Empowering Families in Special Education: A Conversation with April Rehrig

Unlock the secrets of empowering students in special education as we sit down with April, a dedicated advocate and seasoned professional in school psychology. April's journey, inspired by a family of educators, led her to challenge misconceptions and champion individualized education plans (IEPs) that genuinely address each student's unique strengths and needs. In this episode, she highlights the pivotal role of student participation and effective communication between parents, teachers, and psychologists, sharing her transformative work with RISE—a movement aiming to bridge gaps and empower students through self-determination.

Connect with Heather Rehrig: 

April Rehrig 

M.Ed., BCEA, LEP, PPS, CASDCS

Rise Educational Advocacy and Consulting, LLC. Founder

www.riseeducationaladvocacy.com 

IEP Workshops 

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We explore April's insights on navigating the IEP process, where she emphasizes the power of meeting students where they are and fostering meaningful connections. Hear about an inspiring success story where April helped a mother and her child transition smoothly to high school by equipping them with crucial tools like parent letters and reports. This conversation is an eye-opener on the importance of communication and documentation, urging parents and teachers alike to adapt their approaches to create more collaborative and positive outcomes.

As we delve into the critical transition from high school to college, April offers invaluable guidance on preparing for IEP meetings as negotiation opportunities. With resources from RISE, families can effectively navigate this phase, ensuring students are well-prepared and understand college disability services. Connect with April's work and advocacy by visiting riseeducationaladvocacy.com and following her on Instagram at @riseedadvocacy. Don't miss out on the wealth of knowledge shared by April, whose commitment to transforming the special education landscape is truly inspiring.

Chapters

• 0:00 Empowering Students in Special Education
• 11:18 Navigating the IEP Process Successfully
• 17:24 Navigating Transition to College Success
• 25:17 Connecting With Rise Educational Advocacy

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

All right. Well, I'm so excited today to have a chance to talk to you, april, for the FAST15, and just get to know you and find out about where you have been on your journey in special education and supporting families and students in particular, and just where all of your work started with RISE and kind of the development and journey that you've been on. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. So tell us so do you want me to get to, kind of my background of journey that you've been on? Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2: 0:24

So tell us, so do you want me to get to kind of my background of where I've been?

Speaker 1: 0:29

Yes, please get into the background.

Speaker 2: 0:32

Well, it's kind of I'll give you the short and skinny of it I was always sort of involved with students neurodivergent kids. I started volunteering when I was 11 in a neurodivergent classroom and I loved it and I was raised in a family of educators. I would sit in my aunt's classroom and just look at her and wonder, because she was funny and hilarious and no matter what kind of kid was in there, they loved her. And that's what makes a great educator is someone who speaks to you and it just really you know is someone who speaks to you and it just really you know. It tugged at my heart and so I decided to become a teacher and my first couple of years as a new teacher I'm sure some of your listeners will resonate with this, but I got the most difficult kids and the most amount of boys in anyone else's class as a new teacher and I thought at 21, I knew it all.

Speaker 2: 1:24

I thought at 21, if a kid struggled, that they definitely needed an IEP. So I referred a bunch of kids. I'm like I know exactly what they need. They are not doing well, they are not listening, so they have learning disabilities. And the psychologist looked at me and she said you know what, april, you keep referring me these kids and most of them don't qualify and it's because you're not teaching them to their needs.

Speaker 2: 1:51

Some of the kids were exceptionally gifted but they were failing and I didn't recognize that and I wasn't working with their strengths, which is what I talk about a lot. So it turned me on and turned me inside out and brought open this new field to my heart called school psychology. And so I was a school psych for 20 years. I went into teaching a little bit and I loved it. I loved it. But the thing that I didn't love was coming to the IEPs because they were just run so poorly. And you know, as a school psych, you come into the meeting, you do all this testing, you spend we spend sometimes 20 hours on our reports and the team would look at the report and they're like okay, this is cool, but like what does it?

Speaker 1: 2:38

mean.

Speaker 2: 2:38

And what are you talking about? And when I would have students in the IEPs and I really am so big on having students involved in the IEPs and I really am so big on having students involved in the IEPs I would look at the testing I wrote and I'm like I can't talk about this. I can't just spit out a bunch of test scores. I need to speak their language. And so I kind of adjusted how I wrote reports and I really worked on what am I doing here, what is everyone else doing here, and how can we make plans that are really sensible and usable and get passed all those standardized test scores that missed the mark and help kids thrive?

