In this episode of Stress-Free IEPTM, Frances Shefter speaks with Christine Dodaj. Christine is the Founder and President of SpEd Connect. SpEd Connect is a one-of-a-kind platform that connects parents and guardians of children and adults who have been diagnosed with disabilities with resources, tools, advocates, information, and most importantly — each other.
Additional resources mentioned during this episode:
Dr. Robert Kruger (Westport, CT), Christine’s neuropsychologist and an expert with over 32 years serving children. (203) 227-2161
Dr. Hassan Minhas, Assistant Clinical Professor at the Yale University School of Medicine, Chief of Autism Services at the Hospital for Special Care
Stress-Free IEPTM:
Frances Shefter is an Education Attorney and Advocate who is committed to helping her clients have a Stress-Free IEP experience. In each podcast, Frances interviews inspiring people to share information, educate you, empower you and help you get the knowledge you need.
VOICEOVER ( 00:00:00): Welcome to Stress-Free IEPTM. You do not need to do it all alone with your host Frances Shefter, Principal of Shefter Law, she streams a show live on Facebook on Tuesdays at noon Eastern, get more details and catch prior episodes at www.ShefterLaw.com. The Stress-Free IEPTM video podcast is also posted on YouTube and LinkedIn and you can listen to episodes through Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, Stitcher and more. Now, here’s the host of Stress-Free IEPTM Frances Shefter.
FRANCES ( 00:00:44): Good afternoon, everyone. I have some questions for you today. Are you stressed out because you cannot keep all of the special education records organized in a great way? Do you know all of the contact information for all of the service providers? What about, do both parents know where all this information is? This is something that I know is a problem with all special education families including myself. And I am so excited to introduce today’s guest because she is starting a website that is a solution to all these problems. So Christine, please introduce yourself and tell us about SpEd Connect.
CHRISTINE ( 00:01:31): Thank you, Frances so much. It’s so great to be here today. So you really nailed it. SpEd Connect is a life and education management platform for parents to really change the playing field. Parents just don’t know what they don’t know. And after six years of my own struggle, I really saw this huge void in this huge gap. and really kind of looking at it from both sides, from districts, the cost that it, you know, ends up costing them to the parents, right? The time that their child loses. And I just wanted to change that for parents. So I built SpEd Connect.
FRANCES ( 00:02:10): And so you talk about your journey a little bit about what brought you here and why, why you noticed the need.
CHRISTINE ( 00:02:17): Well, it goes back to, I just didn’t know what I didn’t know. And so when my daughter really kind of started in kindergarten, things were really showing that she wasn’t making any progress and there weren’t any red flags. We weren’t getting called into meetings. It was kind of just mentioned at, you know, a report card meeting. And it wasn’t until really the end of kindergarten year that her like pull out professional was in tears saying how worried she was. And I thought, well, why am I hearing about this on the last day of school? And so, in my own experience, unfortunately, there were kind of, a lot of delays thrown my way because I didn’t know my rights. I didn’t know there were legal timelines. I didn’t know that after that meeting when I marched into the assistant principal’s office, that that should have begun the legal timeline for evaluations because that was really what I was asking for. I was just stating my concerns and let’s give it this summer and of course. Right. So three more months and then I, you know, go marching back in, in November. I’m like, nothing’s changing. We’re not learning, you know, we’re having some bullying issues because kids are making fun of her and then we finally had some evaluations done. But even then when the results came back and the IEP, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. So it all sounded great. And then with, you know, less than three months of that new IEP and being identified, she only knew three sight words on the last day of school. So nothing really was set up for her to succeed. And they kind of told me like broad things that, you know, she probably wouldn’t read until fourth or fifth grade. And I clearly remember not knowing any of the laws feeling this doesn’t sound legal like we were in first grade. So when we get to second grade and there hasn’t been any progress made and now we have like a lawyer involved and they have their lawyer and there’s 12 people. We asked for an IEE for a neuro, psych and a speech and language eval, and we were awarded those and that was, that’s what every parent needs. I feel like you need that neuro psych. And so we won the neuro psych and she came back with like eight learning disabilities and ADHD and auditory processing and severe memory processing of your language processing, dyslexia, dis calculated dysgraphia. And, you know, I just remember the next day feeling like I woke up in a foreign country, not speaking the language, not having a map or currency and any friends. And so that was very isolating. And I think for a lot of parents, you feel stigma and I wanted to erase that too because our kids are brilliant. You know, my daughter, after everything she’s been in, been through can walk into a room and read it better than any doctor there. So I feel like if we, you know, we just can’t stop advocating.
FRANCES ( 00:05:19): I love your story and you hit on so many points that I get often is that parents don’t know, we don’t know. It’s a new language, special education is a new language. I have years of experience between education and legal and it’s still sometimes different places use different language. I wanted to touch on the IEE, the Independent Educational Evaluation. And that you’ve got the neuro psych, it’s really hard in some areas to get the neuro psych because they say it’s not needed for the educational portion. , but I know what a lot of people don’t know is if you ask the school for an IEE because they either wouldn’t evaluate or they evaluate, you don’t agree with the evaluation. You don’t think it was valid and you ask the school for an IEE, they have two options. They can either give you the IEE or they can file for due process against you to say their evaluation stands. It’s been my experience that usually the schools will just give you the IEE because it’s less expensive but it can sometimes be a fight. And I know when schools, like, if you use the wrong terminology, if you say, well, I need to know for home or for outside therapy, like you need to make sure you use that language for educational. And I know like, it’s just hearing like all the things that you don’t know. And it is so often that I have people come into my office when they’ve been fighting the school system for a year, two years already and they’re just done. And here’s the thing, it’s, that’s two years of your child’s life.
CHRISTINE ( 00:06:57): You can’t get the time back.
FRANCES ( 00:06:59): Exactly. And so people always say to me, well, when do you need to bring in a lawyer or an advocate. Like now, as soon as you suspect something because while, yes, some schools are great at keeping the timelines. Other schools don’t. They do the, let’s just wait and see. You know, my own child’s school tried to do, wait and see, until they knew what I did for a living, which we shouldn’t have to do. But I hate wait and see because again, wait and see. No, evaluate now and see.
CHRISTINE ( 00:07:35): or they’ll say something like, oh they’re an RTI. So you know, we’ll just wait. No, you, you can still do it now. You can do the evaluations if they are an RTI.
FRANCES ( 00:07:46): Right? Because it’s then collecting the data at the same time. We’ll have schools say, well, we don’t have enough data to prove it’s educational. And I’m like, great. It’s an initial evaluation. We need more data. So we’re gonna start the evaluation process that you have 60 days to complete while the teachers and behavior specialists are collecting data in the classroom. You don’t have to wait until the classroom. And that’s Yeah, and I know how frustrating that is. So I know you said SpEd Connect is a place to put it all together. What like can you tell us more specifics about the website and how helpful, why it’s helpful?
CHRISTINE ( 00:08:27): Right. So, right. So we are, we are just building it now. So it will be available in the spring for parents. But what’s really helpful is that when parents come on and register they’re really creating a unique profile for each of their children. They’ll be able to check off which disabilities their children have been identified with or if it’s a medical condition IEP or 504. , and that way we’re going to really curate the experience for the parent and making sure they’re getting all the information that they want to know about with their own children’s disabilities. so it will be really unique to that. And you know, parents, everything will be really just very simple. I really wanted it to be like a live planner because I feel like as parents were always in it, right? I don’t feel like this is, there’s really no reprieve. So it’s something we’re checking on. But I wanted to bring in the life side of it where parents can have all the calendar, all of the reminders for annual meetings, IEP, art, appointments, therapy testing. So that it was really just a one stop digital venue for them.
