Tag: mental illness

When a student struggles to maintain well-being, achievement at school can be a challenge. This training provides key information for families to seek school-based services for behavioral health needs. Let’s start with two advocacy statements that this information might empower you to say in a meeting with the school.

Here s one statement to consider: I want to make sure my student s rights are upheld.

When it severely impacts a student s life and learning, a behavioral health condition may be determined to be a disability. Don t let stigma or bias get in the way. Using the term disability can be critical when you want more help for someone you care about.

Students with disabilities have rights within the special education system as well as federally protected civil rights. Any student has the right to a free public education, and those basic educational rights protect students with disabilities too, regardless of the nature or severity of a disability condition. In this training, we’re going to talk about student rights and how to use this information in your advocacy. Knowing about these rights can be the secret sauce for helping your student gets their needs met.

Here’s a second advocacy phrase to consider: I’m providing information and resources to help the school follow the law and educational best practices.  Keep in mind that best practice is to support students in their behavior as a priority over punishment.

PAVE staff cannot provide advocacy or advice, but we share information to empower family members and young people who do have legal advocacy rights. Our articles and training materials include resources from state and federal agencies. You can learn this information and keep in handy when you aren’t sure whether the school is following the law or educational best practices. Please be patient with yourself while you are learning this information. It can feel like a lot. As you learn a little bit at a time, you can see how your increasing knowledge shifts options and outcomes for your family.

Understanding student and disability rights is a place for us to begin. Education Rights are like a pyramid. Children with disabilities that make them eligible for an IEP at school have all these protections. They’re at the top. Civil Rights for people with any significant disability are in the middle. All children have educational rights that are protected at the base of the pyramid. All these rights are worth considering when a child struggles to maintain expected behavior at school. Let’s break it down a little more.

Special Education Rights are protected at the top of the pyramid by a federal law called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act IDEA for short. The IDEA requires schools to provide an Individualized Education Program an IEP to any student with a disability condition that makes them eligible through an evaluation process. We’ll talk more about eligibility in a few moments. An IEP is built to support a student s access to education. An IEP is not the student s curriculum. Every IEP is required to support progress toward grade-level learning in ways that set an appropriately high standard in light of the student s life circumstances. IEP goals and services support the whole child and may include support for social, emotional, and behavioral skill-building not just academics.

Civil Rights are protected in the center of the pyramid. Section 504 is part of a federal law called the Rehabilitation Act, which was passed by the US Congress in 1973. This law provides disability protections for people accessing public services and spaces throughout their lives. When we talk about school-age children protected by this law, we might be talking about IEP services, or we might be talking about a 504 Plan to support them with accommodations and other support at school. A 504 Plan can travel with a person into higher education or work.

The other Civil Rights law on our pyramid is the Americans with Disabilities Act the ADA. The ADA protects individuals from disability discrimination by requiring accommodations that support equity. A person in a wheelchair, for example, has the civil right to access their job, a library, or another public building with accessible features. Accommodating behavioral health disabilities can seem more complicated, but the right to an equitable opportunity is protected for all disability conditions.

General Education Rights are protected at the bottom of our pyramid. All students have the right to a free public education that is built to help them learn and make progress toward their life plans and goals. That federal law is called ESSA, which is short for Every Student Succeeds Act. Access to education is a basic right of all children in the United States, and ESSA provides specific protections for students whose lives begin from a place of disadvantage due to poverty, language access, racism, or something else. If a student has unmet behavioral health needs and is therefore not going to school all day, every day, there may be considerations related to ESSA. Later in this presentation, we’ll talk more about shortened school days and disciplinary red flags if you have questions about whether a student s rights are being upheld.

Here’s another look at the student rights pyramid all put together. Remember that students at the top have all the protections all the way down. Any person with a disability condition that significantly impacts their life has the civil rights protections in the middle. All children are protected at the bottom. Let’s pause here so you might think about how to use this pyramid of rights in a situation you might be managing.

Here are a few questions that might help you think about how to use this information:

  Is your student s IEP built to help them access a curriculum that meets or approaches grade-level content?

  Are your child s accommodations helping them experience all that school has to offer?

  Is your student getting the benefit of a full school experience, with learning in academic, social-emotional, and behavioral skills?

You may want to pause the video and get a piece of paper to make a note for yourself about a question you have or an action you wish to take. You might think about someone at the school who might help you consider your concern or question. If you need to request a meeting with a person or your IEP or Section 504 team, make a note to remind yourself to schedule that appointment.