Speaker 2: 3:14

And so, after 20 years, I left the field of school psychology because I wanted to be an advocate. But I wanted to do something different. I wanted to bridge the gap between parents and schools and teachers and make it so that plans are easier and make it so that parents have the tools and the resources they need and they don't feel like they're going to cry after IEPs and also teachers are not like, oh my gosh, another 50 page IEP, like what am I doing here? Right, what I formulated at RISE is a much different way to approach special education and 504s, which is really explaining what it looks like talking to kids and students and teachers about how you can empower yourself at the table and really demystifying the process and making it better.

Speaker 1: 4:06

Right. That's amazing and it's absolutely something that I'm so passionate about, and I've never heard somebody talk about the school psychologist perspective and how that informs everything that we do. If we don't have that good starting place and that starting point where you're understanding and you're working out that experience you had early on and then moving into, how do we make this better? That's incredible and I wish that well. You're blazing a trail here because I think that's just. It's something that needs to be done differently. How do we pull all of those things together? It has to thread through from the evaluation to the transition plan, to the IEP, to having the student really understand and being powerful in the process. So, self-determination, april. How do what's your approach for really building those skills early on with students with functional skills and really meaningful goals that we need to create for students to support them all the way through the process so that they're taking ownership? What's your approach for self-determination and instilling that with them?

Speaker 2: 5:24

It's such a great question. So you touched on a really important point functional academics. If you look at many IEPs under the present levels page, it actually will call it present levels of performance and functional performance. It actually says the word functional, but what tends to get missed with most IEPs is that functional piece gets lost. And that's why I touched on the point earlier about standardized tests tend to miss the mark because they don't show us what kids can do. They don't show us what they need to learn. They're just a data point, and a data point is a data point. But that's not going to show motivation. It's not going to show incidental learning, how we generalize something from maybe, speech your child to the IEP when they're in second grade.

Speaker 2: 6:27

Invite your child to the IEP, no matter how young they are and no matter what kind of disability they have. Every child is able to communicate in their own way what they like, what they don't like, what works for them, mystifying the process of oh, we don't want to share the IEP, or well, we don't want them to know that they go to a room. Kids are smart. They already know that. They go to another room. I'm going to speech. They know that. So why not empower them by making it?

Speaker 2: 6:56

This is your meeting and we're here, and what works for you? What do you like? So bringing kids to their IEP and introducing them earlier than when the law tells them to come? There's nothing in IDA law that tells families you can't invite your child whenever you want. You're absolutely unable to invite your child, and so when you invite your child to the meeting before you bring them there, you're gonna want to talk with your child in whatever communication form that they feel comfortable with. So if they're a middle schooler and they've never been to an IEP, okay, well, we know you go to a resource. What is working for you in the resource? What do you like about? I call them the case carrier, but it's your special education teacher. What's working for you? Is this accommodation here? Let's look at the page Like does that accommodation really work for you? Do you like Mrs So-and-so? Is she helpful to you, is it?

Speaker 1: 7:52

like we don't like that.

Speaker 2: 7:53

So it's kind of empowering them at the table. And then when you're at the meeting, yes, you're the mom and you're still in charge until what's called the age of majority, which is 18. But you can look at your child and say, ok, what do you think what's working for you? Ok, here's the goal. Does that seem like something you want to work on? And what I tell families all the time is, when you invite your child to the meeting, it changes things.

Speaker 2: 8:20

When I was a school psych and I was reading a report, if the student was there, I had to start talking about the stuff they can do. I had to start talking about okay, this is easy for you, this is hard. This is what they're done with high school, whether they age out, they go to college or they go on to some post-secondary institution. Perhaps they want to utilize their accommodation, perhaps they want to apply for disability support, right, if they don't know what's in their plan and they don't know how to advocate, it's going to be really hard. Very so, empowering your child and training them, and that's absolutely to advocate. It's going to be really hard. So, empowering your child and training them, and that's absolutely what the IEP team needs to be doing. We're always talking about self-advocacy. Bring your child to the meeting is like the easiest and best way to start that path forward.