FRANCES ( 00:9:39): That is so awesome. And you said that to tailoring. So in other words, if you join, and your child has autism ASD, you’re only going to get the data relevant to the ASD?
CHRISTINE ( 00:9:51): right? So if we have webinars or workshops coming up or some really great information that’s coming out maybe on like autism, if your child is autistic, that would be all, you know, sent to you. You’re not going to receive anything on other, you know, other disabilities.
FRANCES ( 00:10:07): Got it. And I’m assuming if you wanted to receive others, you could just check those off.
CHRISTINE ( 00:10:12): Right. So, like, like my daughter has, you know, I’d have eight boxes that I would check off and I would pretty much receive all of that, but autism, right. So that’s, that’s why, you know, parents because I felt that I was on multiple websites when I got her when I got her diagnosis and I just wasn’t finding what I needed in one place. And when we started doing our data we’re like, well, of course, I mean, most children have more than one learning disability and most families have more than one child with a learning challenge. So I wanted it to be really seamless for parents. So they have everything in one spot and manage, you know, both education and life for both, for all of their children.
FRANCES ( 00:10:51): That is so wonderful. And I love that because like all of the documents there, all of the service providers are there. Your calendar is there. I mean, I know for me like having 10 windows open and bouncing around and remembering everything my brain just goes bonkers. Yeah. And so, I love this idea and I remember it’s funny because I remember before when I met you and I was like you created what I’ve been talking about we needed. Like I was so excited because I have said for the last couple of years, I need to figure out a lot, an online system that clients can store all their data that we can have access to also and they can have access even if they’re not continuing to be clients, whatever the situation is just to organize the data.
CHRISTINE ( 00:11:39): Right? And think of how I really thought about the providers too because I thought about, you know, when you, when you hire a new advocate or a new attorney, you’re literally bringing in bins of paperwork, I might have two bins in my basement, you know, just, just for my one daughter. And so think of it of the time you’re saving and not only for parents, you’re saving some money off of, off of your retainer because I remember getting hit for like three or four hours, right, of because it was a mess after having so many people look at it and they’re looking for different things that it was like, you know, trying to find a needle in the haystack. And so for providers giving you just the key to their, their, you know, their file cabinet is going to be really be able to expedite hopefully what you’re doing for children and getting things moving a lot quicker.
FRANCES ( 00:12:27): Yeah, that’s wonderful because that’s one of the things we have an issue with here between myself and the advocate when we have new cases come in. A lot of times parents are like, well, we have some, we’ll just send you everything we have and then we’re having to request more from the school. And a lot of times schools are hesitant or they, you know, technically they have 45 days to respond, which isn’t great. , and parents also don’t always know like, yes, that one single piece of paper, the prior written notice that’s important. Extremely important. So parents might not keep that because they don’t know. And I love this because yes, as an attorney, as a law firm, it’s a lot of time is spent organizing the data, seeing if we have everything we need, being able to get the background information. Whereas we have all IEPs together, all evaluations together, progress reports together. It’s boom, boom, boom. And we’ll save a lot of time on our end, which we like to do and money on the parents end.
CHRISTINE ( 00:13:28): Absolutely. And sometimes, you know, and I’m not sure if this is a delay tactic or trying to save paper. But I remember when I was going to mediation for my daughter before we, we went out placement and I took the bins upstairs because I wanted to be super organized and I had everything sprawled out across my bed and my desk and on the floor and I was going through what looked like handwriting samples from kindergarten like really early handwriting samples and I was kind of shoving it because that was not what I was looking for and I, it flipped over and there was testing really important, like, testing from fourth grade on the other side of it. And I thought, how would I have ever found that if this didn’t flip over? And so kindergarten, you know, and so I thought they must have just fed the paper back in right and just copied away. This way that will never happen to parents. They’ll be able to even highlight everything so that even communications if they’re like, you know, look Frances, this is everything I have everything, you have everything. So you’ll really come out of the gate just with so much more information at your disposal about the child you’re representing.
FRANCES ( 00:14:39): It’s so wonderful. Yeah, some of the things I’ve gotten from schools when I request their full record, they’ll send me the links of everything that’s in SEDS (Special Education Data Systems), which is what DC uses. And all of it says document 1, document 2, document 3, document 4, with 30-40 documents. So we now have to take that time to download each document, save it at the right name and sort it all.
CHRISTINE ( 00:15:04): Yeah.
FRANCES ( 00:15:06): Which is, it’s annoying on our end. Like honestly, because that’s not what I want to spend my time on. I want to spend my time on the meetings, getting the child, the services and the quicker we can do that for me the better. Because the goal is to get the services for the child. That’s it, the quickest way we can do it, you know? And if that means, huh? Yeah, because, I mean, I have people come in and they’re like, wow, but it’s so wrong what the school did and, and I want to get back at them and which, yes, I understand that. But let’s look at the ultimate goal.
CHRISTINE ( 00:15:41): Right
FRANCES ( 00:15:42): What is your ultimate goal? And everyone, to get their child services. Okay. Let’s focus on that. Getting your child services, getting the peace and harmony at home because your child is in the right educational setting. And then we can talk about if you want to, what you want to do about getting back at the school if you even want to anymore at that point. That’s what I say.
CHRISTINE ( 00:16:08): Yeah,
FRANCES ( 00:16:9): I mean, I do, there are times that the school’s being impossible and we do have to litigate and we go and so we’ll do that part. But I’m thinking that like I’m just thinking for due process case, like you have everything easy. So when I’m doing my five day disclosures, it’s all right there and I can just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom and not have to think it through as much work, not have to sort through the boxes of that’s so wonderful. And then so with the service providers, how does that work on getting them connected on the website. Are they on the website or the parents putting the information?
CHRISTINE ( 00:16:46): Right. So that’s going to be on the, the providers actually have their own subscription. And so they would just go on spedconnect.io actually, that we have a pre launch right now where you can sign up now to get the early, you know, the early pricing and get locked in. But a provider would go on just like a parent, the parent wants a membership, they would go on for the provider memberships. And they would, you know, really just fill out, you know, what their specialty is, their area of expertise. We really want to highlight the providers because I know for myself, we’re really a referral based community. And who did you use, who’s this and, you know, trying to find them and then, you know, finding some information and getting them on the phone. I just wanted to take all the guesswork out of it for parents so that they could find the right providers and that those providers that are dedicating their life’s work to, you know, the SpEd world. Our children have a place to be showcased where they can be found, contribute. So we’re gonna have different tiers for , subscribe for the provider subscriptions. But we really just wanted to make sure that everyone, whether you’re just starting out has a place to be found or, you know, you’re really, , a larger provider and very active.
FRANCES ( 00:18:08): And that’s so wonderful because I, I get asked all the time. Like, well, do you know a reading tutor? Do you know an occupational therapist? And so I try to network so I can say, yes, 100% here call this person. I know them personally. , which I find a lot of clients like, because as you said, we’re a referral based, you know, special ed community. Like parents, moms, dads are all their own but special ed community, we’re our own separate group. That’s just so we need the support from each other because other parents don’t get it all the time, the challenges we have. We have and I know, I don’t know if you saw the meme, it just reminded me of a meme on Facebook that do you remember what it was like your first year as a new parent with an infant and having to do all this and learning everything? That’s what you feel like as a special ed parent all the And I was like, yes,
CHRISTINE ( 00:19:9): there’s no guidebook,
FRANCES ( 00:19:11): right?
