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.
In this episode of Stress-Free IEP™, Frances speaks with Maggie Staub, Head of Education and Community Partnerships at Parallel Learning. Maggie is a longtime educator, beginning in public and private schools in New York City. Parallel simplifies and streamlines learning difference care for families, providers, educators, and students by aggregating providers and resources in a single, easy-to-access platform.
VOICEOVER ( 00:00:00): Welcome to Stress-Free IEP™ You do not need to do it all alone with your host, Frances Shefter, Principal of Shefter Law. She streams the show live on Facebook on the last Tuesday of every month at Noon Eastern. Get more details and catch prior episodes at 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 podcasts, Stitcher and more. Now. Here’s the host of Stress-Free IEP™, Frances Shefter.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:00:43): Hello everybody and thank you for joining us. I am so excited about our new our guest this week. Maggie Staub of Parallel Learning and Maggie tell us about your company and what you do.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:01:00): thank you. Um Really excited to be joining you today. Um My name is Maggie Staub, I’m the Head of Education and Provider Operations at Parallel Learning. Um just a little bit of background around about me. I’m a longtime educator and a learning specialist of about 10 years or so. So most of my career really started uh in New York City, working in both public and private schools um including an international school and I’ve worked with students in various capacities from anywhere from pre-k to about 10th grade. Um but right now, you know I left the classroom about a year ago to work with Parallel Learning. Um It was a natural transition for me because I really was blown away by their mission to uh make learning support services more accessible to families. Um And essentially that’s exactly what we’ve been doing. Um The past year has been very busy for Parallel. Uh We offer a variety of different services such as uh private full comprehensive learning evaluations, um Executive function coaching and uh skills based learning support. We also have now expanded to reach those who need speech and language therapy services and therapy and mental health counseling services. Um And so we’re fully virtual and there’s a lot of you know, ways that we’re working towards building and providing more access to families and students to get these services,
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:02:31): wow. And I was so excited to hear about you guys because I know down here in Maryland and D. C., it is so hard to get services and to get evaluations. Um Tell me more about the evaluations, you know, are they full comprehensive? Are these ones that a family could go to a school with to get services?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:02:51): That’s such a great question. Um Yeah, so our private evaluations are just as comprehensive as any type of in person evaluation that you could get with a clinical psychologist. So we use clinical psychologists um to perform them. They you know, have personalized assessment plans that they developed based on what the students. Uh you know, areas of concerns are and um essentially like what a family might be wondering about in terms of their learning profile. Uh And the way that we sort of do this is we’ve built sort of a testing team around them, We have care coordinators that sort of walk the family through the assessment process, which can be, you know, pretty overwhelming for some um We have, you know, really highly trained test technicians who perform the actual testing to ensure that we are following all the A. P A guidelines for tele assessment. Uh And it’s really personalized, you know, every student’s uh journey looks a little bit different with us, but we have a support system that sort of helps the family through the process. Um And also our goal is to answer the questions that they have about their child. Uh and just like any private evaluation, families can use this to try to obtain services. Uh You know, it really kind of depends, you know, taking it to a public school might look a little bit different. You know, every kind of district has its own way of um incorporating a private evaluation in the development of an IEP. Of course we can’t guarantee those types of accommodations or we can’t guarantee a diagnosis of any sort, but similarly, even with even type of private education pro vert programs, um Most schools will require some type of documentation before they put a learning plan in place and, you know, for us to be able to make, you know, really specific recommendations on how to support a child learning. Um You know, most of the time parents can use this to sort of advocate for their child and get those accommodations in school,
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:04:51): it’s so wonderful. And so I wanted to go into a little bit about like the cost, like do you guys take insurance? Um you know, cause I know that’s one of the biggest things as parents are like the school won’t evaluate and I can’t afford to pay this. What does it look like with you all?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:05:08): That’s a conversation. I had lots of times with families and a huge reason why um I didn’t think anything could take me out of the classroom, but a huge reason why I felt so um tied to their mission is that the cost is a flat fee for us. So it’s 1500 for the entire evaluation. Um and you know, in a lot of places to compare. I mean I taught in New York city so I, you know, I was getting, I was hearing prices of 4000 to $10,000 for an evaluation.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:05:39): Yes.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:05:41): And of course that can vary and it can be unknown. Whereas ours is a flat fee regardless of how much testing is needed. Um and kind of going back to that personalized testing piece. You know, there’s a lot of cases where um, you know, an evaluator will need more info information about a child’s learning and need to really kind of dig in a little bit deeper. We don’t add on any additional fees for that. We don’t add on for the service of having a care coordinator helped the family walk through the process or anything. So we offer one flat fee at this time. Unfortunately we’re not accepting insurance, however, we do provide families with really extra and really clear guide um that walks them through how to try to obtain out of network coverage. We provide a super bill that you know, you know, provides them with the cpt codes that they might need and can take it to their insurance and see if they can get some out of network coverage. And a lot of cases our families have been at least been able to get some part of their evaluation costs compensated.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:06:43): That’s great. I’d love to hear that because it’s I mean it’s so needed, especially for you know, the population that might not even have insurance that would cover it or even with insurance that they don’t cover it all. So I know you went into services, do you require like if somebody comes to you for an evaluation, do you require them to get services through the program?