In this episode of Stress-Free IEP®, Frances Shefter speaks about her career and tells some inspiring stories that paved her career.
Tune into to the episode to hear about:
The early years of Frances’ Career
What about education inspires Frances
Frances’ tips in navigating your IEP
Stress-Free IEP®:
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 (00:00:01): Welcome to Stress-Free IEP®. You do not need to do it all alone with your host, Frances Shefter, Principal of Shefter Law. You can get more details and catch prior episodes at www.Shefterlaw.com. The Stress-Free IEP® video podcast is also posted on YouTube and LinkedIn, and you can listen to episodes through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google podcast, Stitcher, and more. Now, here’s the host of Stress-Free IEP®. Frances Shefter.
Frances Shefter(00:00:37): Hello, everyone, and welcome to the show if you’re watching live. Sorry for the late start. We had some technical difficulties.
As you can see, I do not have a guest on my show today. The person that was scheduled had an emergency. So, of course, we’ve rescheduled, and I decided to take the time to tell a little bit about my story for those of you who might not know.
So, I started my career as an education special education teacher. Well, sorry, I started as a regular education teacher with an undergrad in early childhood, and then I went back and got my Master’s in Special Education. So, I moved over to Special ED for seven years. I taught in an elementary school. Then I moved to an alternative middle and high school where I, shortly after moving there, became the special ed coordinator.
After two years of that, I, like, it didn’t feel right anymore. I didn’t feel like I was making a difference. They wanted me to take a job in the central office, and I’m like, no, it’s about the kids for me. That’s where my heart is. I want to help the kids.
So I decided to take the LSATs, and one thing led to another. And the next thing I knew, I was at Stetson University College of Law, and I got my law degree. I worked in Florida for about a year and a half doing family law, which was definitely not my thing, works for some, not for me. And I moved back up to Maryland.
When I moved to Maryland, I learned about DC superior court abuse and neglect system that had a special education panel. So I applied to be on the panel, and the first time I wasn’t accepted. The second time, I got accepted, and that’s where it started. I was assisting families with special education needs when schools weren’t doing what they were supposed to be doing.
And as time went on, I started building my practice more and moving into private practice, realizing that the court cases weren’t necessarily what I wanted to be doing because sometimes clients weren’t as invested as I was, and sometimes the courts, the people asking for us to be represented didn’t exactly know what we did. So they would call us about attendance issues, and unless there’s a special education issue behind it, attendance is not really an issue that I can help with.
So, as I’ve been building my practice, I was walking one day, I used to walk every morning and listen to podcasts, and I came up with the term stress-free IEP. What does that mean? Here’s what it means. You get to be the parent when you bring on Chef De LaPier, one of our team members, we take the stress away from you. Obviously, as your child, there’s going to be some stress. But the reality is when you’re a parent and have everything you need to worry about at an IEP meeting, it’s overwhelming, and trust me, I know. I’m a parent as well, and if I get overwhelmed at my own child’s IEP meeting occasionally.
So, what we do is we are there listening to everything and discovering, like hearing what they’re saying, knowing what the hidden words are, having the special education background definitely helps with that. And so we are listening and know what to say and what needs to be said and how to argue when the school is saying something that we disagree with.
The other thing. What I always love to tell clients is that be the parent say what you want. It doesn’t matter. It’s okay. There is nothing that a parent can say at an IEP meeting that I can’t say what my client is trying to say is, and then I put it in the words that it needs to be for the school to say, oh, okay, we’ll put that in the IEP or in the 504 plan or whatever the case may be. So you get to be the parent at an IEP meeting.
So I get a lot of people asking like, why do you have a YouTube channel? Why do you give out so much free information? Like 100 videos a show? Like I don’t get it. I’m a teacher, I was born, a teacher, raised a teacher, that’s who I was, that’s who I am. And although I’m a lawyer now and I own my law firm, I still love to teach. I don’t want families to have to use us. I want you as the families and the parents and the caregivers to be able to advocate for your children by yourself.