CHRISTINE ( 00:19:12): I, you know, that’s again, why, but we’re gonna have such a great community as part of this where parents can come on and ask questions and connect with like minded parents, you know, Washington to Florida really across the country. And you find someone that you can really connect with its, that was for me was really lacking and isolating. And I went from being really active at my daughter’s school and fundraising and volunteering all the time to just not really feeling like I had such a huge place there anymore. , and so I, you know, we have a lot to contribute and I feel like, you know, parents shouldn’t miss out and not be part of their school or not volunteer just because they have a SpEd child. Right. Or if our kids are there in the classroom, we have as much right to be there and volunteer and be involved.
FRANCES ( 00:20:03): I love that. You said that you’re nationwide because the first thing that popped into my head. Well, in addition to military families, just families that move for whatever reason from one state to another, you have to find all new providers. You need to find out what, how their school system does things differently and what their process is. And I’m like, whoa, wait, you’re gonna have it right there
CHRISTINE ( 00:20:28): and just imagine moving to a new area. And then not only do you need to find a school? , so the providers can be anything from attorneys to schools to camps, , speech pathologists. I mean, it’s, it’s grown so much, like I remember somebody recently said, well, I need an events planner to plan a sensory friendly party for my child. And I thought, wow, I bet that’s like a real thing, you know, like, that could actually be a real thing. And there’s just so even, even great kids that let’s say are in college and you know, are working summer, you know, they work summer camps with special needs children, maybe they’re trained in restraint, maybe they’re trained in seizure response. Will they be able to advertise themselves as you know, childcare or, you know, even adult care so those parents can get a night out and have peace of mind that their child is in safe hands. And at the same time giving that young entrepreneur provider, you know, some, some some extra money in their pockets and, and building their kind of brand.
FRANCES ( 00:21:27): I didn’t even think about that. Yeah, childcare, it’s not, I mean, some kids are fine, but when you have, I remember as a child, there was a somebody will, not as a child, as a teenager, there was a child that had medical issues. And so my friend used to babysit for them all the time because she learned the medical issues. So then I started coming with her so that I could learn it all so that I could also be a childcare provider. and to be able to have somebody that’s already trained on that, it’s I mean, it’s game changing.
CHRISTINE ( 00:22:00): it, there’s, there’s freedom in that, right? It’s your offering this amazing service. But at the same time, the parent is getting this amazing, you know, quality time that but also at the same time, it’s always so important to just, you don’t feel relaxed or you’re not having a good time if you know, your child is not safe or you can be assured that they’re safe. Exactly.
FRANCES ( 00:22:22 ): Yup. What if a seizure happens?
CHRISTINE ( 00:22:24): Exactly
FRANCES ( 00:22:25): Will this person know what to do? No, 100% as a parent when you leave your kids, especially the first few times it’s, uh, you know, it’s why did I bother going out because I’m stressed, more stressed out
CHRISTINE ( 00:22:34): you’re looking at your phone the whole time, checking it to make sure something’s not wrong.
FRANCES ( 00:22:39): And there was something else. Oh, you know what I, what came up when you said a sensory friendly events planning, what popped in? My head is general contractors that focus on accessibility in the home.
CHRISTINE ( 00:22:54): Absolutely. Builders and contractors that could be a whole field, right? I mean, it goes on and on. We had somebody that wants to be a provider like in the real estate area because people are looking to be in, you know, the better school districts if they have better SpEd departments. Well, how do you find realtors that understand? May be a family’s, uh, you know, challenge, right? Or if they need something very sensory friendly or accessible. , and we actually have one realtor that signed up and he’s like, I love working with families that are looking for their forever home. , and that have challenges because I feel, you know, everybody deserves to have a safe place for their families. So I love finding those providers that find the passion in working with our families.
FRANCES ( 00:23:41): That’s so true because what first popped into my head is so many of our children are elopers. And when you’re looking for a home, you need a safe environment. I, you know, I had a foster child at one point, that was definitely an eloper and thankfully our backyard is fenced in, in a way that he can’t even get a foothold. He tried, but he couldn’t thankfully because we’re on the pepto right of way. I just feel that he would have just been gone, but like those are things you need to think about. You know, we’re in a cul de sac. So if he gets out, and would start running, it’s not, it’s not as if you’re on a major highway or major street, like there’s at least that extra protection that, you know, and you can put in place. Yeah.
CHRISTINE ( 00:24:24): Absolutely.
FRANCES ( 00:24:25): God, I’m like, so excited. So, wait, there was something else. Oh, that was it because you said for providers, what if, like, I have a speech therapist for my child that doesn’t want to be a provider on your site? Can I still put her information on my profile so that I have the information there. How does that work?
CHRISTINE ( 00:24:46): Well, you could still add her to, , your, there’s going to be like a team for each of your children because I feel like my kids each had like their own rolodex almost, right? Nobody uses them anymore. But in context, if you think it’s kind of like having a mini rolodex for each child. And so I wanted a place where parents can easily say okay. I’m looking for, , you know, Eli, or I’m looking for Joey and all of their whole team will show up: their teachers, their attorney, their speech pathologist, anybody outside like an OT. , and that way if you have anything that comes in from them, you can easily share it with anyone else on your team that you would want to have access to.
FRANCES ( 00:25:26): That’s wonderful. That’s wonderful. Cause I was like, wait, my provider might not want to join and then what? But you can still put them on and then they’ll see it like again, it’s, you don’t know what you don’t know. You know, and as a Special Ed attorney, a former Special Ed teacher, I know when I started my business and I wasn’t getting people calling and I’m like, well, how are people going to find you? They don’t know, they need you. And that’s the thing. Like people don’t know, they need you until they’re aware that you’re there and that you saw that Pain Point for so many families and providers. Yeah. No, I love it. I’m like, so excited and, and I, and I know we’ve talked through like things that we might do for my clients and, you know, we’re definitely on that and I know you mentioned earlier about pre launch pricing for parents and providers.
CHRISTINE ( 00:26:22): Right? So we’re gonna have pre launch pricing right now. We’re gonna leave it up for, for until we, until we launch. , I think maybe for two months and right now, so your parent can sign up for $49.99, that they’ll be guaranteed that price this year and the next year. So for two years, $100 to have everything managed in one place, your community, finding all the providers. and just so much more, there’s going to be just so much great information. We’re going to have so many great webinars and kind of thought leaders and not just experts, right? Other people who are really kind of influencers, so to speak in the area because there’s so much information that parents don’t know and to connect with them when they have a following to help, get more information out to them is really, really super important.
FRANCES ( 00:27:16): That is awesome because the other thing that popped into my head is support groups, parent support groups, especially when you have a diagnosis that isn’t as common.
CHRISTINE ( 00:27:26): Right. Right.
FRANCES ( 00:27:27): So to find other families, it’s not like you’re going to go up to, you know, every parent, does your kid have this, does your kid have that? You know, and that
CHRISTINE ( 00:27:34): never happens. Yeah, that almost never happens, you know. And so even when you go to a private school. I remember trying to kind of connect with, you know, one of the parents that had, had her over and it was kind of like, well, what have we, we have this, what have you got? You know? So we always, and, and it wasn’t really some, some families just like to, you know. Yes, we are at a special needs school but we’re not talking about. I think it’s just, they, they felt shame and I’m like, there’s no shame in it. Our kids are amazing.