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:07:04): No, not at all. Um So they can be used you know, our services can be kind of used separately depending on what a family’s needs are or I mean what we really do is we see a lot of benefit between kind of keeping a student within our system um to obtain services after an evaluation. So if a family just wants to come to us and get answers about their child’s learning or maybe a, you know, a diagnostic conclusion for their child, um they can just get evaluated through us and we’ll still make recommendations um regardless of what, you know, their their long term plan is the one thing that makes our reports really unique is that there are sections within the report that really explains to the family what it exactly that we’re evaluating. What does this look like for your child? How does it impact them in school? How does it impact them at home? And then in in terms of our recommendations and our accommodation section, we really detail out exactly what we’re recommending in the classroom setting in a testing setting and the types of interventions that may be beneficial to the child. Um We offer a lot of those services so it’s really wonderful when parents can take advantage of the opportunity to then carry on with parallel and maybe obtain executive function coaching. Um because then our providers actually within our network have the ability to create a team approach around this student and really have access to each other to build an appropriate learning plan and um you know, really work through the child with utilizing the best strategies that would work, you know, best for them. Um They don’t have to though if they if we have families that come directly to us and just want the executive function coaching because they know it’s something that their child needs or they’re wondering if it’s a benefit to them. They can you know they can absolutely uh you know still receive that same service.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:9:00): That is so awesome. And so I know you’re in New York and I’m in Maryland, D. C. Area. Does it matter? Like are you limited by where your um psychologists are licensed on who you can service and evaluate?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:9:15): That’s a really great question. So because we do use clinical psychologists um we certainly can only serve families within the states that we have licensed provider’s license in. Um I would say at this point we really are spending most of the US which is really exciting. Um and we also have a variety of psychologists that have something called a side packed license which essentially is a type of clinical license that allows them um to serve. I think it’s about don’t quote me on this maybe 28 or 29 different states that are side. Um So we do have expanded licensure across the U. S. But yes that is a requirement for the evaluation piece um when it comes to executive function coaching or our skills based tutoring um types of services, there’s no requirement there because it’s not a clinical service
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:10:11): and it sounds like from your mission and what you’re talking about is if if a client were to call you and need an evaluation and not currently covered. You would find a way to get it covered right, Like get a provider
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:10:24): as much as we possibly could. Absolutely. Um and like I said, we really try to provide a lot of guidance around that. And in some cases, you know, there’s there’s insurance isn’t able to cover it, they may get denied. Um and in a lot of cases they have to pay, I mean they have to pay out of pocket. Um and that’s usually something that happens afterwards. We do offer payment plans though to really help families who are in need and maybe, you know, resources maybe not have the full resources to go about it all at once.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:10:56): That’s great. So I know here um in a lot of the school systems that I’ve worked with when we bring in private evaluations, sometimes the school will say, well you didn’t get any input from the school. Are you able to do that to get like, I know the Conners or the BASC checklists. Do you send that to school?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:11:15): Yeah, I would say typically most of our testing batteries include a teacher report, um, maybe even a few days depending on what exactly that we’re evaluating the student on. Um and we very much so we’ll ask family’s permission to be able to utilize teachers that are directly working with their child to provide feedback for our evaluations.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:11:38): So it’s full comprehensive and you’ve got everything in there that I would need to help a family get in and get an IEP. Services.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:11:44): Yeah, I mean we really try to look at the whole profile of the kid um You know, as an educator, it’s so important um to really understand different parts of a child’s learning profile because you know, yeah, maybe their cognitive and academic functioning um uh clinically and maybe even on paper looks okay um or is as expected compared to their age group. Um But we also assess for the attention piece and the executive function piece and even their social emotional well being because those pieces can really impact a child’s learning. I mean they can really be um the reason for the lack of performance that a teacher or a parent is noticing. Um and until we really understand what the root cause of what a child struggling with. Um You know, everyone’s gonna be kind of guessing as to like how we can help this child rather than really knowing um what is important to tackle first.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:12:44): That is so awesome. And I know you said you do a flat fee, so if you get in like um if the care manager talks with the family and determines okay, these are the evaluations. If something happens in the evaluations that it looks like you need to dig deeper, are you able to do that?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:12:59): Absolutely. So essentially when families come to us, they really always start with a meeting with a member of our care specialist team um they’re just incredibly knowledgeable. They’ll really help talk with the family and ensure that you know where you know, they’re kind of going about the services that um they’re looking to acquire um from the when a family is ready to get started, a care coordinator will get them set up with you know obtaining their paperwork and getting them um all their forms completed. And then their first session is actually with a clinical psychologist so that we call that um our clinical interview, the family will attend depending on the child’s age they’ll attend for part of it. Um And that’s when they’re really going to kind of dig in deep with the developmental history and be able to discuss what some of the presenting concerns are. And then once the clinical psychologist develops the assessment plan from, you know, all the documents they review in that conversation. Um the testing begins and there’s really, really close look from the psychologist and the Psychometrist together to see what’s happening, what the data is telling us in live time. If we need to dig deeper, we go ahead and we schedule that. We do not charge extra for that. It is our goal to obtain as much data as possible to be able to give families the answers that they’re looking for. So, you know, it’s really kind of depends. We’re also very flexible in terms of the actual testing sessions themselves. Some students, in terms of their pacing need shorter sessions or they need more frequent sessions that are a little bit more to their pace. We’re very flexible with that and it does not impact the cost.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:14:39): That is great. So you use the term that I haven’t heard often. Psychometrist
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:14:46): Yes a Psychometrist is essentially a test technician, somebody who’s incredibly um experienced with diagnostic testing and administering them diagnostically and virtually because all of our services are virtual they’re very in tune to ensuring validity within the testing process. Um Because of course you know it’s just a different type of environment than being in person. Um You know we have to send a test kit to the family that includes testing booklets And there’s a lot that we need to do to ensure security and validity within you know the test records that we complete and things like that.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:15:25): Great. But it’s all overseen by the psychologist that….