Let’s go deeper into some special education topics that might be important to know if a child s behavior is significantly impacting how they show up for school.

Here are four concepts that have to do with Special Education Rights.

  First is Child Find Mandate. Child Find is part of federal special education law, the IDEA. Child Find protects a student s right to be evaluated to see if they are eligible for an IEP. Child Find makes it the school s responsibility to evaluate a student if disability may be a factor in school struggles. Challenges may be academic, social, behavioral, or something else. If the school is consistently sending a child home for behavior that may be disability related, for example, they are responsible to evaluate that child and figure out what’s going on and what additional help may be needed.

  Our second concept is Referral: Anyone can refer a student to be evaluated for special education. Schools are responsible to notice children who are struggling and begin a referral process. Families and other community members can also make referrals. You don’t have to know if you are referring a child for a 504 Plan or an IEP to request an educational evaluation. Both require the school to assess the student and use data to make decisions about eligibility and services.

  Third is Eligibility. Federal special education eligibility categories are broad and include disabilities related to behavioral health. We’ll look at those options in a few minutes.

  The fourth concept listed here is Related Services. When we’re talking about children with behavioral health needs, it’s important to note that related services provided by the school may include psychological services, counseling, behavioral services, school social work services, parent training, and more.

We’re going to talk about each of these concepts with more information.

Here’s more about Child Find. The school district has an affirmative duty that means they are responsible to do this whether families ask for help or not. That duty is to seek out to look for and evaluate students who might be struggling in school because of a disability. Federal law, the IDEA, states that a disability might be known or suspected. That means the child doesn’t have to have a diagnosis from a doctor for the school to pay attention and get more information about what’s going on and what the student might need in terms of support.

If the student is struggling to learn, show up for school, stay in class without being disciplined, or participate fully in their educational opportunities, then that s called  educational impact.  If that educational impact could be disability related, then the school is responsible under Child Find to figure out what’s going on and what services or accommodations the student may need.

Students with behavioral health needs are not always identified as needing special educational services when they start school. Sometimes concerns crop up for older students because they are struggling to maintain expected behavior. They may be getting referred or suspended, or so anxious about school that they refuse to go. It’s important to figure out how behaviors might be an expression of an unmet need. If a child is too anxious to go to school, that demonstrates impact and a need for support and is not a reason to avoid evaluation, for example.

Child Find protects students of all ages in their right to be evaluated. The evaluation itself determines whether the student is eligible for an IEP, a Section 504 Plan, or other school supports that might not be special education.

Anyone with knowledge of a student can refer them for a special education evaluation.

The state educational agency, which in Washington is the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction OSPI for short provides a form schools and families can use for referrals. A picture from page 2 of that form is on this slide.

[Click 2 times] The expanded box lists some of the physical or behavioral concerns that might be included. Attention, focus, mood swings, social challenges, and trouble with motivation are examples.

State law in Washington requires evaluation requests to be in writing. If a family member asks the school to evaluate their child, the school must provide a form to put the request into writing. The family can use whatever format they choose to document their request, and they also have the option to ask the school to help them write down their request. If the family needs a different format for language access, the school must accommodate that need.

If a student you support needs to be evaluated, take a moment to make a note. Consider whether you know who to contact at your school district. If you aren’t sure, you can go to the district website or call a general number to get the name and contact for someone from the special education services staff. Evaluation requests should go to someone at the district and an administrator at your school, such as a principal. Remember that your request must be in writing. You might mention Child Find to show that you understand your student has a right to be evaluated.

In Washington State, schools have 25 school days to respond to a special education referral. If the school schedules a meeting to discuss whether to evaluate, parents must be invited. If the school district refuses to do an evaluation, they must provide that decision in writing. Parents have the right to appeal. The school must provide a copy of the Procedural Safeguards, which describes complaint options and family and student rights. Make a note for yourself right now if you need to ask for a copy of your Procedural Safeguards.

When they agree to evaluate, the school has 35 school days to get it done. An eligible student is supposed to have an IEP in place within 30 calendar days after they are found eligible. Parents must sign consent for the evaluation and for services begin.

Note that this evaluation process can begin any time of year. A referral can be made near the end of the school year or before a holiday break, and all the school days count toward the deadlines that resume when school reopens.

Schools evaluate students to ask and answer these three questions:

• Does the student have a disability?
• Does the disability adversely impact education?
• Does the student need Specially Designed Instruction which is often shortened to SDI? SDI is a unique way of teaching to meet a student s individualized needs.

If all three answers are Yes, the student gets an IEP.

