoD memo 1342 point 12specifies that DoDEA schools will follow IGE a in all aspects. However, as you and I both know,and probably your listeners also know, it EA is a little bit loosey goosey with language andtimelines and is not hyper specific and how things should go. They use the word reasonable a lot. They use best practice a lot. So it can be special. The other tricky thing is that so there areoverseas DoDEA schools and their stateside DoDEA schools. Every day of school, everydepartment spent school get has a disability rating in multiple categories. So they have a multi tiered rating system. I think right now it's three levels, or maybe four, I haven't looked recently.And it graduates in severity. So you cannot in theory, be assigned to a location that has amismatch between your child EFMP, the exceptional family members program rating, and theDoDEA school rating for that IDI eligibility category. In practice, mismatches happen all the time. And the other issue is that much like everywhere else in America, data is having somestaffing challenges, not holistically. But it takes because it's a federal government job. Anyonewho has ever applied for a federal government job and not had to do a boot camp thing to getthere. It takes a while to get on boarded. It's a process. It's it's a marathon and not a sprint. You know, if you're applying for a public school job in America, in a regular public school, you couldbe interviewed on Tuesday, get your contract on Friday, and you're in the classroom on Mondayfriend, like you better be ready to go. In DoDEA schools, you have to put your resume into a system. USA Jobs. There's no Deus that USA Jobs is like the federal warehouse for all federal jobs. DoDEA has their own. So you have to put your resume in there. You will specify to upload it and then they check it. And then you have to select where you want to work so you can workstateside CONUS continental United States or Oh CONUS outside of the continental United States. Then within that you have to select Do you want to work Europe or Asia. Those are where the the hubs are. And then you can select specific schools, then you wait for an openingto come up that matches your profile and preferences for location. And the principal contactsyou then you have an interview, then you get the job offer but it's not official. It's just like a hey, we're thinking of offering you this job. We'd like you to join our staff, submit all thispaperwork and then three months later, you will be cleared by the background security people and you will be in the classroom. Three month lag time is typical for substituting jobs to its andthen in some places, you can't work there because they have hiring practices. Military Spousesare what's called usually local hires, meaning you're already physically in place. It's how I was hired to work in Okinawa, Japan. I was a local hire. And there's differences between like a system hire and a local hire which is a topic for a different podcast. But basically, there'spositions that are filled that are still open because the teacher hasn't been cleared yet. In Dota. Sorry, that was a long tangent. I have feelings, obviously.

45:16
I can see why I mean, it's a lot. So what are some techniques you've seen used to streamlinereferrals and goals, when you're transferring from base to base in regards to the need forspecial education support?
45:31
Absolutely. So I always like to ask, for my clients, I build an online repository of all of theirthings organized by type. So IP is one folder, and then data in another folder. That way I canpick and choose and build a profile to send to the receiving school, and like package it reallyneatly in one PDF. That way the, you know, the family can send it out and say, Hey, we're coming. Here's our kid. This is what you need to know, day one, to service this child appropriately. Here's our advocates, and even number, here's our number. Here's our doctor's number. Here are all the people that you can contact to talk to about this child. That's the first step is to prep, do the advanced landing prep. Of we're coming, here's what you need to know.The second step is as soon as you arrive, whether that's during the summer months or midschool year, you contact the main office with the school immediately and you set up a meetingand say we are here, we need to meet with X y&z Special Ed 504, coordinator, gifted program,grade level team coordinator, the counselor at the middle school in high school, I need all thepeople in the room because I need to give you the rundown on my kid. So that's kind of the advance prep. And then it's going through the transition. So usually, when you transfer with an IEP, the receiving school district should take it. And they might translate it into their own form.Many schools have their own like transfer IEP form, and they just populate it with that, and theyput it in place. For however many days they need to have it for their state laws. Go through that with a fine tooth comb. Because a lot of my clients have found that services were not correctly input. So especially with one on one aids, or if there are other medical concerns, likethey have an allergies with an EpiPen or they need to take meds certain times throughout theday. Sometimes those are missed are not always accurately transcribed. Because the systems in each state are different. Of course they are. And so, you know, going through that, and thenscheduling another meeting and saying, Okay, now we need to make a real IEP for this district,let's negotiate. And just remembering, you know, your kid needs what they need. They don't need to be put in a box, there's an eye an IEP for a reason. And they need, what it what their data indicates they need.