FRANCES ( 00:28:02): Yeah. It’s, you know, I go through that a lot of like, you know, because I’ll say that my child has an IEP for speech and I’m like, should I be saying that? That’s her information? You know, but it’s true and it’s part of it and I don’t want it to be shame. I don’t want it to be something you have to hide. Guess what? Your brain works differently. There’s nothing wrong with that, you know, especially our ASD kids because that’s, I mean, that’s a whole another episode that we could do on the fact that their brains work differently.
CHRISTINE ( 00:28:28): And, and ADHD too, I’m learning so much more than it just being like hyperactive. It’s really about how the brain works. Like one side says go and the other one is saying no way I’ve been seeing so much more about that. It’s, you know, both my children have actually been diagnosed with ADHD and attentive type. And, you know, just, I feel like I’m constantly learning and I want to share that with other parents because, you know, we’re not, you know, head bunting the wall because we’re trying to understand why there’s all of these other things that came along with it not realizing like anxiety, right? And then agoraphobia, all of these things that can morph from ADHD, like not being identified and especially with girls, girls really seem to mask it. I think I don’t want to say better but they just seem to mask it because like I asked my daughter, I said, why do you think we didn’t diagnose you? This is my, my older daughter until 16. And she said, because I went back and looked at her report cards and some of the teachers, like at the end of the year would be like, Brenda has more energy than anyone in the class. And I’m like, shouldn’t you have known, right? Like, shouldn’t you have known this kid who’s so anyway, you know, it’s just, there’s kind of just so much information and just how you know, ADHD. It’s just
FRANCES ( 00:29:48): right. It’s and, and so here’s the thing. Case in point, everybody says ADHD: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Guess what? There’s also ADD – Attention Deficit Disorder – that you don’t have the hyperactivity. So these are your kids that are staring out at the window and there you don’t realize they’re completely zoned out. And what I always say is that children are not behavior issues, not that that’s all teachers look at. But for a teacher that has, you know, 25-30 kids in their classroom, some with IEP, some with 504, somewhere in the general, you know, population trying to manage all that. The child that’s bouncing off the wall gets more attention.
CHRISTINE ( 00:30:34): Right. And just think of how hard it is for teachers to be able to collect all of that. You know, they’re supposed to be collecting data constantly. Right. Child find is when they’re supposed to be screening, when they’re not teaching, they can actually really even have something that they can get back to parents if they are collecting data. And there, you know, some parents might ask for weekly logs that can be shared with them just so easily.
FRANCES ( 00:30:57): Yeah, I’m thinking along the lines is that the teachers can also connect with the service providers maybe because sometimes if there’s an outside service provider, they can help with the data collection. Like, yes, it’s the school’s responsibility. But, you know, I was a teacher for seven years in the classroom, I get it. They’re, they’re overworked and underpaid already and then to actually have to keep, you know, collect all the special data while we know how important it is. It can be difficult. And I get that. , and so you said for the parents, what about for providers? Do you have any specials going on?
CHRISTINE ( 00:31:30): Right now? We are going to have it. It’s $200. You get the first year and second-year locked in at that price. , and so we have that, that for providers as well and it’s about 77% off the what we’re going to be charging. So it’s huge savings, especially if you’re even a new provider starting out. And really, we’re gonna want to have your, your name kind of out there and get to engage with the community, which is really great because it’s great to get information from parents. And there’s all so many fragmented like, you know, forums. I just really wanted to hone it all in to have one place. And so, you know, even as providers, you get to actually come in and say, oh no, actually, you know, you should ask for, you know, maybe you would come on and say, no, this is actually what you want to ask for in writing. And not only are you like serving your community? Right? But you’re also like vetting yourself, you’re showing parents that, you know, you have the info. No, you know what you’re talking about
FRANCES ( 00:32:28): Yeah, I
CHRISTINE ( 00:32:30): mean, it builds trust
FRANCES ( 00:32:31): $200 a year, you know, for providers next to nothing
CHRISTINE ( 00:32:35): next to nothing
FRANCES ( 00:32:36): Now and for parents, $50 a year, I’m like thinking In my head, how much would I pay to have this service? And, I mean, $50 in a year is definitely a deal
CHRISTINE ( 00:32:47): for, yeah, for the first two years I think it’s gonna be, it’s, it’s almost unheard of, but I wanted to offer something to parents to say, hey, you know, this is, we’re doing this for you. We’d love for you to sign up now, help us complete the build along, you know, with the providers as well. And you know, I just wanted to bring it back to them to see if, you know, parents wanted to, you know, providers. just really help our cause.
FRANCES ( 00:33:12): That’s so wonderful. Okay. And that, I mean that pricing tells it’s in your heart. This is what you’re doing. You’re like, yes, it’s a business but you’re really trying to provide a service to the community. You mentioned it’s gonna be nationwide. Are you going to be able to like, say you only work in Maryland or you work nationwide?
CHRISTINE ( 00:33:28): We are going to be working, you know, we are going to launch this nationwide. We also wanted to make sure that all of the expats, right? The military children that are on IEPs that they have access to this as well. And what’s really great is that, of course, when I was building this, I’m like, we can bring this globally because there’s other countries right, that have similar special education. I was sharing this with an advocate and she’s from Australia originally and she’s like, are you thinking about bringing this? And I said, yeah, and she said Australia would love this to. And so that’s really my goal is to every country that has a special education systems that we can keep rolling this out, you know, one country at a time.
FRANCES ( 00:34:10): That’s wonderful. And then, like, I know you said you are a lot of people. You like you like being a resource. So do you have any like shout outs to people or guests that you think should be on my show?
CHRISTINE ( 00:34:22): Let’s see. I love Dr Hassan Minhas. He is Yale Director, but he’s like specialized in autism and ADHD. Uh He’s got two offices, one in Stanford, Connecticut, I think one in Middletown, he runs a great treatment program for first children with challenges. He’s amazing. He just was awarded 40 under 40 in Connecticut last year. He’s been a huge help to my family and many families that I’ve referred him to and Dr Robert Krueger in Westport, Connecticut. He is a phenomenal neuro psych and really fights. I mean, he’s the one after two years in the process that really said no, this is what her IEP needs to look like and it looks mostly like outplacement is gonna be giving her a free and appropriate public education. And so they were really instrumental in helping, you know, really opening my eyes to, to what needed to be done.
FRANCES ( 00:35:27): Yeah, that’s great. That’s awesome. And I say like, for our listeners, if you think of a topic that you want to hear about or guest that you want on our show, please reach out. I know Christine and I were talking about bullying because that’s such a big thing with our special ed kids and that is gonna be a topic we’re going to address in the future on parents’ rights and what are your child’s rights on that? So thank you so much Christine for being on the show. This was wonderful. I’m so excited. I can’t wait till you launch.
CHRISTINE ( 00:35:55): thank you
FRANCES ( 00:35:56): Thank you listeners.
VOICEOVER ( 00:35:58): You’ve been listening to Stress-Free IEPTM. With your host Frances Shefter. Remember you do not need to do it all alone. You can reach Frances through ShefterLaw.com where prior episodes are also posted. Thank you for your positive reviews, comments and sharing the show with others through YouTube, LinkedIn, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and more.