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:15:29): Absolutely. And most of our psychometrists you know they have even more experience with the testing actually. Um because they’re in you know typically they’re in doctoral programs or they’re looking to obtain. And a lot of them are also school psychologists who potentially do testing regularly as well.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:15:49): Oh that’s great. So they’re not…. So what’s the certification difference like why are they not considered a psychologist if they’re doing testing in schools and have their doctorate.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:15:59): That’s a great question. For private evaluations when you use a clinical psychologist a clinical psychologist can determine a D. S. M. Diagnosis where a school psychologist only works within the school district and are more familiar with like internal diagnostic codes for schools. And in some school systems they don’t even offer a diagnosis. It’s more about qualifying or disqualifying a child for services. Um So they’re not really um trained in really looking at you know holistically um In general I don’t want to speak for all school psychologists but in general they don’t have the licensor to be able to offer a D. S. M. diagnosis.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:16:39): And I hear that often the schools like we don’t diagnose we can’t say they have A. D. H. D. We can’t say they’re on the spectrum. Um
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:16:46): Sometimes that piece is so important for a family to understand right? Because our evaluations kind of go beyond just looking at a child’s academic profile and performance within the school district. You know some are really looking for answers about like who their child is and like really kind of um wanting to get a sense of um if there’s a diagnosis like how do I really support my child here um and sort of help advocate for them
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:17:14): and that’s you know I know with schools when parents feel that something’s not working a lot of times schools were like well what disability code do you want us to look at and parents don’t know. I mean like I don’t know it’s just something’s not working. My child is struggling and doesn’t seem like it should do. Parents need to know anything other than my child is struggling to come see you.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:17:39): Not at all. I mean that’s really what are the role of our clinical psychologists? They do an incredible job and, and um I’m not just saying that because I work for parallel, this is a provider network that goes beyond what I’ve actually experienced as an educator. Our mission has also been to be educators in this space. So when a family comes to us and they, you know, go through the testing process after the testing occurs, they have a feedback session with the clinical psychologist again so that they’re sitting down and the psychologist is walking them through the entire report and then walking them through what a potential learning plan roadmap could look like and explaining to them. This is what this means for your child. This is why this might look this way at home, that there’s a whole opportunity for them to educate the parent on what they need to know or what they want to know in terms of supporting their child and what’s potentially going on. Um and I think the thing that’s wonderful too is that we allow additional access as much as needed. Some parents and often parents will ask for additional follow up sessions because they implement some of the strategies and they’re seeing progress and they kind of want to know, okay, well, you know, this is looking like it’s going in the right direction. What can I do next? Or should I stay in my, you know, should we stay with this plan and how much longer and they need more guidance. Can’t just be. Here’s a document that tells you a bunch of information about your kid and now you’re kind of on your own to figure out what to do with it. We offer that extended support throughout. And again, if families come to us with, you know, obtaining some of the services after. So if they’re working with a learning specialist, that learning specialist has access to the documentation that learning specialist has, you know, access to the family to ensure that they’re providing, you know, adequate feedback in terms of the child’s progress. Um and we have a network of providers that collaborate with each other. So they’re sharing best practices and best strategies um all the time to ensure that they’re really meeting the needs of their students.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:19:41): So wonderful. And I know you said something about documents. I know, I mean, you know, special education documents are stacks and stacks and stacks. I’m trying to bring my law firm paperless and I’m actually somewhat surprisingly, I swore up and down. We could never be paperless because the amount of paperwork that you have in special ed, but I’ve managed to do it. Covid kind of forced us. What if a parent just doesn’t have all the education documents and all of the stuff that they might need is that a problem?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:20:13): Um I mean no not really whatever they can provide to us that’s helpful in terms of evaluating their child and telling us information about what has been sort of uh documented about them in the past is always helpful but not at all required. Um I think you know one thing that we tend to forget too is that while that information can be really helpful the goal of actually you know completing a full evaluation is to be objective as possible. Um Our clinical psychologists you know that’s their goal is to really look at data, look at you know um what is being shared, what is being documented by the family. And sometimes there’s even like a student report where the child is sharing their own reflection of themselves within the process. Um To maintain that objectivity is is really a goal and really allows us to ensure that our results are valid. So you know kind of going back to your point if a if a parent has had an I. P. In the past or um has gone through a private evaluation in the past and they choose not to even share that. That does not impact our ability to still tell them what their child’s you know abilities are and their function their current level of cognitive functioning is at this point in time.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:21:31): That’s great. Except for the one thing is if the, what is it if the evaluation is given within 12 months of each other, I think it’s a Woodcock Johnson and the WISC.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:21:40): Oh yes. Well in that. Yeah. Well, yes, of course. I mean if they don’t share that with us, kind of hard to determine what that testing battery would look like if they did provide to us, um, you know, an evaluation that was within that time frame that you mentioned. Um We do have an extensive assessment library where we could do the alternative assessment to ensure that, you know, we’re, you know, following best practices in that way
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:22:04): and if the parents don’t know if they say, well, the school assess, but I don’t know what assessments they did. Can you help the parents to get the copies of those reports and assessments?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:22:13): Absolutely. And typically it takes, you know, nothing more than, you know, helping the family feel empowered to go back to the school and understanding their rights that they’re entitled to that documentation. Um, and really just requesting that documentation and if they needed additional support, you know, our team is, you know, uh, you know, more than welcome and more than happy um to go ahead and try to facilitate those conversations. Um, thankfully, you know, we really haven’t experienced much of those types of situations because, once families really feel empowered. They know what to ask for when they go back to their child’s school. Um, and you know, as long as it’s okay with the family and they feel comfortable sharing that with us. Um, it’s never a requirement. Um, but if they feel comfortable sharing that with us, you know, of course it’s all the better allows us to direct, you know, what we do next.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:23:03): That is so awesome. And yeah, I love empowering families. That’s like my whole mission statement and why I do these shows and why I do my YouTube channel with all my videos is that parents, you know, their, their best advocate for their Children …
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:23:17): and they don’t know what their rights are and the school is not gonna advertise it right.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:23:21): Exactly, Exactly.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:23:24): They really do hold a lot of power, you know, in terms of advocating for their child and sometimes it takes some confidence and understanding of how the system works, which we’re happy to sort of advise and and facilitate with them. Um, and you know, uh, whatever we can do essentially to help a family feel confident in navigating what those next steps are, even if it’s going through the process, totally exclusive of including their child’s school and, you know, just wanting to do this, you know, privately, which is, it’s up to them. This is a document that the parent, you know, may choose never to show to a school and this is something that they just want for themselves. Um, that’s their choice where the difference is, is that if they get evaluated through a school district, um again, the goal there is to just qualify that child for services or disqualify them and it follows them in terms of their record and and that’s just something that a parent has to choose and decide, but you know, more often than not, they just don’t know that going into this these uh situation, so we just try to really educate um what they can expect and what they’re entitled to as much as we can