48:10
How can parents be better informed

48:13
of their rights? How can
48:17
they be better informed to know if a violation took place? Or what that would look like when thereceiving school did the transfer of the data and the information from the initial starting pointof that IEP that was transferred in?
48:33
I like to do a point by point comparison between the two documents, there is unfortunately, no easy answer. It's going to take time, it's going to take dedication, it's going to take an insightful eye. So point by point comparisons have in District A they had X, can I find that in District B? Dothey have that in there? Yes or no. And then I like to go through I have the kami extension on my browser. And so I will pull up both IEPs, side by side. And I'll go through with like, they have red, yellow, green, highlighting tool. And if I don't see it in there, it's red if it's in there, but it's substantially different. It's yellow. And if it's like a match, then it's green. That way, I can goback to the parents and the district and say, Now what happened to these red and yellowthings? Where are they? How are they being implemented? You missed this. If you do find a violation, it's important that you look back at your procedural guidelines. That is the Bible of special education rights for parents. It outlines everything that you should be getting things liketranslations of documents, accessible formats, if you want to have a meeting recorded,because you have a processing disorder, or for whatever you know, and it outlines all of thesteps you need to take in your state to contest something that is wrong to go through themediation process, the facilitated IEP process to go through due process, which is the legalprocess, lots of process today. But it outlines everything. So going through point by point, andthen referencing your right, your procedural guidelines, and then coming back to the schooland just, you know, professionally pointing out, Hey, I think you missed this, and seeing whattheir reaction is.
50:28
What can parents do if they're not getting communication from one or both school systems?Because oftentimes, if anything, you had mentioned this as well, that if a student is movingfrom one state or district to another, the receiving district can reach out to the initial district tohave a conversation, maybe touch base with the teacher and say, you know, I'm reading thisdocument, what does the student really look like? So, is there any tips that you give to parentsto help improve that communication?
51:03
Absolutely. So I like to have parents, especially for older children, I recommend that they talkactually, really all children. They talk to their child's current teacher or teachers, and ask if theycan write up a brief anecdotal report of like, what does this child look like in your classroom on a day to day basis? Like, what do they need? Do they need to be sitting in a certain place?What kind of students do they work with? Well, what kind of academic modifications are youdoing for them on a regular basis, and these anecdotal reports should mirror the present levelsand the accommodations, modifications and IEP goals? And if they don't, then you need to beasking why. When you get to the new school, I like to think it's important that those anecdotalreports be put into the present levels? Because yes, it's going to make it harder, yes. Is it going to be a book 100%. But if I'm a new teacher, and I have an I teach math, and I can, and I know this child is new, then I can go to present level and say, oh, gosh, this is what their mathteacher and, you know, in Massachusetts was doing, this is what their math class looked like.And now I have a model to start from, as opposed to a blank slate. Of I have a kid I know they have ADHD, I know they have dyscalculia. What does this look like, because it can present in a myriad of different ways. But if I have the blueprint, I can go back and say, oh, okay, they just need it big. They need it in the squiggly font, they need it on a pink piece of paper, they needto have a highlighter, they need to have this and I can easily put those in place day one, asopposed to not having anything at all. The other thing is, I always like to have an unofficial record. So to transfer, you should have the school should talk to each other. And that's how the official record gets transferred with all of their documents, and data and testing and all of thatstuff. However, when I register, I always like to recommend that schools accept and parentsprovide the unofficial physical record or digital record of their child from the last school district.I traveled with my child's all of like, if I'm moving, potentially, this summer, I'm going to have alltheir records from their current public school with me in a physical format. Because I need to be able on day one to say this is my child, this is what they've done for the last five years inNorthern Virginia. Hello, California. This is this is my kid. Parents often,

53:52
you know, just don't know what to ask or say for say, how do you? Or how would you empowerparents to be stronger advocates and feel confident and questioning things?
