What is educational advocacy?
Written by Child Advocacy Specialist Rachel Doolin
Educational advocacy is a partnership that ensures children receive the proper education (Children’s Integrated Center for Success). Specifically, educational advocacy could include 504 plans, IEP’s (Individualized Education Program), ARD’s (Admission, Review, Dismissal), conferences with teachers and administration. It is developing goals for both home and school to prepare the child for success, while reviewing individual recommendations on accommodations and modifications. Educational advocacy is talking with the kids and listening to them to figure out what they need.
It is difficult to know exactly what a child is going through at home or how they are internalizing events happening to them. Attending school, paying attention, and achieving academically may be the last thing on their mind. They might just be trying to survive and make it another day. Educational advocacy is advocating for that child that is trying to survive and doing what it takes to make them feel: safe, heard, and cared for at school. Educational advocacy is showing a child that you believe in them and that they are important. Important enough to help them figure out what they need to be successful in school. Sometimes, a child might not even know or have any idea what tools they need to be successful. Other times, a child might just need extra help in class. Advocating for them might look like asking the teacher what accommodation the child has, or if there are any accommodation that could be provided. Advocating might look like participating in an ARD meeting where school personnel talk about creating an IEP or review the current IEP in place.
As a former teacher, I had a student that struggled with their academics, acted out in class, and tried to be the class clown to make up for the fact that they did not learn in the ways their classmates did. Which is not a bad thing, everyone learns in their own ways – that is what makes everyone unique. I was able to work with their parents and administration and by the middle of the year, the child had a 504 plan and thrived from then on. All that child needed was for someone to believe in them and advocate for them so that they could succeed in school. From that day on, that child knew they had so many people that believed in them and were in their corner.