List of Services

Your child’s records are an important key to unlocking the appropriate services for their educational environment. Parents are often overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information they receive related to their child’s academic, social-emotional, and behavioral progress, not to mention the prolific use of specialized jargon found in these documents. Martinez Advocacy will closely review all of your child’s records and explain their relevance to you in language you can easily understand. Together, we will use this valuable information to craft a strategy for achieving the best outcome for your student.

Another important key to unlocking appropriate services for your child is observing how they function in their academic environment. Therefore, Martinez Advocacy values the opportunity to observe your child at school in order to get a fuller picture of their strengths and challenges. School observations also allow us to understand your child as a whole person when advocating for their needs.

An essential component of the advocacy process is working with parents to develop a strategic plan to achieve your child’s advocacy goals. Martinez Advocacy interprets data from student records, along with input from related service providers to help parents craft realistic strategic plans for advancing their child’s special education progress.

Many parents find meetings with members of their child’s educational team intimidating. With Martinez Advocacy by your side at these meetings, you will feel more confident because we will be their to help you articulate your thoughts and/or speak on your behalf.

In the unfortunate event that parents are not able to reach agreement with the school team regarding their child’s special education program, they may exercise their parental rights for dispute resolution through a variety of means. Martinez Advocacy has prevailed in a number of dispute resolution avenues such as Administrative Reviews, Mediations, and State Complaints.

Perhaps you would like to tackle advocating for your child yourself, but need some pointers on specific issues. Martinez Advocacy is happy to walk you through the issues about which you are concerned and provide you with an action plan for your child’s next meeting or an outline for that next letter to the team or parent report. In addition, Martinez Advocacy will explain the Federal and State regulations that govern the special education and Section 504 processes, so you will know whether the school is complying with those regulations.

If your child just received a diagnosis, you may wonder how to get started with private services such as speech therapy, counseling, tutoring, or supported recreation. Martinez Advocacy can take the guess work out of the process with a customized referral packet tailored to your child’s needs .

Martinez Advocacy has presented on the basics of special education numerous times for a variety of parent groups and has also trained a number of parents on the Partnership for Extraordinary Minds Volunteer Advocacy Team. In addition, Martinez Advocacy is happy to address a number of specific topics related to Autism Spectrum Disorder and neurodiversity for PTA meetings, parent organizations, or professional audiences.