54:03
So if you think about it, like a doctor's office, if you go to a doctor for a rash, and they prescribeyou a cream, you're gonna say, why? What will this cream do? What will it look like? And howlong should it take to fix this rash that I have? IEP meetings are not any different. They're offering you a program to support your child's education. And so the most important questionyou can ask is why? Why is this the recommendation? The next important question is how, howdoes this look? And then last is who, who is going to be providing this program of education formy child? What are their credentials? What is their experience? Have they ever worked with achild like mine before? So you should be getting satisfactory answers of well, why are we doingthis? Well, because OG is a research based intervention for children with dyslexia. The person who is providing this is, you know, she's OG certified level, whatever. She's been doing this for 15 years. And the program you're going to be using is this purchase Barton. And it's OG base. And this is how it rolls out. And so now you have a complete picture of what your child what thewhat the prescription is for your child at school. But it can be really hard to ask those questions.So sometimes I like to bring, I will actually not sometimes all the time, I like to bring a checkclass, and I will give it to parents, I'll type it up for parents before the meeting. And it's bullet pointed, and different colors of highlighter and fonts and bold and italics. That way they have ascript of what to ask for and what to look for at the school during the meeting. I find it helps parents because they know that I've prepared it for them. They have an expert who's preparing it for them. And they literally just read from the script. And that's it. And it's personalized to their child.

56:05
That's empowering. How do we positively communicate a complaint? How can we tell if we'rebeing kind of too nice, so to say.
56:14
So I always like to, I call it polite, but professional. And then I sandwich it. So I'll start off with i Miss Taylor, I really appreciate the art project that you're doing with little Johnny. I love seeinghis creative side, however, I have a concern that, you know, he's not making friends at recess.And so I really love your insights about how he is socializing in school. Thank you for partnering with me. Sincerely, Meg. And so now you feel good. Because I'd recognize something good thatyou're doing in the classroom that my child is responding to, I've brought you a concern. I've explained what feedback I want. And then I've closed by bringing you onto my team as my partner. And obviously, you know, that's a, that's a softball situation, you know, he's just notmaking friends. Great. But for something more serious. I think keeping it brief and to the pointis, Johnny has missed his counseling sessions, or has reported missing his counseling sessionsfor the last three weeks Miss Taylor, I would love to see some documentation about why he hasmissed these counseling sessions and how we plan on compensating for that. Thank you for partnering with me. So I'm calling you out. But I'm asked, I'm asking you to provide some evidence. So hopefully, you would be able to come back and say, Gosh, I'm really sorry, I testedpositive for COVID. So I was out the first week. And then the second week, there was a field tripand a concert, and they were having a presentation from fifth grade. I am so sorry. I'm gonnamake sure to pull him for a longer period of time for the next five weeks in order to make up forthat. I think that's a reasonable response. You gave me a reason. And you've told me how you're going to fix that. Yeah,
58:17
what is the perfect IEP environment? In your opinion? And what does a successful and studentcentered team
58:24
have? So I'm gonna start with what do they have? So a successful student centered team haslevel playing field. And what I mean by that is that everyone is given due respect. So as I'm calling you, Miss Taylor,
58:48
and you're the school, you don't call me Mom, you call me Meg, or you call me Miss Flanagan.

58:55
I'm not mom, I am a member of this team. And you need to know my name. So school teams would stop calling the child's grown ups mom and dad or whatever their special title is. Call them by their name, because it shows that now I am on an equal playing field with you we bothhave the the language of respect, because when you call someone mom or dad, it means thatthey are a guest at the table.
59:26
And you don't you are not respecting them enough to learn their name.