If the first two are Yes and the third answer is a No, the student might get services through a Section 504 Plan. More about that later, but it’s important to know that students eligible under Section 504 need to be formally evaluated to see what’s going on and what they need.

Evaluations can collect data in many areas of development and learning, including areas related to social-emotional learning and behavior. 

A student can get an IEP by meeting criteria in any of the 13 categories listed on this slide. On the left side of the slide are categories that have the most to do with behavioral health. Keep in mind that these categories are used to identify children who need more support. They aren’t meant to label or stigmatize students and should never be used to define a student or their IEP. For example, there’s no such thing as a behavior IEP or an ED kid.

Emotional Disturbance is the name of a federal category that Washington State calls Emotional Behavioral Disability. This category is sometimes the best fit for serious emotional dysregulation or mental illness. Other Health Impairment or OHI might be the category chosen to qualify a student with anxiety or depression, or another diagnosis such as ADHD or Tourette s Syndrome. Traumatic Brain Injury and Autism are eligibility categories for students with those specific conditions.

It’s important to know that once a student is identified as eligible for services, the IEP serves the whole student. The IEP team determines what is needed and how to provide it. A new evaluation for eligibility is not necessary for every additional service. For example, if a student eligible under EBD also needs reading support, they can get that help without being reevaluated to determine eligibility in reading.

An evaluation might determine that a student needs a service from someone other than a teacher. Schools call services that lie outside the scope of traditional teaching related services.  Another term is ancillary services.  Related services help children with disabilities benefit from their special education by providing extra help and support.

This slide lists related service options that are included in federal and state laws. Many of these aren’t provided frequently in Washington schools. By becoming aware of possibilities, family advocates can use this information to ask for what they believe their student needs. A student s IEP or 504 Plan can include any of these or more than one if the school and family team decide they are educationally necessary.

Notice that psychological services, counseling, and support from a social worker are included. Also included is parent training, which might mean the school teaches parents a strategy for behavioral management or emotional regulation, for example. A related service be included in the evaluation process. If school staff cannot properly understand a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia or selective mutism, for example, an outside provider can do an assessment to inform the process and make recommendations.

PAVE provides an article with more information: Type Related Services into the search bar at wapave.org for more information

This slide has a lot of words on it, but I share it to show where many of the terms from the previous slide come from. This is wording from the Washington Administrative Code the WAC that lists related services that might be included in a student s IEP. In purple are ones from the previous slide. Psychological services, mental health counseling, and social work services are possibilities that not all schools suggest. Families can remember that school-based services are provided based on student needs, not available resources. An IEP team has the authority to custom-build a services program. Creative problem-solving might be necessary.

You can find a link to look up this WAC on the page where you found this video on PAVE s website.

Washington State’s Health Care Authority manages a program to reimburse schools for services provided to students who are eligible for Apple Health when those services are delivered as part of their IEP.

HCA s website page includes a link to this booklet published in 2022 to describe options for School-Based Health Services (SBHS). Families might ask their school if they are participating in this optional program.

In August 2022, OSPI issued guidance to remind schools and families that all IEP services, including related services, start when school starts unless the student needs something different to happen. OSPI s tip sheet includes this statement: A school district policy mandating that services for all students eligible for special education will begin at a specific time after the beginning of the school year (such as the third week of the school year) would not be consistent with the IDEA and its implementing regulations.  Remember that IDEA is the federal law that protects the rights of students with IEPs. A link to this tip sheet is provided on PAVE s website where you clicked to watch this video.

Let’s take a step back to talk about an important, odd word: FAPE. FAPE stands for Free Appropriate Public Education. You might be thinking, what’s FAPE, and why should I care?

Well, here’s a question PAVE hears a lot from parents: What does the school have to provide?

FAPE is the answer to that question! The school has to provide FAPE a Free Appropriate Public Education to students with qualifying disabilities. FAPE is the right of students with IEPs and those with Section 504 Plans, although FAPE rights are slightly different within these two options.

This is a great word to add to your advocacy vocabulary. The first part of this training included this advocacy statement: I want to make sure my student s rights are upheld. A student s rights are upheld when they get FAPE. If you don’t think your student is getting FAPE, there’s work to do.

So what does it mean to get FAPE?

The Supreme Court wrestled with that question and in 2017 issued a ruling with a bit of an answer: FAPE is provided when a student s special education program is reasonably calculated to enable a child to make progress appropriate in light of the child s circumstances.

Family advocates can talk about FAPE by asking questions about a student s progress on learning goals including those related to behavioral skills. If there isn’t solid progress, the student may not be getting FAPE.

