Hi, everyone! It’s been a bit. Catching up on things over here, back-to-school shopping included. Years ago, I stopped buying everything for school BEFORE the first day. As my kids grew older, having them be a part of the process of school supply shopping has helped them figure out what works for them, system-wise.
If they want English to be the red folder and notebook and Science be blue (or vice versa), that’s far better than having it assigned to them. If the school-issued agenda isn’t working for your child, find a better one together. These are pretty great.
Anyway, when it comes to the caregiver role of a student with dyslexia, there are things I’ve found handy in helping me navigate, year after year. As the school year ramps up, you may find some of them helpful too so I wanted to share.
As an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn a small fee from qualifying purchases via links to some of the items below. This is at no additional cost to you. The cost of reading failure is high enough!
THE ESSENTIAL THREE:
1️⃣ From Emotions to Advocacy by Wrightslaw
This book covers so many process basics and gives a straightforward overview of how to communicate effectively with your team. The only thing that’s wrong with this book is that I wish I had bought it sooner!!
2️⃣ Special Education Advocate
No, you can’t “buy” an advocate at a store. But a qualified one is priceless. They can help fill in the gaps specific to your child’s unique needs in a way that a Wrightslaw book or asking blindly on a Facebook group cannot. You can also bring an advocate to a team meeting to help keep the agenda moving forward in a productive and respectful way. There are parts of process navigation that are not always intuitive and/or are incredibly time-consuming — an advocate can help guide in a way that eases the burden.
3️⃣ Special Education Lawyer
Like advocates, there is no special education lawyer aisle at Staples. Depending on your family’s journey, a consultation with a lawyer who specializes in educational law can be invaluable in making informed decisions. Their role can be behind the scenes and you may never need to bring them to a meeting. Or, it can be quite the opposite. You might even make them a “favorite” on your phone. While they are highly educated professionals who are incredibly expensive, the cost of failure is incredibly high too. Food for thought.
OTHER HELPFUL ITEMS:
Printer/Scanner with multi-page document feeder
The speed of scanning and the pages the document feeder can handle are the most important factors, so consider investing in the highest level for your budget. Brother makes solid, reliable functional ones.
“Business” level. Expensive but likely worth it in time savings.
The toner can be costly, but the feeder part for scanning is so, so great. Consider looking for someone’s old office one for its scanner with a feeder and never buy toner. If you have the space for a bigger unit, it’ll save so much time.
Scanning App
If you don’t have the room for a printer/scanner or are far more digitally inclined, a scanning app is the way to go. There are a lot of free and paid apps out there. I like Tiny Scanner, but invested in it years ago. There could be better ones out there. If you have a recommendation, share it in the comments!
Binders, binders, and more binders
When you are documenting, documenting, documenting, you’ll need binders, binders, and - you guessed it - binders. I personally like Staples brand “Better Binders.” They hold together well.
Multi-page 3-ring punch
Heavy duty! My child’s multi-page IEP broke my non-heavy-duty version. I’d like to say that I’m kidding, but I’m not. No one ever regrets buying a solid 3-hole punch. Can’t say as much about buying a flimsy one that only punches 5 pages at a time.
Shredder
Get rid of confidential redundant copies, forms, and more. It can also be cathartic.
I wish there was a perfect list of (free!) items that would make special education navigation efficient. Or, at the very least, less daunting.
At the end of the day, unless you happen to be an advocate or lawyer professionally, the odds are high that you’ll be investing one way or another on your special education journey — whether it’s in references, consultants, supplies, or simply (but not insignificantly) your time.
You are not alone.