Speaker 1: 9:18

Right, and how about this? Let's not surprise them with the meeting that's coming right. Let's, like you said, train them ahead of time and let them know what that's going to be like, instead of just you know. Oh, it's at three o'clock and there's going to be a whole bunch of adults around you staring at you and waiting for you to say something. Prep, look like. How can teachers better equip their students in a more systematic way, where it's not a surprise, where they are prepared? What do you see with that?

Speaker 2: 9:52

It's a great question and what I see is showing you know, especially when kids are older let's say middle school and high school and perhaps they have a resource or they have some services, but they're able to be integrated with their non-disabled peers or they're on a diploma track and they're able to read and understand some of the IEP documents, so students are able to look at that. So if you sit down with a student not the day before but maybe two weeks before and like okay, here's the goals we're working on, right, how is this working for you? Or here's the accommodations, like do you like this one? Is it working for you, is it not? The conversation starts early.

Speaker 2: 10:32

When I was a school psychologist, I worked at high school when I would be counseling a student for a service on their IEP. My first session was I'm April, this is what I do, you are so-and-so. Tell me about yourself and also pulling out the IEP and looking at okay, here's the goal we're supposed to be working on, what do you think about that? Like what are some of your ideas? I would make it inclusive and I would show them the paper. And then, when we came to the IEP, they're like oh yeah, that's a goal we're supposed to be working on, because if you're working on something with someone else and you don't know what you're working on, how is that helpful, exactly.

Speaker 2: 11:08

So it's just making, it's demystifying it. It's making it easier for kids that have more substantial difficulties or maybe struggle to communicate. There's all different kinds of ways that we can approach it, and it's meeting the kids where they're at and figuring out OK, what do they understand and how can we kind of make it easier for them. So the conversation really starts at the beginning, and every year you get a new case carrier. So that's when the conversation starts, and it doesn't have to be hours and hours. It can be a few minutes here, a few minutes there, but it definitely doesn't start when you call in the student to the meeting and you're like hi, you have an ITP, here we go.

Speaker 1: 11:49

Absolutely, and you know what I love about that, april. Your approach is so wonderful because it's so relational, it's so empowering, it's so honoring and respectful and I just appreciate you know those steps along the way, starting early, you know, giving them the power to say is this goal working for you, is it or isn't it? My name's April, my name's Barb. You know let's get to know each other on a personal level and then they're able to be self-determined and actually managing their own educational journey and it's powerful. So I can't wait for our listeners to be able to find you and we'll get all that information for them, definitely in the show notes and definitely we want to be really clear, for how do we get more information to them about your work?

Speaker 1: 12:40

There's one thing we're talking about relationships, and relationships with families is so important and in your work I can see it's just such a powerful role that you play in walking with parents and families along that journey and students. Can you highlight just one absolute win that comes to mind as far as a family, without giving any names or any real descriptives? Can you highlight one family or interaction with a team that you reflect on and you're just like, yes, that's how it should go. Can you give our listeners, kind of just paint that picture for us.

Speaker 2: 13:20

Yeah, I had a mom a few months ago who approached me, like many parents do, and she was like I am drowning in these IEPs, I am crying my eyes out, I can't communicate with the team and I am so frustrated I need your help. So that was her concern and we sat down and I looked at all the records. I always do that first with families, so we know where we're at, we identify the holes. And then we sat down and we knew that her child was transitioning to high school and she was so panicked she was like I don't know what to expect. I don't know what to do. I'm trying to prep my child but I haven't been through this before, like I don't know. And so we mapped it out and I gave her the options and I talked about what it looks like at a high school. And then, when I came to the meeting, you know she was still scared, but I prepped her and showed her how to write what's called a parent letter of attachment and a parent report, which is where you're laying out before the meeting and you're communicating with the team. Here's where my child is at, here's my child's strengths, here's what I want us to talk about and here's some suggestions that I have where we can tweak the IEP.

Speaker 2: 14:30

So we sat down at the meeting. She brought out the paper and she was still kind of like I don't know if I can do this, and we left the meeting and she was like April I finally was able to say the things that I wanted to say. I didn't lose it in the meeting and I had that paper and on that paper it had all those thoughts and what she told me and it's so true for so many of his parents. We get in the meeting, we're overwhelmed with the paperwork, we're clamming up and then after the meeting we're like what happened? I wasn't able to tell people what I wanted to.