Stress Free IEP™ with Frances Shefter and Christine Dodaj
In this episode of Stress-Free IEPTM, Frances Shefter speaks with Christine Dodaj. Christine is the Founder and President of SpEd Connect. SpEd Connect is a one-of-a-kind platform that connects parents and guardians of children and adults who have been diagnosed with disabilities with resources, tools, advocates, information, and most importantly — each other.
Additional resources mentioned during this episode:
Stress-Free IEPTM:
Frances Shefter is an Education Attorney and Advocate who is committed to helping her clients have a Stress-Free IEP experience. In each podcast, Frances interviews inspiring people to share information, educate you, empower you and help you get the knowledge you need.
Watch more episodes of Stress-FreeTM on YouTube.
Connect and learn more from your host, Frances Shefter:
VOICEOVER ( 00:00:00): Welcome to Stress-Free IEPTM. You do not need to do it all alone with your host Frances Shefter, Principal of Shefter Law, she streams a show live on Facebook on Tuesdays at noon Eastern, get more details and catch prior episodes at www.ShefterLaw.com. The Stress-Free IEPTM video podcast is also posted on YouTube and LinkedIn and you can listen to episodes through Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, Stitcher and more. Now, here’s the host of Stress-Free IEPTM Frances Shefter.
FRANCES ( 00:00:44): Good afternoon, everyone. I have some questions for you today. Are you stressed out because you cannot keep all of the special education records organized in a great way? Do you know all of the contact information for all of the service providers? What about, do both parents know where all this information is? This is something that I know is a problem with all special education families including myself. And I am so excited to introduce today’s guest because she is starting a website that is a solution to all these problems. So Christine, please introduce yourself and tell us about SpEd Connect.
CHRISTINE ( 00:01:31): Thank you, Frances so much. It’s so great to be here today. So you really nailed it. SpEd Connect is a life and education management platform for parents to really change the playing field. Parents just don’t know what they don’t know. And after six years of my own struggle, I really saw this huge void in this huge gap. and really kind of looking at it from both sides, from districts, the cost that it, you know, ends up costing them to the parents, right? The time that their child loses. And I just wanted to change that for parents. So I built SpEd Connect.
FRANCES ( 00:02:10): And so you talk about your journey a little bit about what brought you here and why, why you noticed the need.
CHRISTINE ( 00:02:17): Well, it goes back to, I just didn’t know what I didn’t know. And so when my daughter really kind of started in kindergarten, things were really showing that she wasn’t making any progress and there weren’t any red flags. We weren’t getting called into meetings. It was kind of just mentioned at, you know, a report card meeting. And it wasn’t until really the end of kindergarten year that her like pull out professional was in tears saying how worried she was. And I thought, well, why am I hearing about this on the last day of school? And so, in my own experience, unfortunately, there were kind of, a lot of delays thrown my way because I didn’t know my rights. I didn’t know there were legal timelines. I didn’t know that after that meeting when I marched into the assistant principal’s office, that that should have begun the legal timeline for evaluations because that was really what I was asking for. I was just stating my concerns and let’s give it this summer and of course. Right. So three more months and then I, you know, go marching back in, in November. I’m like, nothing’s changing. We’re not learning, you know, we’re having some bullying issues because kids are making fun of her and then we finally had some evaluations done. But even then when the results came back and the IEP, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. So it all sounded great. And then with, you know, less than three months of that new IEP and being identified, she only knew three sight words on the last day of school. So nothing really was set up for her to succeed. And they kind of told me like broad things that, you know, she probably wouldn’t read until fourth or fifth grade. And I clearly remember not knowing any of the laws feeling this doesn’t sound legal like we were in first grade. So when we get to second grade and there hasn’t been any progress made and now we have like a lawyer involved and they have their lawyer and there’s 12 people. We asked for an IEE for a neuro, psych and a speech and language eval, and we were awarded those and that was, that’s what every parent needs. I feel like you need that neuro psych. And so we won the neuro psych and she came back with like eight learning disabilities and ADHD and auditory processing and severe memory processing of your language processing, dyslexia, dis calculated dysgraphia. And, you know, I just remember the next day feeling like I woke up in a foreign country, not speaking the language, not having a map or currency and any friends. And so that was very isolating. And I think for a lot of parents, you feel stigma and I wanted to erase that too because our kids are brilliant. You know, my daughter, after everything she’s been in, been through can walk into a room and read it better than any doctor there. So I feel like if we, you know, we just can’t stop advocating.
FRANCES ( 00:05:19): I love your story and you hit on so many points that I get often is that parents don’t know, we don’t know. It’s a new language, special education is a new language. I have years of experience between education and legal and it’s still sometimes different places use different language. I wanted to touch on the IEE, the Independent Educational Evaluation. And that you’ve got the neuro psych, it’s really hard in some areas to get the neuro psych because they say it’s not needed for the educational portion. , but I know what a lot of people don’t know is if you ask the school for an IEE because they either wouldn’t evaluate or they evaluate, you don’t agree with the evaluation. You don’t think it was valid and you ask the school for an IEE, they have two options. They can either give you the IEE or they can file for due process against you to say their evaluation stands. It’s been my experience that usually the schools will just give you the IEE because it’s less expensive but it can sometimes be a fight. And I know when schools, like, if you use the wrong terminology, if you say, well, I need to know for home or for outside therapy, like you need to make sure you use that language for educational. And I know like, it’s just hearing like all the things that you don’t know. And it is so often that I have people come into my office when they’ve been fighting the school system for a year, two years already and they’re just done. And here’s the thing, it’s, that’s two years of your child’s life.
CHRISTINE ( 00:06:57): You can’t get the time back.
FRANCES ( 00:06:59): Exactly. And so people always say to me, well, when do you need to bring in a lawyer or an advocate. Like now, as soon as you suspect something because while, yes, some schools are great at keeping the timelines. Other schools don’t. They do the, let’s just wait and see. You know, my own child’s school tried to do, wait and see, until they knew what I did for a living, which we shouldn’t have to do. But I hate wait and see because again, wait and see. No, evaluate now and see.
CHRISTINE ( 00:07:35): or they’ll say something like, oh they’re an RTI. So you know, we’ll just wait. No, you, you can still do it now. You can do the evaluations if they are an RTI.
FRANCES ( 00:07:46): Right? Because it’s then collecting the data at the same time. We’ll have schools say, well, we don’t have enough data to prove it’s educational. And I’m like, great. It’s an initial evaluation. We need more data. So we’re gonna start the evaluation process that you have 60 days to complete while the teachers and behavior specialists are collecting data in the classroom. You don’t have to wait until the classroom. And that’s Yeah, and I know how frustrating that is. So I know you said SpEd Connect is a place to put it all together. What like can you tell us more specifics about the website and how helpful, why it’s helpful?
CHRISTINE ( 00:08:27): Right. So, right. So we are, we are just building it now. So it will be available in the spring for parents. But what’s really helpful is that when parents come on and register they’re really creating a unique profile for each of their children. They’ll be able to check off which disabilities their children have been identified with or if it’s a medical condition IEP or 504. , and that way we’re going to really curate the experience for the parent and making sure they’re getting all the information that they want to know about with their own children’s disabilities. so it will be really unique to that. And you know, parents, everything will be really just very simple. I really wanted it to be like a live planner because I feel like as parents were always in it, right? I don’t feel like this is, there’s really no reprieve. So it’s something we’re checking on. But I wanted to bring in the life side of it where parents can have all the calendar, all of the reminders for annual meetings, IEP, art, appointments, therapy testing. So that it was really just a one stop digital venue for them.
