Parents...?

Question

How do you organize the huge amount of papers dealing with your child's special education?

What do you keep? For how long?

How do you manage it?

Answer 1

All of the above suggestions are great.

If you have misplaced something, say for instance an evaluation or some type of conference summary, ask the school for a copy of it. They should have everything on file and have helped me in the past locate information.

Answer 2

You can ask this at the message board  www.schwabas.org

There are LOTS of parents with sped kids there who do this .

Answer 3

I keep every bit of paper and documentation regarding my special needs child. Also when I attend meetings I make notes and keep these dated and with everything else. Professionals are very good at promising things to help your child and then failing to deliver. If you have got everything noted and dated you can provide proof that they actually did say something about a certain subject. I also keep a diary of my child's behaviours each day and what makes them better or worse. No one will look after your child as well as you do so it is well worth documenting everything that happens. Some of my stuff is in a folder and the rest I have backed up on my PC, I will keep it probably forever.

Answer 4

I keep everything in a folder. I will keep it forever.  You never know when you will need any of it.  You have to protect your childs interests.

Answer 5

Medical stuff is in a file.

All educational stuff is in a 3" three ring binder, separated by subject and each subject in chronological order. So, first is all IEPs, then occupational therapy, speech, and behavioral next because it's so big. Last I have all correspondence, letters, notes from teachers, emails etc. If you go to due process, you aren't allowed to testify, all that you can do legally is present information, so all of this is important.  

I got rid of everything about a year after we decided to homeschool. There really is no need for it outside of a school setting. We obviously still have the medical papers, which will be helpful for college and careers.