Speaker 2: 15:06

I got confused, I got lost. I didn't have like my thoughts in my mind because I didn't know what to do, and so having that paperwork before and she just brought it written down was the biggest win for her and she was so happy. And of course, afterwards she was still like shaking and just like, oh my gosh, I did it. But at the same time she was like April the meetings aren't going to be bad anymore Like I am so happy. And that was the biggest win for me, barb, because she felt better, she felt empowered and she had the tools she needed moving forward.

Speaker 1: 15:40

She was equipped and you just walked with her. You gave her the tools, walked with her, she wasn't alone and she has the tools to be able to go ahead and continue down each of those different amendments or whatever, whatever they're going to be going into. But I guess you know you answered that question so well. It's part of. The next question is just really, what would be your advice to give parents and teachers to better navigate the IEP process, because it can be so daunting, and that was, you know, just equipping them, like you. Just how do you help them step through it with confidence and good information? Right, that's meaningful to the student. I guess your best advice, just some points around, advice that you'd give for the IEP process, yes, that's a great question.

Speaker 2: 16:35

I think the two biggest areas that people struggle with at the table and this is for teachers too there's a kind of two different prongs that have to be adjusted, and they're communication and documentation. If you're coming to the IEPs and they're not going well, then you have to adjust your method right. If you're going into just like if you have a really toxic relationship with a significant other, a friend or whatever, and it's not going well, the only way it's going to get better is if you change your approach. So focusing on okay, this isn't working, what am I going to do differently? I know I can't change everyone else at the table, but I can change my approach, and when I change my approach it's going to make it easier and better. And then thinking about IEPs as a negotiation because it truly is, it's not that in stone you get to the meeting and you don't kind of wait till there to talk about it, and you don't kind of wait till there to talk about it. So what I'm talking about is you start your communication way before. So every good advocate knows that 90% of our communication and prep work comes before the IEP. And then, when you're at the meeting, you're kind of like reviewing, summarizing okay, I got the drafts, all right, this is what we got before. All right, let's go through and hash it out and then at the end, hopefully it should be mostly the plan that you had hoped for and there weren't surprises because you did all that prep before.

Speaker 2: 18:09

The other aspect that people struggle with the most is documentation, and that's where it comes to empowering yourself by understanding what the process looks like.

Speaker 2: 18:20

So one of the things that I do with my families is I show them what to expect by showing them what an IEP looks like, what a 504 plan looks like, and if they understand what it looks like, then they know oh okay, now I understand what I can ask for and how to get it, because I have seen this before. Right, most families who come to the IEP fifth, one or 10th one a lot of the stuff that happens at the meeting is because everyone else is sitting there with all this paperwork and documentation and you don't have it. So that's why I try to empower families by giving them the tools and the resources, whether it's templates or workshops that kind of show them here's what it looks like. Now you have the tools, how are you going to take all that stuff you know is mama and be able to translate it into? Here's my child, here's what they need and here's what I want you to do about it.

Speaker 1: 19:20

Oh well, so you know. That kind of leads me to my next question, and I hope this doesn't throw a curveball at you or anything, but I don't know how many families you work with in the transition years 18 to 21 to 22, you know, into adulthood, empowering them when the parent is kind of just handing those keys over. Which is my passion area is how do we take that mom knows all of the information and then schools know all of this information, and then we go to adult service agencies, right, and now they don't have the information. And why don't we have the bridge over? How do we build that bridge so that information that shouldn't just you know being weighing down for the parent and doesn't only rest on the student, it has to be carried through from our school systems to our adult service agencies? How do you get that thread through in the transition years? Can you speak to that just a little bit?

Speaker 2: 20:27

Yeah, that's a really good point that you bring up Barb, because a lot of advocates will kind of a parent will call and they'll be like my child is going to college, I don't know what to do, and then the advocates will say, well, I only do K-12. This is not my thing, and there's a few of us out there besides myself who kind of specialize in this area. But that's one of the areas that I specialize in is how to take your IEP or 504 to college. So when it comes to accessing disability support in college, the barriers are there in terms of there's usually only like 11 to 12% of all students with disabilities who have an IEP or a 504 or some type of disability support in high school that actually apply, get accepted and access disability service, and that is a huge problem. And one of the biggest reasons why is what I touched on earlier is that the students aren't really inclusive in the process. They aren't really informed about. Okay, here's what it's going to look like in college. And also, when they're looking for the college search, the families are like all right, we're looking at this cool school, you know it's awesome school, it's got this like Ivy League and it's got the name. Well, what about the disability supports here? Let's go check out the disability center.