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:24:31): That is so awesome and wonderful. I know I had another question and I just disappeared. Um I’m so excited. I like, I have to tell you when I met Blakely, I was so excited to hear about this because I think we have similar backgrounds. I’m a former teacher also before law school.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:24:51): Yeah, and totally like that we, that it’s about helping the families getting the Children um what they, what they need and deserve.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:25:01): And one thing too that I’ll really highlight and I think this is actually one of the pieces that kind of really played into my journey with parallel is the aspect that, you know, we’re able to have students be evaluated in the comfort of their home. Um that is something that is like completely understated in my opinion because I actually came across parallel uh kind of coincidentally they reached out to me and shared a little bit about their services, but I had actually had a student at the time who had such ability, dating anxiety, that even coming to school every single day was a challenge. Um, and his family had been trying, we had had that discussion of him um, being evaluated because we really just needed to know more about his learning profile. We were really kind of exhausting our resources at the school. Um, and this had started in, you know, 3rd and 4th grade, this was 1/6 grader now at this, at the time period I’m just um referring to and when I heard that these were virtual services and kind of ran it by the family, they were like, I actually think that we can do this. Um, and you know, the student agreed and we did it actually, I was able to facilitate it in my classroom, which was one of the safe spaces for him at the school and within, you know, I would say like a month and a half, we had the documentation that we had spent three or four years trying to obtain and it was just groundbreaking to me and really what it was was that he did not feel comfortable even at school sometimes. Um, let alone would they be able to get their child to a clinic, um, knowing that his performance is going to be tested with someone who feels totally unfamiliar to him no matter how warm they are or what not. So I think there’s something also to say that this is a really good fit for some kiddos who struggle with that performance anxiety or where families might be really nervous about the impact of getting their child evaluated by bringing them to a clinician’s office. Um this kind of eliminates that that stress a little bit, not fully, you know, maybe a little bit nervous, but I will say I’ve never heard in my entire career, a parent tell me that their kid enjoyed their testing sessions and that’s back that we’ve been getting recently and I have to say like there’s nothing that feels better than that when you have parents say, oh my child was upset that they’re testing was over and I was like, okay, here’s something new all the time and that’s something that like I would love to just pin on a wall and just, you know, um really consider it a major accomplishment for us
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:27:47): and I’m assuming you do, I think you said that you do a family meeting before the testing starts so that the child feels comfortable with you and sees the interaction or whoever the tester would be.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:27:58): Um well the clinical interview is really with the, with the clinical psychologist, so the point for that, the child’s attendance there is for the clinical psychologist to be able to ask them questions if they feel needed and again it really kind of depends on their age, Children under the age of 12 don’t typically join because it’ll allows for the parents to be a little bit more authentic in in sharing the information without compromising um you know, the child’s self esteem and anything, you know, with that sort. when it comes to the Psychometrist,, so again the Psychometrist is the one who’s going to be doing the actual testing um but they’re incredible at building rapport with these students right away. And one of the things they’ve shared with me that has been helpful to them is that, you know, a lot of times the kids are set up in their room, they can see things on the wall, it allows them a little bit of an ability to really connect with them right away by kind of, you know, pointing things out, noticing what their interests are um and really ensuring that they feel comfortable through the testing process. They really do losing job connecting with our Children and our students first. That’s important to them from the very beginning and again, even when it comes to the testing piece, if they notice that a child’s really struggling with the time frame of our testing, which is typically about two hours, we don’t schedule any longer than that for testing session our Psychometrist will say, you know, I think we need to adjust this for these kiddos, they don’t want them to be, you know, stress, they don’t want them to be struggling through the process, they’re really looking out for them and ensuring that um we’re getting valid results without compromising the child’s experience
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:29:38): that is so wonderful and I know I’m watching the clock because I know you have other commitments and I don’t want to take too much of your time. Um Is there any like in wrapping up, is there anything else you want to share with our audience um about you guys or how they can contact you?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:29:54): Yeah, so they can reach out, you know, if you go to our website, they’re easily able to navigate and set up a consultation with one of our care specialist. I always recommend starting there um because they’re really helpful in um helping navigate what the next steps are and really explaining the process a little bit further. Um Of course anybody can feel free to reach out to me again with my background, I’m happy to also um kind of give some insight as to what choices, you know, families have within our program. Um I guess another thing that I would love to share too that I think is so important is the efficiency piece. So in a lot of cases when um you know, families go through an evaluation, whether it’s through a school district or privately they’re looking at, you know, anywhere from 4 to 6 months before even getting those results and that’s pre covid. So I imagine right now that that wait time is a lot longer. Um and sometimes time is everything for a child. So our turnaround times, you know, a family depending on their scheduling, we can um, you know, basically facilitate the entire process and anywhere between 4-6 weeks
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:31:01): getting on the calendar to report
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:31:04): to report.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:31:06): That’s huge because I know for us private psychologists are scheduling 2-3 months, out minimum.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:31:11): minimum. Exactly, minimum. And then the report, you know, delivery and you know, scheduling, that feedback session can also take a lot of time. Um, and that really, and you know, that that can really impact the child’s like entire school year. I mean that’s like an entire—
Full year um that that child could be missing out on accommodations or, you know, any type of intervention services that could have supported them throughout the way. So, um, I’ll say that that’s something that we’re in proud of. And again, a benefit of utilizing the Parallel programming for that.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:31:46): Yeah, definitely. That I love to hear that because that’s that’s so important because I have a long list of clients that are trying to get in for evaluations.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:31:54): Exactly, Exactly. And then we really pride ourselves in ensuring that families get these answers as quickly as they can.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:32:02): And I’m assuming consultations are free
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:32:04): consultations are free, absolutely
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:32:06): perfect. Okay, awesome. Thank you Maggie so much for being on our show. Um I loved learning more about you guys and to our listeners. Thank you for listening. All of our information to reach out to me or to Maggie and Parallel Learning will be in the show notes below and thank you so much for listening. See you soon.
VOICEOVER ( 00:32:27): You’ve been listening to StressFree IEP™ 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 Maggie Staub (Video Podcast)
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.
