Tikkabik

Last night I attended a school committee meeting at Emmeline's school with several other special ed parents, mainly as a way of showing solidarity as we start to try to get a special ed parents' advisory council off the ground. The director of special ed was there and she was quite conciliatory towards us, which is good.

We've gotten some mixed signals from the superintendent, but I think in the end she'll have no choice but to accept us as the "real" SEPAC. She'd like us to think that we need the school's involvement to be legitimate, and while it's obviously of key importance that the SEPAC work with the special ed department, ultimately it's a parent's advisory council, not a committee appointed by the school. The whole reason for a SEPAC to exist is for parents to advise the special ed department (and other parents) about special ed needs in the town.

Our first general meeting will be later this month at the parish hall of the local Catholic church. We're hoping to get flyers distributed to parents in time, to get the word out, and as I told the folks who came last night, I think it'll be of key importance for us to get in the faces of everyone in town anyway we can, by putting up flyers in public areas, canvassing the public where we can and trying to get our message out to people in town.

My first step was to get a simple Web site up and running, which I have. Next will be to populate that site with more info (including this nifty SEPAC finder utility that my mother helped to make. We're planning on distributing a survey to get a handle on what the special ed parents in town want and need, as well.