FRANCES ( 00:9:39): That is so awesome. And you said that to tailoring. So in other words, if you join, and your child has autism ASD, you’re only going to get the data relevant to the ASD?
CHRISTINE ( 00:9:51): right? So if we have webinars or workshops coming up or some really great information that’s coming out maybe on like autism, if your child is autistic, that would be all, you know, sent to you. You’re not going to receive anything on other, you know, other disabilities.
FRANCES ( 00:10:07): Got it. And I’m assuming if you wanted to receive others, you could just check those off.
CHRISTINE ( 00:10:12): Right. So, like, like my daughter has, you know, I’d have eight boxes that I would check off and I would pretty much receive all of that, but autism, right. So that’s, that’s why, you know, parents because I felt that I was on multiple websites when I got her when I got her diagnosis and I just wasn’t finding what I needed in one place. And when we started doing our data we’re like, well, of course, I mean, most children have more than one learning disability and most families have more than one child with a learning challenge. So I wanted it to be really seamless for parents. So they have everything in one spot and manage, you know, both education and life for both, for all of their children.
FRANCES ( 00:10:51): That is so wonderful. And I love that because like all of the documents there, all of the service providers are there. Your calendar is there. I mean, I know for me like having 10 windows open and bouncing around and remembering everything my brain just goes bonkers. Yeah. And so, I love this idea and I remember it’s funny because I remember before when I met you and I was like you created what I’ve been talking about we needed. Like I was so excited because I have said for the last couple of years, I need to figure out a lot, an online system that clients can store all their data that we can have access to also and they can have access even if they’re not continuing to be clients, whatever the situation is just to organize the data.
CHRISTINE ( 00:11:39): Right? And think of how I really thought about the providers too because I thought about, you know, when you, when you hire a new advocate or a new attorney, you’re literally bringing in bins of paperwork, I might have two bins in my basement, you know, just, just for my one daughter. And so think of it of the time you’re saving and not only for parents, you’re saving some money off of, off of your retainer because I remember getting hit for like three or four hours, right, of because it was a mess after having so many people look at it and they’re looking for different things that it was like, you know, trying to find a needle in the haystack. And so for providers giving you just the key to their, their, you know, their file cabinet is going to be really be able to expedite hopefully what you’re doing for children and getting things moving a lot quicker.
FRANCES ( 00:12:27): Yeah, that’s wonderful because that’s one of the things we have an issue with here between myself and the advocate when we have new cases come in. A lot of times parents are like, well, we have some, we’ll just send you everything we have and then we’re having to request more from the school. And a lot of times schools are hesitant or they, you know, technically they have 45 days to respond, which isn’t great. , and parents also don’t always know like, yes, that one single piece of paper, the prior written notice that’s important. Extremely important. So parents might not keep that because they don’t know. And I love this because yes, as an attorney, as a law firm, it’s a lot of time is spent organizing the data, seeing if we have everything we need, being able to get the background information. Whereas we have all IEPs together, all evaluations together, progress reports together. It’s boom, boom, boom. And we’ll save a lot of time on our end, which we like to do and money on the parents end.
CHRISTINE ( 00:13:28): Absolutely. And sometimes, you know, and I’m not sure if this is a delay tactic or trying to save paper. But I remember when I was going to mediation for my daughter before we, we went out placement and I took the bins upstairs because I wanted to be super organized and I had everything sprawled out across my bed and my desk and on the floor and I was going through what looked like handwriting samples from kindergarten like really early handwriting samples and I was kind of shoving it because that was not what I was looking for and I, it flipped over and there was testing really important, like, testing from fourth grade on the other side of it. And I thought, how would I have ever found that if this didn’t flip over? And so kindergarten, you know, and so I thought they must have just fed the paper back in right and just copied away. This way that will never happen to parents. They’ll be able to even highlight everything so that even communications if they’re like, you know, look Frances, this is everything I have everything, you have everything. So you’ll really come out of the gate just with so much more information at your disposal about the child you’re representing.
FRANCES ( 00:14:39): It’s so wonderful. Yeah, some of the things I’ve gotten from schools when I request their full record, they’ll send me the links of everything that’s in SEDS (Special Education Data Systems), which is what DC uses. And all of it says document 1, document 2, document 3, document 4, with 30-40 documents. So we now have to take that time to download each document, save it at the right name and sort it all.
CHRISTINE ( 00:15:04): Yeah.
FRANCES ( 00:15:06): Which is, it’s annoying on our end. Like honestly, because that’s not what I want to spend my time on. I want to spend my time on the meetings, getting the child, the services and the quicker we can do that for me the better. Because the goal is to get the services for the child. That’s it, the quickest way we can do it, you know? And if that means, huh? Yeah, because, I mean, I have people come in and they’re like, wow, but it’s so wrong what the school did and, and I want to get back at them and which, yes, I understand that. But let’s look at the ultimate goal.
CHRISTINE ( 00:15:41): Right
FRANCES ( 00:15:42): What is your ultimate goal? And everyone, to get their child services. Okay. Let’s focus on that. Getting your child services, getting the peace and harmony at home because your child is in the right educational setting. And then we can talk about if you want to, what you want to do about getting back at the school if you even want to anymore at that point. That’s what I say.
CHRISTINE ( 00:16:08): Yeah,
FRANCES ( 00:16:9): I mean, I do, there are times that the school’s being impossible and we do have to litigate and we go and so we’ll do that part. But I’m thinking that like I’m just thinking for due process case, like you have everything easy. So when I’m doing my five day disclosures, it’s all right there and I can just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom and not have to think it through as much work, not have to sort through the boxes of that’s so wonderful. And then so with the service providers, how does that work on getting them connected on the website. Are they on the website or the parents putting the information?
CHRISTINE ( 00:16:46): Right. So that’s going to be on the, the providers actually have their own subscription. And so they would just go on spedconnect.io actually, that we have a pre launch right now where you can sign up now to get the early, you know, the early pricing and get locked in. But a provider would go on just like a parent, the parent wants a membership, they would go on for the provider memberships. And they would, you know, really just fill out, you know, what their specialty is, their area of expertise. We really want to highlight the providers because I know for myself, we’re really a referral based community. And who did you use, who’s this and, you know, trying to find them and then, you know, finding some information and getting them on the phone. I just wanted to take all the guesswork out of it for parents so that they could find the right providers and that those providers that are dedicating their life’s work to, you know, the SpEd world. Our children have a place to be showcased where they can be found, contribute. So we’re gonna have different tiers for , subscribe for the provider subscriptions. But we really just wanted to make sure that everyone, whether you’re just starting out has a place to be found or, you know, you’re really, , a larger provider and very active.
FRANCES ( 00:18:08): And that’s so wonderful because I, I get asked all the time. Like, well, do you know a reading tutor? Do you know an occupational therapist? And so I try to network so I can say, yes, 100% here call this person. I know them personally. , which I find a lot of clients like, because as you said, we’re a referral based, you know, special ed community. Like parents, moms, dads are all their own but special ed community, we’re our own separate group. That’s just so we need the support from each other because other parents don’t get it all the time, the challenges we have. We have and I know, I don’t know if you saw the meme, it just reminded me of a meme on Facebook that do you remember what it was like your first year as a new parent with an infant and having to do all this and learning everything? That’s what you feel like as a special ed parent all the And I was like, yes,
CHRISTINE ( 00:19:9): there’s no guidebook,
FRANCES ( 00:19:11): right?