In this episode of Stress-Free IEP™, Frances speaks with Maggie Staub, Head of Education and Community Partnerships at Parallel Learning. Maggie is a longtime educator, beginning in public and private schools in New York City. Parallel simplifies and streamlines learning difference care for families, providers, educators, and students by aggregating providers and resources in a single, easy-to-access platform.
Connect with Maggie Staub on Linkedin
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VOICEOVER ( 00:00:00): Welcome to Stress-Free IEP™ You do not need to do it all alone with your host, Frances Shefter, Principal of Shefter Law. She streams the show live on Facebook on the last Tuesday of every month at Noon Eastern. Get more details and catch prior episodes at 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 podcasts, Stitcher and more. Now. Here’s the host of Stress-Free IEP™, Frances Shefter.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:00:43): Hello everybody and thank you for joining us. I am so excited about our new our guest this week. Maggie Staub of Parallel Learning and Maggie tell us about your company and what you do.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:01:00): thank you. Um Really excited to be joining you today. Um My name is Maggie Staub, I’m the Head of Education and Provider Operations at Parallel Learning. Um just a little bit of background around about me. I’m a longtime educator and a learning specialist of about 10 years or so. So most of my career really started uh in New York City, working in both public and private schools um including an international school and I’ve worked with students in various capacities from anywhere from pre-k to about 10th grade. Um but right now, you know I left the classroom about a year ago to work with Parallel Learning. Um It was a natural transition for me because I really was blown away by their mission to uh make learning support services more accessible to families. Um And essentially that’s exactly what we’ve been doing. Um The past year has been very busy for Parallel. Uh We offer a variety of different services such as uh private full comprehensive learning evaluations, um Executive function coaching and uh skills based learning support. We also have now expanded to reach those who need speech and language therapy services and therapy and mental health counseling services. Um And so we’re fully virtual and there’s a lot of you know, ways that we’re working towards building and providing more access to families and students to get these services,
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:02:31): wow. And I was so excited to hear about you guys because I know down here in Maryland and D. C., it is so hard to get services and to get evaluations. Um Tell me more about the evaluations, you know, are they full comprehensive? Are these ones that a family could go to a school with to get services?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:02:51): That’s such a great question. Um Yeah, so our private evaluations are just as comprehensive as any type of in person evaluation that you could get with a clinical psychologist. So we use clinical psychologists um to perform them. They you know, have personalized assessment plans that they developed based on what the students. Uh you know, areas of concerns are and um essentially like what a family might be wondering about in terms of their learning profile. Uh And the way that we sort of do this is we’ve built sort of a testing team around them, We have care coordinators that sort of walk the family through the assessment process, which can be, you know, pretty overwhelming for some um We have, you know, really highly trained test technicians who perform the actual testing to ensure that we are following all the A. P A guidelines for tele assessment. Uh And it’s really personalized, you know, every student’s uh journey looks a little bit different with us, but we have a support system that sort of helps the family through the process. Um And also our goal is to answer the questions that they have about their child. Uh and just like any private evaluation, families can use this to try to obtain services. Uh You know, it really kind of depends, you know, taking it to a public school might look a little bit different. You know, every kind of district has its own way of um incorporating a private evaluation in the development of an IEP. Of course we can’t guarantee those types of accommodations or we can’t guarantee a diagnosis of any sort, but similarly, even with even type of private education pro vert programs, um Most schools will require some type of documentation before they put a learning plan in place and, you know, for us to be able to make, you know, really specific recommendations on how to support a child learning. Um You know, most of the time parents can use this to sort of advocate for their child and get those accommodations in school,
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:04:51): it’s so wonderful. And so I wanted to go into a little bit about like the cost, like do you guys take insurance? Um you know, cause I know that’s one of the biggest things as parents are like the school won’t evaluate and I can’t afford to pay this. What does it look like with you all?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:05:08): That’s a conversation. I had lots of times with families and a huge reason why um I didn’t think anything could take me out of the classroom, but a huge reason why I felt so um tied to their mission is that the cost is a flat fee for us. So it’s 1500 for the entire evaluation. Um and you know, in a lot of places to compare. I mean I taught in New York city so I, you know, I was getting, I was hearing prices of 4000 to $10,000 for an evaluation.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:05:39): Yes.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:05:41): And of course that can vary and it can be unknown. Whereas ours is a flat fee regardless of how much testing is needed. Um and kind of going back to that personalized testing piece. You know, there’s a lot of cases where um, you know, an evaluator will need more info information about a child’s learning and need to really kind of dig in a little bit deeper. We don’t add on any additional fees for that. We don’t add on for the service of having a care coordinator helped the family walk through the process or anything. So we offer one flat fee at this time. Unfortunately we’re not accepting insurance, however, we do provide families with really extra and really clear guide um that walks them through how to try to obtain out of network coverage. We provide a super bill that you know, you know, provides them with the cpt codes that they might need and can take it to their insurance and see if they can get some out of network coverage. And a lot of cases our families have been at least been able to get some part of their evaluation costs compensated.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:06:43): That’s great. I’d love to hear that because it’s I mean it’s so needed, especially for you know, the population that might not even have insurance that would cover it or even with insurance that they don’t cover it all. So I know you went into services, do you require like if somebody comes to you for an evaluation, do you require them to get services through the program?