Olive Branch Educational Advocates

🌿 Olive Branch Advocates 🌿

Our office will be closed May 26th-31st. We will return calls, emails, and messages upon our return.

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we take this brief pause to reset and recharge so we can continue serving families well. 💚

"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." — B.B. King

Y’all know we do this! Or, send them on an “errand” to a friend’s classroom. 😂👩‍🏫👨‍🏫

🎓Let me say something we don’t get to say nearly often enough…

Usually, we walk into meetings where emotions are high, patience is thin, and everyone is already operating on their last available nerve. That’s just the reality sometimes. 😵‍💫

But today? Today was the exception to the norm. 🙌

A big shoutout to Ed Cody Elementary, Northside ISD for a meeting that was truly a breath of fresh air. ☀️🌊⛱️

The team came prepared, stayed collaborative, and kept the conversation student-centered and data-driven from start to finish. We had honest discussions, worked through challenges together, and found solutions as a TEAM!

There were a lot of changes made today — and not all of them were easy or simple. Some required flexibility, thoughtful discussion, and a little outside-the-box thinking (which, let’s be honest, is sometimes the rarest school supply in the building 😏).

But in the end, we walked away with what matters most: a realistic, student-centered, data-driven IEP built to support the child.

As an advocate, I can tell you those meetings matter — and they deserve to be recognized when they happen. 🏆

Thank you, Ed Cody Elementary, for showing what collaboration can look like when everyone comes to the table ready to problem-solve for a student. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎓🚌📍ESY (Extended School Year) is NOT summer school— and not every child needs to attend.

As we move into ARD season and start planning for summer, this is a friendly refresher regarding ESY. ☀️😎👙🍉

ESY is a required IEP service when a student needs it to receive FAPE — not just when it’s “convenient” for the district or demanded by the parent.

A lot of parents are told:
🚫 “We don’t usually do that.”
🚫 “They can just attend summer school.”
🚫 “They’re doing fine, so they don’t qualify.”

That is not the legal standard.

When should ESY be considered?

ESY should be discussed when the ARD/IEP team determines that, without services beyond the regular school year, the student is likely to:
✔️ experience severe or substantial regression in critical skills
✔️ need an unreasonable amount of time to recoup those skills
✔️ lose access to meaningful progress in areas tied to FAPE
✔️ have disability-related needs that make interruption especially harmful

Important Reminder for Texas Families:

Under 19 TAC §89.1065, ESY is considered based on whether the benefits gained during the regular school year will be significantly jeopardized if services are interrupted.

That means:
👉 ESY is individualized
👉 ESY is not based on district program availability or parent request
👉 ESY is not all-or-nothing
👉 ESY can include related services, specialized instruction, behavior supports, or targeted goals

Quick ESY FAQ

Q: Is ESY the same as summer school?
A: No. ESY is an IEP service, not general education summer programming.

Q: Does my child have to “fail” first?
A: No. The team should use data, progress monitoring, prior breaks, behavior patterns, and professional input — not wait for avoidable regression.

Q: Can the district say they don’t offer ESY for that disability?
A: No. ESY decisions must be made student-by-student, not by disability label or district habit. ESY is data driven.

Q: Can ESY be just speech, behavior support, or one academic area?
A: Yes. ESY can be targeted and limited to the services needed to maintain critical skills.

Q: If the ARD says no, can I ask for the data used to make that decision?
A: Absolutely. And you should.

✨ Parent tip: If ESY is denied, ask the district to document:
• the data reviewed
• the regression/recoupment analysis
• the rationale for denial
• what services were considered and rejected
• how the team determined FAPE can still be provided without ESY

We will be closed for spring break March 11th-15th. 🏝️🌊☀️

All calls and messages will be returned on Monday the 16th when we return.

❤️Olive Branch Advocates

This young man was a former student of mine. Gavin’s life was tragically cut short in a violent and traumatic way, shaking the New Braunfels community to its core. Gavin’s family, his little sisters and friends are grieving, please cover them in prayer. 🙏

If you’re able, financial support is being gathered on their behalf as they navigate this heartbreaking time and prepare to celebrate and mourn Gavin’s short life earth side one last time.