CHRISTINE ( 00:19:12): I, you know, that’s again, why, but we’re gonna have such a great community as part of this where parents can come on and ask questions and connect with like minded parents, you know, Washington to Florida really across the country. And you find someone that you can really connect with its, that was for me was really lacking and isolating. And I went from being really active at my daughter’s school and fundraising and volunteering all the time to just not really feeling like I had such a huge place there anymore. , and so I, you know, we have a lot to contribute and I feel like, you know, parents shouldn’t miss out and not be part of their school or not volunteer just because they have a SpEd child. Right. Or if our kids are there in the classroom, we have as much right to be there and volunteer and be involved.
FRANCES ( 00:20:03): I love that. You said that you’re nationwide because the first thing that popped into my head. Well, in addition to military families, just families that move for whatever reason from one state to another, you have to find all new providers. You need to find out what, how their school system does things differently and what their process is. And I’m like, whoa, wait, you’re gonna have it right there
CHRISTINE ( 00:20:28): and just imagine moving to a new area. And then not only do you need to find a school? , so the providers can be anything from attorneys to schools to camps, , speech pathologists. I mean, it’s, it’s grown so much, like I remember somebody recently said, well, I need an events planner to plan a sensory friendly party for my child. And I thought, wow, I bet that’s like a real thing, you know, like, that could actually be a real thing. And there’s just so even, even great kids that let’s say are in college and you know, are working summer, you know, they work summer camps with special needs children, maybe they’re trained in restraint, maybe they’re trained in seizure response. Will they be able to advertise themselves as you know, childcare or, you know, even adult care so those parents can get a night out and have peace of mind that their child is in safe hands. And at the same time giving that young entrepreneur provider, you know, some, some some extra money in their pockets and, and building their kind of brand.
FRANCES ( 00:21:27): I didn’t even think about that. Yeah, childcare, it’s not, I mean, some kids are fine, but when you have, I remember as a child, there was a somebody will, not as a child, as a teenager, there was a child that had medical issues. And so my friend used to babysit for them all the time because she learned the medical issues. So then I started coming with her so that I could learn it all so that I could also be a childcare provider. and to be able to have somebody that’s already trained on that, it’s I mean, it’s game changing.
CHRISTINE ( 00:22:00): it, there’s, there’s freedom in that, right? It’s your offering this amazing service. But at the same time, the parent is getting this amazing, you know, quality time that but also at the same time, it’s always so important to just, you don’t feel relaxed or you’re not having a good time if you know, your child is not safe or you can be assured that they’re safe. Exactly.
FRANCES ( 00:22:22 ): Yup. What if a seizure happens?
CHRISTINE ( 00:22:24): Exactly
FRANCES ( 00:22:25): Will this person know what to do? No, 100% as a parent when you leave your kids, especially the first few times it’s, uh, you know, it’s why did I bother going out because I’m stressed, more stressed out
CHRISTINE ( 00:22:34): you’re looking at your phone the whole time, checking it to make sure something’s not wrong.
FRANCES ( 00:22:39): And there was something else. Oh, you know what I, what came up when you said a sensory friendly events planning, what popped in? My head is general contractors that focus on accessibility in the home.
CHRISTINE ( 00:22:54): Absolutely. Builders and contractors that could be a whole field, right? I mean, it goes on and on. We had somebody that wants to be a provider like in the real estate area because people are looking to be in, you know, the better school districts if they have better SpEd departments. Well, how do you find realtors that understand? May be a family’s, uh, you know, challenge, right? Or if they need something very sensory friendly or accessible. , and we actually have one realtor that signed up and he’s like, I love working with families that are looking for their forever home. , and that have challenges because I feel, you know, everybody deserves to have a safe place for their families. So I love finding those providers that find the passion in working with our families.
FRANCES ( 00:23:41): That’s so true because what first popped into my head is so many of our children are elopers. And when you’re looking for a home, you need a safe environment. I, you know, I had a foster child at one point, that was definitely an eloper and thankfully our backyard is fenced in, in a way that he can’t even get a foothold. He tried, but he couldn’t thankfully because we’re on the pepto right of way. I just feel that he would have just been gone, but like those are things you need to think about. You know, we’re in a cul de sac. So if he gets out, and would start running, it’s not, it’s not as if you’re on a major highway or major street, like there’s at least that extra protection that, you know, and you can put in place. Yeah.
CHRISTINE ( 00:24:24): Absolutely.
FRANCES ( 00:24:25): God, I’m like, so excited. So, wait, there was something else. Oh, that was it because you said for providers, what if, like, I have a speech therapist for my child that doesn’t want to be a provider on your site? Can I still put her information on my profile so that I have the information there. How does that work?
CHRISTINE ( 00:24:46): Well, you could still add her to, , your, there’s going to be like a team for each of your children because I feel like my kids each had like their own rolodex almost, right? Nobody uses them anymore. But in context, if you think it’s kind of like having a mini rolodex for each child. And so I wanted a place where parents can easily say okay. I’m looking for, , you know, Eli, or I’m looking for Joey and all of their whole team will show up: their teachers, their attorney, their speech pathologist, anybody outside like an OT. , and that way if you have anything that comes in from them, you can easily share it with anyone else on your team that you would want to have access to.
FRANCES ( 00:25:26): That’s wonderful. That’s wonderful. Cause I was like, wait, my provider might not want to join and then what? But you can still put them on and then they’ll see it like again, it’s, you don’t know what you don’t know. You know, and as a Special Ed attorney, a former Special Ed teacher, I know when I started my business and I wasn’t getting people calling and I’m like, well, how are people going to find you? They don’t know, they need you. And that’s the thing. Like people don’t know, they need you until they’re aware that you’re there and that you saw that Pain Point for so many families and providers. Yeah. No, I love it. I’m like, so excited and, and I, and I know we’ve talked through like things that we might do for my clients and, you know, we’re definitely on that and I know you mentioned earlier about pre launch pricing for parents and providers.
CHRISTINE ( 00:26:22): Right? So we’re gonna have pre launch pricing right now. We’re gonna leave it up for, for until we, until we launch. , I think maybe for two months and right now, so your parent can sign up for $49.99, that they’ll be guaranteed that price this year and the next year. So for two years, $100 to have everything managed in one place, your community, finding all the providers. and just so much more, there’s going to be just so much great information. We’re going to have so many great webinars and kind of thought leaders and not just experts, right? Other people who are really kind of influencers, so to speak in the area because there’s so much information that parents don’t know and to connect with them when they have a following to help, get more information out to them is really, really super important.
FRANCES ( 00:27:16): That is awesome because the other thing that popped into my head is support groups, parent support groups, especially when you have a diagnosis that isn’t as common.
CHRISTINE ( 00:27:26): Right. Right.
FRANCES ( 00:27:27): So to find other families, it’s not like you’re going to go up to, you know, every parent, does your kid have this, does your kid have that? You know, and that
CHRISTINE ( 00:27:34): never happens. Yeah, that almost never happens, you know. And so even when you go to a private school. I remember trying to kind of connect with, you know, one of the parents that had, had her over and it was kind of like, well, what have we, we have this, what have you got? You know? So we always, and, and it wasn’t really some, some families just like to, you know. Yes, we are at a special needs school but we’re not talking about. I think it’s just, they, they felt shame and I’m like, there’s no shame in it. Our kids are amazing.
