Monica McCain, the Special Education Parent Liaison in the Student Services Department, recently teamed up with Claudia Rodriguez Diaz, community liaison, and Stephanie Serda from Escuela SMART Academy to make a special presentation to Spanish-speaking families of children with disabilities. The program, called "Entendiendo el IEP de su estudiante y los pasos hacia el futuro" (or Understanding Your Student's IEP and Steps Forward) was designed to provide parents and caregivers information about the IEP, transition, community agencies that support transition, and other community resources. "We decided that the presentation would be in Spanish entirely, rather than translated," Ms. McCain writes. "My thought behind that was to eliminate another barrier of Claudia having to translate for me; it allowed the session to flow smoother."
There was also a resource table of materials in Spanish that included:
- A list of frequently used terms and acronyms used in Special Education
- A transition information presentation
- The Discover TPS flyer
- Special Education resources from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce
- Social Security information
- Ohio Medicaid information
- Flyers of coming events in our area geared toward inclusion
Finally, each family also received a workbook called: Planning Transitions for Young People with Special Needs and Disabilities.