So I am always happy to share my knowledge through my YouTube videos, through my show and so forth. The other reason. So I started with my YouTube channel and about a year, I would say about a year and a half in my cousin Randy, who was the first guest on my show, was like, we should do something together, we should do something together. And I just kept saying, oh, I don’t have the time to put together a podcast. It makes it difficult. And so fabulous video social, started a new group, VIP and that’s exactly what it is producing the show. And Randy and I kicked it off.
I do this to teach when you first get a diagnosis as a parent of a child, whether it’s ADHD, autism or even if it’s not a diagnosis, but there’s something quirky about your child. Sometimes you don’t know what’s out there. And so this show is about saying, hey, look, here’s what’s out, what’s out there, see what fits for you. And I will tell you one of the guests on my show. I was like, oh, I need you. I didn’t know she existed. If I didn’t have her on my show, I wouldn’t have known that she was the right fit for my child. And my child’s doing amazing with her and has learned and is doing so much better.
So that’s the thing I’m learning along with you all. That’s what it’s all about stress-free IEP. Showing you all, telling parents, telling families, caregivers, foster parents, aunties, uncles, everybody out there, grandparents that’s caring for a child or has a child in their life that needs some extra help in school potentially or not, it might not even be in school. Needs extra tutoring, needs physical therapy, needs occupational therapy, whatever it may be, that’s what I want to teach families.
So at the end of most of my, well, a lot of my YouTube videos, a little short three-minute ones. I say if you have ideas or recommendations of topics, please feel free to email me or you know, email info at Schefter law dot com or post on one of the videos.
I’m always looking for new topics, and I want to hear from the families of what you need and what you want to hear about because that’s where it’s all important. And you know, to give a few examples, I’ve had families, I actually had a parent the other day, send me a message and said, thank you so much for your videos. I watched your video, and after going round and round with the school system for months, once I said what you said to do and did the official request within a week, the school responded.
spk_0 (00:14:42): You’ve been listening to stress free IEP with your host, Francis Schefter. Remember you do not need to do it all alone. You can reach Francis through Schefter law dot 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 Podcast, Stitcher, and more.
Frances’ Journey to Education Law — Stress-Free IEP® with Frances Shefter
In this episode of Stress-Free IEP®, Frances Shefter speaks about her career and tells some inspiring stories that paved her career.
Tune into to the episode to hear about:
Stress-Free IEP®:
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-Free IEP®:
https://shefterlaw.com/blog
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCff0foIeCETrWbtsQSDwckQ
Connect and learn more from your host, Frances Shefter:
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
VOICEOVER (00:00:01): Welcome to Stress-Free IEP®. You do not need to do it all alone with your host, Frances Shefter, Principal of Shefter Law. You can get more details and catch prior episodes at www.Shefterlaw.com. The Stress-Free IEP® video podcast is also posted on YouTube and LinkedIn, and you can listen to episodes through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google podcast, Stitcher, and more. Now, here’s the host of Stress-Free IEP®. Frances Shefter.
Frances Shefter(00:00:37): Hello, everyone, and welcome to the show if you’re watching live. Sorry for the late start. We had some technical difficulties.
As you can see, I do not have a guest on my show today. The person that was scheduled had an emergency. So, of course, we’ve rescheduled, and I decided to take the time to tell a little bit about my story for those of you who might not know.
So, I started my career as an education special education teacher. Well, sorry, I started as a regular education teacher with an undergrad in early childhood, and then I went back and got my Master’s in Special Education. So, I moved over to Special ED for seven years. I taught in an elementary school. Then I moved to an alternative middle and high school where I, shortly after moving there, became the special ed coordinator.
After two years of that, I, like, it didn’t feel right anymore. I didn’t feel like I was making a difference. They wanted me to take a job in the central office, and I’m like, no, it’s about the kids for me. That’s where my heart is. I want to help the kids.
So I decided to take the LSATs, and one thing led to another. And the next thing I knew, I was at Stetson University College of Law, and I got my law degree. I worked in Florida for about a year and a half doing family law, which was definitely not my thing, works for some, not for me. And I moved back up to Maryland.
When I moved to Maryland, I learned about DC superior court abuse and neglect system that had a special education panel. So I applied to be on the panel, and the first time I wasn’t accepted. The second time, I got accepted, and that’s where it started. I was assisting families with special education needs when schools weren’t doing what they were supposed to be doing.
