School Assessments: Moving Forward with an Advocate

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Let’s continue our series exploring services that help get your learner on a path to school success!

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been doing a deep-dive into the often emotionally-charged and confusing world of school assessments and psychological reports. We summarized some obstacles that are encountered when hardworking school professionals attempt to juggle competing demands within overburdened systems.

Last week, we detailed the frustrating and all-too-common experience for many folks attending a school meeting to review the results of psychological, educational, speech, language, OT (etc.) assessment results.

From that depiction of an effective school team juggling their many competing responsibilities within an over-burdened system, it’s easy to see how productivity and meaningful discussions compete for that scarce resource known as “time.”

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Next up: Obstacle #3:

  “Opportunities to collaborate…felt less productive.”

We laid out several ways GPS Education Consulting can help folks to meaningfully use assessment data to support learners’ strengths and areas of need (If you missed it, give it a quick read). As a bonus, those services also contribute to more productive collaboration across home, school, and community partners!

Here are a few of the many ways GPS Education Consulting will increase productive collaboration with schools:

1. Fewer continuation meetings due to breakdowns in preparation (e.g., documentation / prior-written-notice, meeting participants, meeting purpose(s), etc.).

2. Advanced opportunities to:

   • thoughtfully consider,

   • empower yourself with knowledge and resources, and

   • emotionally process the likely choices and outcomes that you will be presented with at the meeting(s).

3. Increased structure during meetings.

4. Less time spent on lower mutual-priorities and time-consuming explanations.

5. Getting key school system stakeholders/decision-makers involved earlier, which often leads to clarity and access to resources during complex situations.

6. More time to spend engaged in creative and solution-focused problem-solving with the experts who work with your learner.

Ready to stop spinning your wheels on the path to school success? Contact GPS Education Consulting today to schedule your FREE conversation to learn how we can get your learner moving forward!

Sounds great, right? Here’s how we do it:

• Our record review and one-on-one conversations prior to the meeting will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of personalized documentation proposed to bolster your learner’s interests and talents, and to develop skills in the areas that are harder for them.

• We’ll review possible interpretations of the information and proposed supports, detailing the ways that these could lead to choices and decisions for the upcoming meeting(s).

• With GPS Education Consulting representing you and your learner(s) as a non-attorney advocate throughout the process, you’ll have peace-of-mind knowing that we are putting our years of training and experience running thousands of IEP & Section 504 Meetings into advocating for your learner, while supporting the folks that work closely with them.

  • We will support the team using time-saving communication strategies ahead of time to establish common priorities for the meeting(s).

  • We will ensure that the necessary stakeholders participate in the meetings.

  • We’ll help the team to efficiently follow the established procedural safeguards and regulations for learners who require more creativity and support than their peers.

  • We'll employ our substantial experience with interpreting standardized assessments while important decisions are being made about your learner’s future.

  • We will lend our expertise and talents with complex problem-solving and solution-focused advocacy to overcome the obstacles often encountered in large systems like schools.

  • We will read between the lines using our training and experience in the school, and respectfully ask the challenging questions to get the answers your learner deserves.

  • We will review documentation from meetings and collaborate with the team to rectify errors and omissions.

  • We will support the team to envision and construct a path to school success for your learner.

  • We will guide you and the team to resources and additional professionals when the road is blocked.  

Ready to have PRODUCTIVE meetings with your learner’s school team? Fill out our short form to schedule your FREE Conversation.

Best,

Evan Gallena, Ed.S., NCSP

Founder & Lead-Consultant: GPS Education Consulting L.L.C.

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Together, as one… Navigating the path to school success!