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:07:04): No, not at all. Um So they can be used you know, our services can be kind of used separately depending on what a family’s needs are or I mean what we really do is we see a lot of benefit between kind of keeping a student within our system um to obtain services after an evaluation. So if a family just wants to come to us and get answers about their child’s learning or maybe a, you know, a diagnostic conclusion for their child, um they can just get evaluated through us and we’ll still make recommendations um regardless of what, you know, their their long term plan is the one thing that makes our reports really unique is that there are sections within the report that really explains to the family what it exactly that we’re evaluating. What does this look like for your child? How does it impact them in school? How does it impact them at home? And then in in terms of our recommendations and our accommodation section, we really detail out exactly what we’re recommending in the classroom setting in a testing setting and the types of interventions that may be beneficial to the child. Um We offer a lot of those services so it’s really wonderful when parents can take advantage of the opportunity to then carry on with parallel and maybe obtain executive function coaching. Um because then our providers actually within our network have the ability to create a team approach around this student and really have access to each other to build an appropriate learning plan and um you know, really work through the child with utilizing the best strategies that would work, you know, best for them. Um They don’t have to though if they if we have families that come directly to us and just want the executive function coaching because they know it’s something that their child needs or they’re wondering if it’s a benefit to them. They can you know they can absolutely uh you know still receive that same service.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:9:00): That is so awesome. And so I know you’re in New York and I’m in Maryland, D. C. Area. Does it matter? Like are you limited by where your um psychologists are licensed on who you can service and evaluate?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:9:15): That’s a really great question. So because we do use clinical psychologists um we certainly can only serve families within the states that we have licensed provider’s license in. Um I would say at this point we really are spending most of the US which is really exciting. Um and we also have a variety of psychologists that have something called a side packed license which essentially is a type of clinical license that allows them um to serve. I think it’s about don’t quote me on this maybe 28 or 29 different states that are side. Um So we do have expanded licensure across the U. S. But yes that is a requirement for the evaluation piece um when it comes to executive function coaching or our skills based tutoring um types of services, there’s no requirement there because it’s not a clinical service
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:10:11): and it sounds like from your mission and what you’re talking about is if if a client were to call you and need an evaluation and not currently covered. You would find a way to get it covered right, Like get a provider
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:10:24): as much as we possibly could. Absolutely. Um and like I said, we really try to provide a lot of guidance around that. And in some cases, you know, there’s there’s insurance isn’t able to cover it, they may get denied. Um and in a lot of cases they have to pay, I mean they have to pay out of pocket. Um and that’s usually something that happens afterwards. We do offer payment plans though to really help families who are in need and maybe, you know, resources maybe not have the full resources to go about it all at once.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:10:56): That’s great. So I know here um in a lot of the school systems that I’ve worked with when we bring in private evaluations, sometimes the school will say, well you didn’t get any input from the school. Are you able to do that to get like, I know the Conners or the BASC checklists. Do you send that to school?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:11:15): Yeah, I would say typically most of our testing batteries include a teacher report, um, maybe even a few days depending on what exactly that we’re evaluating the student on. Um and we very much so we’ll ask family’s permission to be able to utilize teachers that are directly working with their child to provide feedback for our evaluations.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:11:38): So it’s full comprehensive and you’ve got everything in there that I would need to help a family get in and get an IEP. Services.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:11:44): Yeah, I mean we really try to look at the whole profile of the kid um You know, as an educator, it’s so important um to really understand different parts of a child’s learning profile because you know, yeah, maybe their cognitive and academic functioning um uh clinically and maybe even on paper looks okay um or is as expected compared to their age group. Um But we also assess for the attention piece and the executive function piece and even their social emotional well being because those pieces can really impact a child’s learning. I mean they can really be um the reason for the lack of performance that a teacher or a parent is noticing. Um and until we really understand what the root cause of what a child struggling with. Um You know, everyone’s gonna be kind of guessing as to like how we can help this child rather than really knowing um what is important to tackle first.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:12:44): That is so awesome. And I know you said you do a flat fee, so if you get in like um if the care manager talks with the family and determines okay, these are the evaluations. If something happens in the evaluations that it looks like you need to dig deeper, are you able to do that?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:12:59): Absolutely. So essentially when families come to us, they really always start with a meeting with a member of our care specialist team um they’re just incredibly knowledgeable. They’ll really help talk with the family and ensure that you know where you know, they’re kind of going about the services that um they’re looking to acquire um from the when a family is ready to get started, a care coordinator will get them set up with you know obtaining their paperwork and getting them um all their forms completed. And then their first session is actually with a clinical psychologist so that we call that um our clinical interview, the family will attend depending on the child’s age they’ll attend for part of it. Um And that’s when they’re really going to kind of dig in deep with the developmental history and be able to discuss what some of the presenting concerns are. And then once the clinical psychologist develops the assessment plan from, you know, all the documents they review in that conversation. Um the testing begins and there’s really, really close look from the psychologist and the Psychometrist together to see what’s happening, what the data is telling us in live time. If we need to dig deeper, we go ahead and we schedule that. We do not charge extra for that. It is our goal to obtain as much data as possible to be able to give families the answers that they’re looking for. So, you know, it’s really kind of depends. We’re also very flexible in terms of the actual testing sessions themselves. Some students, in terms of their pacing need shorter sessions or they need more frequent sessions that are a little bit more to their pace. We’re very flexible with that and it does not impact the cost.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:14:39): That is great. So you use the term that I haven’t heard often. Psychometrist
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:14:46): Yes a Psychometrist is essentially a test technician, somebody who’s incredibly um experienced with diagnostic testing and administering them diagnostically and virtually because all of our services are virtual they’re very in tune to ensuring validity within the testing process. Um Because of course you know it’s just a different type of environment than being in person. Um You know we have to send a test kit to the family that includes testing booklets And there’s a lot that we need to do to ensure security and validity within you know the test records that we complete and things like that.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:15:25): Great. But it’s all overseen by the psychologist that….
