Alyssa Anderson-Special Education Dyslexia Advocate

08/20/2025

I tell parents often, “You KNOW your child best.” Always listen to that gut feeling. Not sure where to start or how to best advocate for your child? I can help. Have questions? Ask away.

A wise lady once said..

06/23/2025

These two are often confused. It’s important to know the difference, so you can get your child the appropriate help.

06/07/2025

02/04/2025

This page is full of terminology used in special education. For a lot of parents, it’s difficult to even understand or follow a conversation due to terms being used by some team members. It’s important that as a parent you are able to fully participate in meetings. Knowing the terminology will certainly help.

Awareness about special education
- student challenges
- teacher experiences
- strategies for teach

01/15/2025

In special education there are timeframes in which certain things must be completed. Knowing these will help to ensure that the IEP process isn’t delayed.

12/11/2024

Is it okay for changes to be made to a student’s IEP, services, or placement without your consent?

The answer is absolutely not! As a parent, you have the right to be a meaningful participant in the IEP team. Schools cannot just make changes to your child’s IEP, services, or placements without your knowledge and consent. Doing this and then letting you know after or not letting you know at all is unacceptable. It’s important to know your rights as a parent of a child in special education and this is a big one.

12/09/2024

After talking with people over the years and with other advocates, it seems that there is some misunderstandings about what an advocate’s purpose is. I’ve heard parents say they are worried it would make school personnel mad or they worry about (ultimately) retaliation type behaviors. Some school personnel seem to be intimidated by the presence of an advocate or see it as some type of challenge.

But really we all want the same thing. We want to make sure children are successful. An advocate being present at a meeting isn’t to necessarily say the school isn’t doing their part. It isn’t to make it a competition or to cause tension within the meeting or with the team members. It is primarily to help bring the team together, help make sure everyone is feeling heard, and to work towards the best possible outcome for a student.

Taking an advocate to a meeting can help a parent feel like a meaningful participant. As a parent, it’s often times hard to follow along and truly understand during an IEP or 504 meeting purely because of the terminology used. Meetings can also be very emotional for parents, because they see their child struggling and they want to help and they don’t know how. Having an advocate allows a parent to be emotional in that moment if that needs to happen.

Hiring an advocate is to help empower parents. You don’t know what you don’t know. Asking for help shouldn’t be a scary thing. Please know, as an advocate I will fight for you and your child’s rights to have the best free and appropriate education possible.

12/06/2024

Every child deserves a champion and every parent deserves support. Fighting for your child’s educational needs can be a heavy process and you don’t have to do it alone.