Donate to Honoring Gavin's Heroic Life and Supporting his Family, organized by Tiffany Lawson It is with heavy hearts that we share the sudden passing of … Tiffany Lawson needs your support for Honoring Gavin's Heroic Life and Supporting his Family

✨ Collaboration over Conflict: The Heart of Educational Advocacy ✨

One of the biggest misconceptions about special education advocacy is that we show up ready to “fight the school” 🤺 — just looking to create problems and discourse.

📣 I hate to be the one to break it to you… but that is not the intent behind our partnership. Not at all.

We are not hired gladiators.
We are not professional meeting disruptors.
And contrary to popular belief, we do not pick out a freshly laundered bad attitude and our latest RBF just before we walk in to see you! 🤷‍♀️

That’s not the goal.
That’s not the work.
That’s not the heart or intention behind any of it.

The best outcomes happen for kids when families, advocates, and school staff operate as a team — even when the team has had… let’s say, “historic communication challenges”. 😉

Teachers, diagnosticians, therapists, and administrators bring professional, valuable expertise when planning for a childs future.

Parents bring the real, lived in, 24/7, “I know this child better than anyone” expertise. (Because they do. And they have the goldfish covered floor boards and bedtime meltdowns to prove it.)

An advocate’s job?
To bridge the two— without anyone needing a referee whistle. 😗

And here’s something many people don’t realize — this might blow your mind. 🤯

What if I told you that many of my referrals actually come from campus teachers, district board members, and administrators currently serving at both the district and campus level?

Yes — from the campus! The so-called “enemy camp” is sending me their families.

That means a teacher or administrator has told a family, “Hey, it might help to bring in an advocate to help navigate this process.”

Does that sound like an enemy to the campus?

Because collaboration is powerful enough that sometimes schools invite and welcome support — not resist it.

💡 What that actually looks like in real life:

• Helping a parent turn “He’s struggling in everything!” into “Let’s look at his last three progress-monitoring data points.”
• Helping a teacher explain that a behavior isn’t defiance — it’s a functional or social skill deficit.
• Slowing down a heated moment to say, “Can we pause and go back to the data?”
• Reminding the room that extended school year isn’t about punishment — it’s about regression, maintenance, and recoupment.
• Turning “This isn’t working!” into “What specific support can we adjust starting Monday?”

Advocacy isn’t about escalating tension.
It’s about lowering the temperature in the room.

It’s about asking:
✔ What is the student’s data telling us?
✔ What is the student’s behavior showing us?
✔ Where can we make changes to support the student across settings?
✔ What solution serves the child — not the campus master schedule or adult egos in the room?

Meaningful collaboration looks like:
• A campus adding a check-in/check-out system after reviewing behavior trends together.
• A parent and teacher agreeing to a shared communication log instead of 27 back-and-forth emails.
• A committee adjusting a goal mid-year because mastery data showed it was too easy.
• Staff proactively offering a new support before a due-process conversation ever becomes necessary.

That’s partnership!

When collaboration is strong:
• ARDs are productive (and sometimes even end on time — with most members still on speaking terms 🙌)
• Staff members feel supported, respected, and not attacked.
• Parents feel heard and included as part of the team.
• Students receive consistent, measurable services and thrive.

An advocate stands in the middle — not to divide — but to connect.

❤️ Sometimes we translate parent emotion into actionable requests.
❤️ Sometimes we translate educational jargon and acronyms into plain English.
❤️ Sometimes we just say, “Let’s all breathe for a second and come back with cooler heads and ideas”… after a strategic bathroom break.

Because at the end of the day, we all share the same goal: 📚 A free appropriate public education that meets the unique needs of the child.

No good cop.
No bad cop.
Just adults working together for kids.

And if collaboration can work this well, maybe the real misconception is the idea that advocates and schools were supposed to be enemies in the first place! It takes a village folks. 🎤