59:34
Give them that respect. The second thing it needs is full and complete transparency. That means that if you have an educational record pertaining to a child, it needs to be shared. If it's something that you've kept in your notes that are your personal private notes, that's one thingif it's like, oh, I noticed that, you know, he doesn't like blue lollipops, so I'm going to make sure to get green ones. Great. That's a note that's just for you. But If you're using that note, to makethe IEP or report progress, then you'd better be sharing that information with me, even if youhave to redact other children's information. That's my educational record now, or my child's educational record. So respect and transparency are the two things you need to have asuccessful IEP meeting. Because everything flows from there, I am more, you're more likely tohave a frank conversation when everyone is feeling respected, and no one is feeling attacked.So that's a lot of times what I see is that parents feel like they're coming out flat footed,because they don't know what what's being talked about. And that only comes from transparency. From having this as your child's educational record, here's what it means, in veryclear, simple, plain language. A successful IEP meeting, to me looks like considering all of theoptions available, and truly considering them not just saying, Oh, well, we know that he doesn'tneed to go to a special school. No, explain to me why a private placement is not a good fit formy child, and explain it to me every single time. At this time, we have found that, you know,Sam doesn't need to go to a private placement school because we can see on his IEP that he ismaking sufficient he is making a good trajectory of progress on these IEP goals in this publicschool setting. At this time, we will consider this again next time explaining it very clearly. Once everything is explained, and parents can talk can speak up and say, Well, I don't agree withthat. Or, you know, Can we can we have another look? What are some other options that areavailable to them? Yeah.
1:01:58
As we kind of wind down, what did I not know enough to ask that I should
1:02:03
have asked. So I think one of the important things to remember about military kids is that not

pg yonly are they highly mobile, but we've America has been at war. And yes, we're technically not at war anymore. We've been at war consistently since 2001. And so we are at the tail end right now of the 911 baby generation. So most of the kids that were born into that like, right,immediately after everything started, they're now in college or entering adulthood. However, we still have a large population of military children who have lived through multiple combatdeployments. They have kissed their parent goodbye, and not known if they were going tocome back or not. And so military children have a lot of trauma, hidden trauma. So I'll give an example from my life. My kids were born after my husband's most recent deployment. Theyhave never known a world where their dad has deployed to a combat zone, he, you know, he'sgone on work trips, he's gone on, you know, short shorts into my short, I mean, less than sixmonths. But they still know that he's in the military. And so we went to the Marine CorpsMuseum, which is a fabulous Museum in Quantico, Virginia. And we went to, and I thoughtnothing of it, because I was a teenager when 911 happened. And so it's just part of my growing up. So we went there, and we walked past the 911 exhibit. There's a big picture of the Pentagon with the side missing. And my husband worked there at the time, and they had thisvisceral response of, that's where dad works. Oh, my God, it got blown up. Could that happenagain, and they were terrified of him going to work for six months, at least. And they still talked about it. Do you remember when the plane flew into your building? Do you remember that?He's like, No, I don't remember I wasn't there. But they have a trauma response to that. Theyhave that they have been in locations where people have died during training accidents. And so they have that internalized trauma response. And so when you have a population of militarychildren, whether they are typically developing or not, these children and their parents have alevel of trauma that is not always apparent to non military families, to non military people. And so being very, very careful about how you address world conflict. Being very careful about howyou address holidays like Memorial Day are Veterans Day is, is a 911 is essential. It's, it's something that is, is hard. Like it's a hard holiday. Those are hard holidays for military families.Because you're remembering people that you knew.