Speaker 2: 21:44

The amazing thing out there, barb, is that there are hundreds and hundreds of colleges out there that cater to neurodivergent kids, that have what's called fee-based disability services, meaning they don't just have the basics, which is where you can get access to support or maybe accommodations through a 504, but you can pay for additional services, meaning you can get executive functioning services, you can get supports, you can have an academic coach. There's all these layers that are on top of it. But the biggest thing that families need to know is that you don't start this the second that they go off to college. The conversation starts earlier, by sitting down with your teen and being like OK, we're looking at colleges, these look awesome. Let's go check out the Disability Center, let's see what it is.

Speaker 2: 22:30

And then, when you are accepted into the university of choice, then that's part of the process is not just applying for housing and not just applying for the food and meals and paying the tuition. It's like all right, do we have all the disability docs? Okay, now you're 18, the age of majority sets in and according to FERPA, that means mom, I don't have access to my child documents and so getting the parents to know what a FERPA waiver is and understanding that they're not going to have access to those tools without some type of FERPA waiver or a proxy so they can access their child documents. And then the child knows I got my disability services, I applied, I have my IEP with me and then when they start day one in college, they've got the tools.

Speaker 1: 23:16

Right, which is where we want them to be, and so you're saying that your services through RISE could help those families in that context as well.

Speaker 2: 23:31

I have a guide, I have a fillable guide that I sell on Teachers Pay Teachers. That walks you through the process and it's great with teens, with students, with teachers. But yeah, he explains the process and makes it really easy.

Speaker 1: 23:42

I can't wait to see it. I'm going to get ahold of that. All right, here's a final question for you. So, looking out over your whole journey, if you could go back in time, what quick words of wisdom would you write in a letter to yourself?

Speaker 2: 23:58

I think the quick words of wisdom would you write in a letter to yourself. I think the quick words of wisdom that I would write to myself is don't sweat the small stuff. And so many times as moms, we're sitting in our kids' IEPs and 504s and we're so stressed about the smallest little thing 30 minutes of speech, 20 minutes of this and we're so caught up in the moment and it's hard for us to pull back and think okay, my son is going to be going to middle school next year. I know they don't want to have an aid. What do I need to do to get there?

Speaker 2: 24:30

So one of the things that I practice with my families is working on a vision plan. Okay, and that's the areas where schools struggle. Is they only look at one year from now, six months from now, whatever the progress reports say, or the 504 size that we moms work at every single IEP for years and years and years? We look at the big picture and we have to remind ourselves that it isn't about 30 minutes of speech. It's about what do we want to do to get our kids where they need to go and to capitalize on their strengths by thinking about here's my vision for my child, and here's what they want to do in three years. What am I going to do, a little by little, to get them?

Speaker 1: 25:09

there. Yes, I love that. Well, april, this is not long enough to have time with you. There is so much more I want to ask you, but if our listeners want to reach out to you, is there a place where you can send us to your email, or how do we best find you on your platform, social media and all the things? Can you tell us your information for how we can get more information about your services?

Speaker 2: 25:37

Sure Barb, they can contact me at my website, which is riseeducationaladvocacycom backslash contact, and then I tend to do a lot on Instagram. They can find me at riseedadvocacy, and this fall, depending on when this podcast is going to drop, I'm really excited to open my YouTube channel.

Speaker 1: 25:57

Yes, that's going to be exciting. I will definitely be checking that out and I'm excited for you and your next steps, and just thank you so much for taking the time with me today and with us to share your perspective, your journey, and it's really really inspiring and impactful to hear all of the advice that you have to offer, and I know a lot of families have been and will be really encouraged and grow a lot from what wealth of information that you have. So, thank you so much for taking the time with us.

Speaker 2: 26:31

My pleasure, Barb.

Speaker 1: 26:33

Take care.