FRANCES ( 00:28:02): Yeah. It’s, you know, I go through that a lot of like, you know, because I’ll say that my child has an IEP for speech and I’m like, should I be saying that? That’s her information? You know, but it’s true and it’s part of it and I don’t want it to be shame. I don’t want it to be something you have to hide. Guess what? Your brain works differently. There’s nothing wrong with that, you know, especially our ASD kids because that’s, I mean, that’s a whole another episode that we could do on the fact that their brains work differently.
CHRISTINE ( 00:28:28): And, and ADHD too, I’m learning so much more than it just being like hyperactive. It’s really about how the brain works. Like one side says go and the other one is saying no way I’ve been seeing so much more about that. It’s, you know, both my children have actually been diagnosed with ADHD and attentive type. And, you know, just, I feel like I’m constantly learning and I want to share that with other parents because, you know, we’re not, you know, head bunting the wall because we’re trying to understand why there’s all of these other things that came along with it not realizing like anxiety, right? And then agoraphobia, all of these things that can morph from ADHD, like not being identified and especially with girls, girls really seem to mask it. I think I don’t want to say better but they just seem to mask it because like I asked my daughter, I said, why do you think we didn’t diagnose you? This is my, my older daughter until 16. And she said, because I went back and looked at her report cards and some of the teachers, like at the end of the year would be like, Brenda has more energy than anyone in the class. And I’m like, shouldn’t you have known, right? Like, shouldn’t you have known this kid who’s so anyway, you know, it’s just, there’s kind of just so much information and just how you know, ADHD. It’s just
FRANCES ( 00:29:48): right. It’s and, and so here’s the thing. Case in point, everybody says ADHD: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Guess what? There’s also ADD – Attention Deficit Disorder – that you don’t have the hyperactivity. So these are your kids that are staring out at the window and there you don’t realize they’re completely zoned out. And what I always say is that children are not behavior issues, not that that’s all teachers look at. But for a teacher that has, you know, 25-30 kids in their classroom, some with IEP, some with 504, somewhere in the general, you know, population trying to manage all that. The child that’s bouncing off the wall gets more attention.
CHRISTINE ( 00:30:34): Right. And just think of how hard it is for teachers to be able to collect all of that. You know, they’re supposed to be collecting data constantly. Right. Child find is when they’re supposed to be screening, when they’re not teaching, they can actually really even have something that they can get back to parents if they are collecting data. And there, you know, some parents might ask for weekly logs that can be shared with them just so easily.
FRANCES ( 00:30:57): Yeah, I’m thinking along the lines is that the teachers can also connect with the service providers maybe because sometimes if there’s an outside service provider, they can help with the data collection. Like, yes, it’s the school’s responsibility. But, you know, I was a teacher for seven years in the classroom, I get it. They’re, they’re overworked and underpaid already and then to actually have to keep, you know, collect all the special data while we know how important it is. It can be difficult. And I get that. , and so you said for the parents, what about for providers? Do you have any specials going on?
CHRISTINE ( 00:31:30): Right now? We are going to have it. It’s $200. You get the first year and second-year locked in at that price. , and so we have that, that for providers as well and it’s about 77% off the what we’re going to be charging. So it’s huge savings, especially if you’re even a new provider starting out. And really, we’re gonna want to have your, your name kind of out there and get to engage with the community, which is really great because it’s great to get information from parents. And there’s all so many fragmented like, you know, forums. I just really wanted to hone it all in to have one place. And so, you know, even as providers, you get to actually come in and say, oh no, actually, you know, you should ask for, you know, maybe you would come on and say, no, this is actually what you want to ask for in writing. And not only are you like serving your community? Right? But you’re also like vetting yourself, you’re showing parents that, you know, you have the info. No, you know what you’re talking about
FRANCES ( 00:32:28): Yeah, I
CHRISTINE ( 00:32:30): mean, it builds trust
FRANCES ( 00:32:31): $200 a year, you know, for providers next to nothing
CHRISTINE ( 00:32:35): next to nothing
FRANCES ( 00:32:36): Now and for parents, $50 a year, I’m like thinking In my head, how much would I pay to have this service? And, I mean, $50 in a year is definitely a deal
CHRISTINE ( 00:32:47): for, yeah, for the first two years I think it’s gonna be, it’s, it’s almost unheard of, but I wanted to offer something to parents to say, hey, you know, this is, we’re doing this for you. We’d love for you to sign up now, help us complete the build along, you know, with the providers as well. And you know, I just wanted to bring it back to them to see if, you know, parents wanted to, you know, providers. just really help our cause.
FRANCES ( 00:33:12): That’s so wonderful. Okay. And that, I mean that pricing tells it’s in your heart. This is what you’re doing. You’re like, yes, it’s a business but you’re really trying to provide a service to the community. You mentioned it’s gonna be nationwide. Are you going to be able to like, say you only work in Maryland or you work nationwide?
CHRISTINE ( 00:33:28): We are going to be working, you know, we are going to launch this nationwide. We also wanted to make sure that all of the expats, right? The military children that are on IEPs that they have access to this as well. And what’s really great is that, of course, when I was building this, I’m like, we can bring this globally because there’s other countries right, that have similar special education. I was sharing this with an advocate and she’s from Australia originally and she’s like, are you thinking about bringing this? And I said, yeah, and she said Australia would love this to. And so that’s really my goal is to every country that has a special education systems that we can keep rolling this out, you know, one country at a time.
FRANCES ( 00:34:10): That’s wonderful. And then, like, I know you said you are a lot of people. You like you like being a resource. So do you have any like shout outs to people or guests that you think should be on my show?
CHRISTINE ( 00:34:22): Let’s see. I love Dr Hassan Minhas. He is Yale Director, but he’s like specialized in autism and ADHD. Uh He’s got two offices, one in Stanford, Connecticut, I think one in Middletown, he runs a great treatment program for first children with challenges. He’s amazing. He just was awarded 40 under 40 in Connecticut last year. He’s been a huge help to my family and many families that I’ve referred him to and Dr Robert Krueger in Westport, Connecticut. He is a phenomenal neuro psych and really fights. I mean, he’s the one after two years in the process that really said no, this is what her IEP needs to look like and it looks mostly like outplacement is gonna be giving her a free and appropriate public education. And so they were really instrumental in helping, you know, really opening my eyes to, to what needed to be done.
FRANCES ( 00:35:27): Yeah, that’s great. That’s awesome. And I say like, for our listeners, if you think of a topic that you want to hear about or guest that you want on our show, please reach out. I know Christine and I were talking about bullying because that’s such a big thing with our special ed kids and that is gonna be a topic we’re going to address in the future on parents’ rights and what are your child’s rights on that? So thank you so much Christine for being on the show. This was wonderful. I’m so excited. I can’t wait till you launch.
CHRISTINE ( 00:35:55): thank you
FRANCES ( 00:35:56): Thank you listeners.
VOICEOVER ( 00:35:58): You’ve been listening to Stress-Free IEPTM. With your host Frances Shefter. Remember you do not need to do it all alone. You can reach Frances through ShefterLaw.com where prior episodes are also posted. Thank you for your positive reviews, comments and sharing the show with others through YouTube, LinkedIn, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and more.
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