And as time went on, I started building my practice more and moving into private practice, realizing that the court cases weren’t necessarily what I wanted to be doing because sometimes clients weren’t as invested as I was, and sometimes the courts, the people asking for us to be represented didn’t exactly know what we did. So they would call us about attendance issues, and unless there’s a special education issue behind it, attendance is not really an issue that I can help with.
So, as I’ve been building my practice, I was walking one day, I used to walk every morning and listen to podcasts, and I came up with the term stress-free IEP. What does that mean? Here’s what it means. You get to be the parent when you bring on Chef De LaPier, one of our team members, we take the stress away from you. Obviously, as your child, there’s going to be some stress. But the reality is when you’re a parent and have everything you need to worry about at an IEP meeting, it’s overwhelming, and trust me, I know. I’m a parent as well, and if I get overwhelmed at my own child’s IEP meeting occasionally.
So, what we do is we are there listening to everything and discovering, like hearing what they’re saying, knowing what the hidden words are, having the special education background definitely helps with that. And so we are listening and know what to say and what needs to be said and how to argue when the school is saying something that we disagree with.
The other thing. What I always love to tell clients is that be the parent say what you want. It doesn’t matter. It’s okay. There is nothing that a parent can say at an IEP meeting that I can’t say what my client is trying to say is, and then I put it in the words that it needs to be for the school to say, oh, okay, we’ll put that in the IEP or in the 504 plan or whatever the case may be. So you get to be the parent at an IEP meeting.
So I get a lot of people asking like, why do you have a YouTube channel? Why do you give out so much free information? Like 100 videos a show? Like I don’t get it. I’m a teacher, I was born, a teacher, raised a teacher, that’s who I was, that’s who I am. And although I’m a lawyer now and I own my law firm, I still love to teach. I don’t want families to have to use us. I want you as the families and the parents and the caregivers to be able to advocate for your children by yourself.
So I am always happy to share my knowledge through my YouTube videos, through my show and so forth. The other reason. So I started with my YouTube channel and about a year, I would say about a year and a half in my cousin Randy, who was the first guest on my show, was like, we should do something together, we should do something together. And I just kept saying, oh, I don’t have the time to put together a podcast. It makes it difficult. And so fabulous video social, started a new group, VIP and that’s exactly what it is producing the show. And Randy and I kicked it off.
I do this to teach when you first get a diagnosis as a parent of a child, whether it’s ADHD, autism or even if it’s not a diagnosis, but there’s something quirky about your child. Sometimes you don’t know what’s out there. And so this show is about saying, hey, look, here’s what’s out, what’s out there, see what fits for you. And I will tell you one of the guests on my show. I was like, oh, I need you. I didn’t know she existed. If I didn’t have her on my show, I wouldn’t have known that she was the right fit for my child. And my child’s doing amazing with her and has learned and is doing so much better.
So that’s the thing I’m learning along with you all. That’s what it’s all about stress-free IEP. Showing you all, telling parents, telling families, caregivers, foster parents, aunties, uncles, everybody out there, grandparents that’s caring for a child or has a child in their life that needs some extra help in school potentially or not, it might not even be in school. Needs extra tutoring, needs physical therapy, needs occupational therapy, whatever it may be, that’s what I want to teach families.
So at the end of most of my, well, a lot of my YouTube videos, a little short three-minute ones. I say if you have ideas or recommendations of topics, please feel free to email me or you know, email info at Schefter law dot com or post on one of the videos.
I’m always looking for new topics, and I want to hear from the families of what you need and what you want to hear about because that’s where it’s all important. And you know, to give a few examples, I’ve had families, I actually had a parent the other day, send me a message and said, thank you so much for your videos. I watched your video, and after going round and round with the school system for months, once I said what you said to do and did the official request within a week, the school responded.
spk_0 (00:14:42): You’ve been listening to stress free IEP with your host, Francis Schefter. Remember you do not need to do it all alone. You can reach Francis through Schefter law dot 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 Podcast, Stitcher, and more.
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