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:15:29): Absolutely. And most of our psychometrists you know they have even more experience with the testing actually. Um because they’re in you know typically they’re in doctoral programs or they’re looking to obtain. And a lot of them are also school psychologists who potentially do testing regularly as well.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:15:49): Oh that’s great. So they’re not…. So what’s the certification difference like why are they not considered a psychologist if they’re doing testing in schools and have their doctorate.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:15:59): That’s a great question. For private evaluations when you use a clinical psychologist a clinical psychologist can determine a D. S. M. Diagnosis where a school psychologist only works within the school district and are more familiar with like internal diagnostic codes for schools. And in some school systems they don’t even offer a diagnosis. It’s more about qualifying or disqualifying a child for services. Um So they’re not really um trained in really looking at you know holistically um In general I don’t want to speak for all school psychologists but in general they don’t have the licensor to be able to offer a D. S. M. diagnosis.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:16:39): And I hear that often the schools like we don’t diagnose we can’t say they have A. D. H. D. We can’t say they’re on the spectrum. Um
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:16:46): Sometimes that piece is so important for a family to understand right? Because our evaluations kind of go beyond just looking at a child’s academic profile and performance within the school district. You know some are really looking for answers about like who their child is and like really kind of um wanting to get a sense of um if there’s a diagnosis like how do I really support my child here um and sort of help advocate for them
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:17:14): and that’s you know I know with schools when parents feel that something’s not working a lot of times schools were like well what disability code do you want us to look at and parents don’t know. I mean like I don’t know it’s just something’s not working. My child is struggling and doesn’t seem like it should do. Parents need to know anything other than my child is struggling to come see you.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:17:39): Not at all. I mean that’s really what are the role of our clinical psychologists? They do an incredible job and, and um I’m not just saying that because I work for parallel, this is a provider network that goes beyond what I’ve actually experienced as an educator. Our mission has also been to be educators in this space. So when a family comes to us and they, you know, go through the testing process after the testing occurs, they have a feedback session with the clinical psychologist again so that they’re sitting down and the psychologist is walking them through the entire report and then walking them through what a potential learning plan roadmap could look like and explaining to them. This is what this means for your child. This is why this might look this way at home, that there’s a whole opportunity for them to educate the parent on what they need to know or what they want to know in terms of supporting their child and what’s potentially going on. Um and I think the thing that’s wonderful too is that we allow additional access as much as needed. Some parents and often parents will ask for additional follow up sessions because they implement some of the strategies and they’re seeing progress and they kind of want to know, okay, well, you know, this is looking like it’s going in the right direction. What can I do next? Or should I stay in my, you know, should we stay with this plan and how much longer and they need more guidance. Can’t just be. Here’s a document that tells you a bunch of information about your kid and now you’re kind of on your own to figure out what to do with it. We offer that extended support throughout. And again, if families come to us with, you know, obtaining some of the services after. So if they’re working with a learning specialist, that learning specialist has access to the documentation that learning specialist has, you know, access to the family to ensure that they’re providing, you know, adequate feedback in terms of the child’s progress. Um and we have a network of providers that collaborate with each other. So they’re sharing best practices and best strategies um all the time to ensure that they’re really meeting the needs of their students.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:19:41): So wonderful. And I know you said something about documents. I know, I mean, you know, special education documents are stacks and stacks and stacks. I’m trying to bring my law firm paperless and I’m actually somewhat surprisingly, I swore up and down. We could never be paperless because the amount of paperwork that you have in special ed, but I’ve managed to do it. Covid kind of forced us. What if a parent just doesn’t have all the education documents and all of the stuff that they might need is that a problem?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:20:13): Um I mean no not really whatever they can provide to us that’s helpful in terms of evaluating their child and telling us information about what has been sort of uh documented about them in the past is always helpful but not at all required. Um I think you know one thing that we tend to forget too is that while that information can be really helpful the goal of actually you know completing a full evaluation is to be objective as possible. Um Our clinical psychologists you know that’s their goal is to really look at data, look at you know um what is being shared, what is being documented by the family. And sometimes there’s even like a student report where the child is sharing their own reflection of themselves within the process. Um To maintain that objectivity is is really a goal and really allows us to ensure that our results are valid. So you know kind of going back to your point if a if a parent has had an I. P. In the past or um has gone through a private evaluation in the past and they choose not to even share that. That does not impact our ability to still tell them what their child’s you know abilities are and their function their current level of cognitive functioning is at this point in time.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:21:31): That’s great. Except for the one thing is if the, what is it if the evaluation is given within 12 months of each other, I think it’s a Woodcock Johnson and the WISC.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:21:40): Oh yes. Well in that. Yeah. Well, yes, of course. I mean if they don’t share that with us, kind of hard to determine what that testing battery would look like if they did provide to us, um, you know, an evaluation that was within that time frame that you mentioned. Um We do have an extensive assessment library where we could do the alternative assessment to ensure that, you know, we’re, you know, following best practices in that way
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:22:04): and if the parents don’t know if they say, well, the school assess, but I don’t know what assessments they did. Can you help the parents to get the copies of those reports and assessments?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:22:13): Absolutely. And typically it takes, you know, nothing more than, you know, helping the family feel empowered to go back to the school and understanding their rights that they’re entitled to that documentation. Um, and really just requesting that documentation and if they needed additional support, you know, our team is, you know, uh, you know, more than welcome and more than happy um to go ahead and try to facilitate those conversations. Um, thankfully, you know, we really haven’t experienced much of those types of situations because, once families really feel empowered. They know what to ask for when they go back to their child’s school. Um, and you know, as long as it’s okay with the family and they feel comfortable sharing that with us. Um, it’s never a requirement. Um, but if they feel comfortable sharing that with us, you know, of course it’s all the better allows us to direct, you know, what we do next.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:23:03): That is so awesome. And yeah, I love empowering families. That’s like my whole mission statement and why I do these shows and why I do my YouTube channel with all my videos is that parents, you know, their, their best advocate for their Children …
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:23:17): and they don’t know what their rights are and the school is not gonna advertise it right.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:23:21): Exactly, Exactly.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:23:24): They really do hold a lot of power, you know, in terms of advocating for their child and sometimes it takes some confidence and understanding of how the system works, which we’re happy to sort of advise and and facilitate with them. Um, and you know, uh, whatever we can do essentially to help a family feel confident in navigating what those next steps are, even if it’s going through the process, totally exclusive of including their child’s school and, you know, just wanting to do this, you know, privately, which is, it’s up to them. This is a document that the parent, you know, may choose never to show to a school and this is something that they just want for themselves. Um, that’s their choice where the difference is, is that if they get evaluated through a school district, um again, the goal there is to just qualify that child for services or disqualify them and it follows them in terms of their record and and that’s just something that a parent has to choose and decide, but you know, more often than not, they just don’t know that going into this these uh situation, so we just try to really educate um what they can expect and what they’re entitled to as much as we can