1:05:24
I appreciate that perspective. And so how would teachers recognize or better support? Or howcan they find resources to learn further about the hidden traumas that are within militaryfamilies or families that move
1:05:46
after. So one great resource is MC AC, the military child's education coalition. They are a nationwide resource for all school teachers for families. They offer educator trainings andschool admin trainings about how to serve military children, they offer them, you know,multiple times a year they have recordings available. If you are in a community where there's amilitary base, you can reach out to the school liaison officer there as a school member, as aschool employee and say, Hi, I'm looking for resources for there's also in many public schools,in military communities, and in DoDEA schools. There's a program called military family lifecounselors, and they will get station a specialized counselor at your school to help militarychildren can also there's tons of books usually at like the picture book level, like Dr. Jill Biden wrote one for military kids, I think for her grandkids, there's and there's ways to make itpersonal. If you are in a military community, or you are, or you know that there's a veterancommunity there with school aged children, sending an email and saying, Hi, we are going to be doing a memorial day project, is there anything I need to know to protect your child, or thatyou don't want your child to participate in for Veterans Day sending out an email and say, wewould love to learn more about your military service? If you are a service member, you know,and want to come in and be a guest reader, let me know. I know my husband and hiscolleagues before we had kids would come in all the time to my classrooms, and read and belike the veterans, they gassed reader, and it was the cutest thing. And the kids loved it. And they loved it because they got to be public facing permanent. They got to, you know, put, youknow, explain a little bit about what it's like to be in the military. And I think that if we can bridge that, not a divide, but a gap if we can bridge the gap between what people think theyknow about military life and what military life actually is. I think that's really important. So anytime you have a chance to connect with a slow with EFMP, with the military, family lifecounselors, with military families and veterans organizations, it's really important.

1:08:26
What are three tips that you would give professionals to act upon?
1:08:29
Three tips, let me thank the rigorous of data collection and documentation. So that's tip one, have a system and know it for your data collection and documentation. The same Tip Tip twowould be leave the building at your contracted time, go home, please relax. You're doing the absolute most. I know no one expects you to be perfect. We just expect you to be professional.And do your job to the best of your ability at this time given the restrictions and circumstances.Tip three would be be kind to yourself. Be kind to your students. Be kind to your colleagues and be kind to the grown ups of your students. Everyone deserves just a little bit of kindness and grace in our in our crazy mixed up world. And conversely, what
1:09:34
would you give tips for parents especially if they're preparing for a move a military parent
1:09:40
or family? I would say pause and dwell on whatever emotions you have right now. I know that not every move is going to be positive or welcomed. But there's always a silver liningsomewhere So if you can just slow down and think about it for however long you need, I mean,obviously not like six months, but like maybe like a week and not do anything other than justget used to the idea of nothing. That's a great thing to do. The second one would be to prepareto contact the school that you're currently at, let them know, Hey, we're moving, I'd like tohave, you know, PDF copies of everything you have on file, I'm happy to come in and scanthem myself, or make copies myself, but I just need this file. And the third thing would be to listen to your children. As a parent, I know that moves for me are traumatic. It's a big change. I'm very type A, I like to be in one place, I don't like changes. They're also traumatic for your children. And so while I'm doing my checks in the box of what I need to do to get my kids rightnow, they're processing their own emotions. And so sometimes I just need to remind myself to pause and listen. And, you know, take a little bit of time to explain or give a hug and somereassurances to make them feel secure, that even if we're moving, it doesn't change ourfamily, it doesn't change who they are as a person, it just changes our physical location, andwe can regroup and recover.

1:11:22
This has been phenomenal, and I hope families or professionals that are listening can take thisin, take the advice and either be educated on and being aware of military families, or if you're amilitary family being supported, and guided up to some treasures that you can put into place tohelp make things a little bit easier. Make how can people find you, your educational solutions? We didn't mention your book. So all of those things as we wind down? Can you let people know about
1:11:58
that? Absolutely. So I wrote a book. It's called talk to the teacher. And it is a recipe book ofscripts and emails and conversations to have with your child's teachers in a wide variety ofsituations, everything from a parent teacher conference to handling a child's negative behaviorat school, including an up to suspension and expulsion, and includes all sorts of thosedocument tracking forms. I have five forms in there to do the document and data tracking like Italked about earlier looking for those red flags. There are make yourself templates you can get that on Amazon. It's called talk to the teacher. Um, you can also get it on my website megaplan again.com. And then that's my handle for all of the social medias is if you just search MikeFlanagan, education advocate, I should pop up pretty easily.
1:12:52
And tastic I am grateful for your time I hope people are going on to your website or where theypurchase their books and get a copy of their book and to reach out to you if they need more support.
1:13:07
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. You bet