Tips for Teens: Use Your IEP Meetings to Learn How to Advocate for Yourself

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Explore resources that offer comprehensive information on how a child's growth and development are influenced by a spinal cord injury. Gain valuable insights into developmental milestones and their impact on the child's overall well-being.

Discover essential adaptations and accommodations necessary to support learning within the school environment. Access resources aimed at facilitating social and emotional development, fostering self-confidence, nurturing friendships, and promoting ongoing independence.

Facilitating a child's recovery from a spinal cord injury often necessitates a new approach to communication. Find resources offering guidance on discussing spinal cord injuries with children and teenagers, finding therapists to assist in building positive self-esteem, managing traumatic stress, and addressing PTSD. Additionally, resources provide valuable information on interacting and communicating with extended family, friends, and teachers about spinal cord injuries.

Learn how to collaborate with healthcare professionals and educators to develop an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), ensuring that learning needs are met at every educational stage, from preschool to college. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 mandates the education of students with disabilities alongside their non-disabled peers to the greatest extent possible, with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) also applying to children.

Tips for Teens: Use Your IEP Meetings to Learn How to Advocate for Yourself This consumer education sheet provided by the PACER Center provides useful tips for teens in developing self-advocacy skills. It provides information on how to begin to express needs and wants by participating in their Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings. At these meetings, teens can learn ways to talk about their disability to others, set goals, build teamwork skills, ask for accommodations and practice other self-advocacy skills. This single copy form from the PACER publication catalog is for your personal, noncommercial use only. For permission to reprint multiple copies or to order presentation-ready copies for distribution, complete the PACER Reprint Form at www.pacer.org/forms/request.asp or PACER Publication Order Form at www.pacer.org/publications/OrderForm.pdf