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:24:31): That is so awesome and wonderful. I know I had another question and I just disappeared. Um I’m so excited. I like, I have to tell you when I met Blakely, I was so excited to hear about this because I think we have similar backgrounds. I’m a former teacher also before law school.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:24:51): Yeah, and totally like that we, that it’s about helping the families getting the Children um what they, what they need and deserve.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:25:01): And one thing too that I’ll really highlight and I think this is actually one of the pieces that kind of really played into my journey with parallel is the aspect that, you know, we’re able to have students be evaluated in the comfort of their home. Um that is something that is like completely understated in my opinion because I actually came across parallel uh kind of coincidentally they reached out to me and shared a little bit about their services, but I had actually had a student at the time who had such ability, dating anxiety, that even coming to school every single day was a challenge. Um, and his family had been trying, we had had that discussion of him um, being evaluated because we really just needed to know more about his learning profile. We were really kind of exhausting our resources at the school. Um, and this had started in, you know, 3rd and 4th grade, this was 1/6 grader now at this, at the time period I’m just um referring to and when I heard that these were virtual services and kind of ran it by the family, they were like, I actually think that we can do this. Um, and you know, the student agreed and we did it actually, I was able to facilitate it in my classroom, which was one of the safe spaces for him at the school and within, you know, I would say like a month and a half, we had the documentation that we had spent three or four years trying to obtain and it was just groundbreaking to me and really what it was was that he did not feel comfortable even at school sometimes. Um, let alone would they be able to get their child to a clinic, um, knowing that his performance is going to be tested with someone who feels totally unfamiliar to him no matter how warm they are or what not. So I think there’s something also to say that this is a really good fit for some kiddos who struggle with that performance anxiety or where families might be really nervous about the impact of getting their child evaluated by bringing them to a clinician’s office. Um this kind of eliminates that that stress a little bit, not fully, you know, maybe a little bit nervous, but I will say I’ve never heard in my entire career, a parent tell me that their kid enjoyed their testing sessions and that’s back that we’ve been getting recently and I have to say like there’s nothing that feels better than that when you have parents say, oh my child was upset that they’re testing was over and I was like, okay, here’s something new all the time and that’s something that like I would love to just pin on a wall and just, you know, um really consider it a major accomplishment for us
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:27:47): and I’m assuming you do, I think you said that you do a family meeting before the testing starts so that the child feels comfortable with you and sees the interaction or whoever the tester would be.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:27:58): Um well the clinical interview is really with the, with the clinical psychologist, so the point for that, the child’s attendance there is for the clinical psychologist to be able to ask them questions if they feel needed and again it really kind of depends on their age, Children under the age of 12 don’t typically join because it’ll allows for the parents to be a little bit more authentic in in sharing the information without compromising um you know, the child’s self esteem and anything, you know, with that sort. when it comes to the Psychometrist,, so again the Psychometrist is the one who’s going to be doing the actual testing um but they’re incredible at building rapport with these students right away. And one of the things they’ve shared with me that has been helpful to them is that, you know, a lot of times the kids are set up in their room, they can see things on the wall, it allows them a little bit of an ability to really connect with them right away by kind of, you know, pointing things out, noticing what their interests are um and really ensuring that they feel comfortable through the testing process. They really do losing job connecting with our Children and our students first. That’s important to them from the very beginning and again, even when it comes to the testing piece, if they notice that a child’s really struggling with the time frame of our testing, which is typically about two hours, we don’t schedule any longer than that for testing session our Psychometrist will say, you know, I think we need to adjust this for these kiddos, they don’t want them to be, you know, stress, they don’t want them to be struggling through the process, they’re really looking out for them and ensuring that um we’re getting valid results without compromising the child’s experience
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:29:38): that is so wonderful and I know I’m watching the clock because I know you have other commitments and I don’t want to take too much of your time. Um Is there any like in wrapping up, is there anything else you want to share with our audience um about you guys or how they can contact you?
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:29:54): Yeah, so they can reach out, you know, if you go to our website, they’re easily able to navigate and set up a consultation with one of our care specialist. I always recommend starting there um because they’re really helpful in um helping navigate what the next steps are and really explaining the process a little bit further. Um Of course anybody can feel free to reach out to me again with my background, I’m happy to also um kind of give some insight as to what choices, you know, families have within our program. Um I guess another thing that I would love to share too that I think is so important is the efficiency piece. So in a lot of cases when um you know, families go through an evaluation, whether it’s through a school district or privately they’re looking at, you know, anywhere from 4 to 6 months before even getting those results and that’s pre covid. So I imagine right now that that wait time is a lot longer. Um and sometimes time is everything for a child. So our turnaround times, you know, a family depending on their scheduling, we can um, you know, basically facilitate the entire process and anywhere between 4-6 weeks
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:31:01): getting on the calendar to report
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:31:04): to report.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:31:06): That’s huge because I know for us private psychologists are scheduling 2-3 months, out minimum.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:31:11): minimum. Exactly, minimum. And then the report, you know, delivery and you know, scheduling, that feedback session can also take a lot of time. Um, and that really, and you know, that that can really impact the child’s like entire school year. I mean that’s like an entire—
Full year um that that child could be missing out on accommodations or, you know, any type of intervention services that could have supported them throughout the way. So, um, I’ll say that that’s something that we’re in proud of. And again, a benefit of utilizing the Parallel programming for that.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:31:46): Yeah, definitely. That I love to hear that because that’s that’s so important because I have a long list of clients that are trying to get in for evaluations.
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:31:54): Exactly, Exactly. And then we really pride ourselves in ensuring that families get these answers as quickly as they can.
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:32:02): And I’m assuming consultations are free
MAGGIE STAUB ( 00:32:04): consultations are free, absolutely
FRANCES SHEFTER ( 00:32:06): perfect. Okay, awesome. Thank you Maggie so much for being on our show. Um I loved learning more about you guys and to our listeners. Thank you for listening. All of our information to reach out to me or to Maggie and Parallel Learning will be in the show notes below and thank you so much for listening. See you soon.
VOICEOVER ( 00:32:27): You’ve been listening to StressFree IEP™ 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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