Community Living Ontario

Description: Family Village provides tips for communicating effectively with school personnel, assertive communication techniques and sample letters and several other excellent resources for families in advocating for their educational rigths. 

Quote: “Throughout your child's school years, there is always a need to communicate with school: teachers, administrators, and others concerned with your child's education. There are also times when the school needs to communicate with you. This is particularly true when your child has a disability and is receiving special education services. Some of this communication is informal, such as phone calls, comments in your child's notebook, a chat when picking your child up from school, or at a school function. Other forms of communication are more formal and need to be written down.

Letters provide both you and the school with a record of ideas, concerns, and suggestions. Putting your thoughts on paper gives you the opportunity to take as long as you need to:

• state your concerns,
• think over what you've written,
• make changes, and
• have someone else read over the letter and make suggestions…”

References:http://www.familyvillage.wisc.edu/Education/communication.html