Let’s take another look at our Student Rights Pyramid. Is there something you want to write down? How about the word FAPE? Do you have questions related to FAPE for your IEP team? Pause the video if you want to make a note.

Now we’re going to go a little deeper into the middle part of the student rights pyramid, where Civil Rights are listed.

A mental health condition, substance use disorder, or something else might impact a student s behavior in ways that significantly impact the way they show up for school. They may have civil rights protections to support their right to receive school-based services and accommodations.

The next few slides have more information about Section 504. That’s the one from the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Section 504 is relevant in any place or program that gets tax money even just a drop.

A person of any age is eligible for protection under Section 504 if they have a disability that impacts a major life activity. Government leaders who wrote the law didn’t put limits on what that might mean. For example, Long COVID is now recognized as a disability condition with life impacts that make a person eligible for accommodations and support.

Section 504 Plans in school are written to support students when any aspect of their school experience is affected by disability. Their educational impact and needs are determined through an evaluation process, just like for an IEP. Social-Emotional Learning and Behavior are part of the evaluation process and can highlight behavioral health needs that make a student eligible for 504 protections and services.

The two questions asked through evaluation are the same as the first two questions for an IEP evaluation: Is there a disability, and is it causing significant impact?

[click] Here is a short list of life activities that might be impacted by disability: learning, reading, breathing, talking, eating, walking, toileting, socializing, thinking, attention, participation in school or another activity.

This list is endless. If someone’s life is impacted by disability, they have the right to accommodations and support, so their opportunities are not limited by disability. That’s the essence of equity when specific help makes it possible to do something that non-disabled people do without that help.

A person eligible for Section 504 Protections is accommodated to access public places, services, and opportunities.

They also can be supported with Modifications, which change the expectation. A student with anxiety around writing, for example, might show their learning with a video instead. That’s a modified assignment.

At its core, Section 504 is an anti-discrimination law. Supports should be free from stigma for example, it’s not okay to lump students with similar diagnoses into a program or space labeled by their condition. Schools are required to provide individualized services.

Remember that Section 504 protects all people with identified disability conditions, including students with 504 Plans and IEPs.

Here are a few sample accommodations and modifications that might support a student with a mental health need. Accommodations related to behavioral health may support a student s ability to take breaks, meet with preferred staff, or avoid getting called out in class. The accommodation also might reference a behavior plan that has more detail about how the student is being supported.

Again, a modification is a change in expectation. Showing understanding of concepts through an alternative medium, such as visuals or art, might be a helpful modification for some students. Others may need reduced assignments to manage their anxiety while keeping up with schoolwork.

Keep in mind that a student s plan is individualized to meet their specific, unique needs. Cutting and pasting supports from a standardized list is not best practice. The start of this video included this advocacy statement: I’m providing information and resources to help the school follow the law and educational best practices. 

Best practice is to use evaluation tools and information from school staff and family to identify a student’s strengths and needs and build a unique set of supports based on thoughtfully gathered information.

Anti-bullying measures are written explicitly into Section 504. Schools are required to provide restoration, counseling, or whatever a student with a disability needs to recover from a bullying incident that happened during a school-sponsored activity. Families and students can file complaints with their school district related to Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying. Those are called HIB complaints. Every district must provide a form for filing a HIB complaint.

In some situations, a student with a behavioral health related disability is identified because they’ve gotten into trouble. Schools are required to teach expected behavior and limit the use of punitive discipline to uphold the civil rights of their students.

In July 2022, The US Department of Education s Office for Civil Rights issued a guidance document called Supporting Students with Disabilities and Avoiding the Discriminatory Use of Student Discipline under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This booklet is downloadable from the Office for Civil Rights. PAVE provides a link on the page where you clicked to watch this video.

Keep in mind that Section 504 protects:

* Students with Section 504 Plans

* And Students with IEPs

* The law also protects students with known or suspected disability conditions. Those students might be known because of their involvement with student discipline or because they are refusing to go to school.

According to the OCR guidance referenced on the previous slide, frequent disciplinary actions without considering an evaluation to determine eligibility for services might be a violation of student civil rights, including for students who haven’t yet been identified as eligible for services related to their behavioral health needs.

Here are other red flags called out in the OCR guidance. In other words, these might be reasons to question whether the student s civil rights are being upheld:

If the school automatically shortens a student s school day

If the school consistently removes the student from school or their regular classroom without calling it a suspension or filing paperwork. Those are called off book or informal suspensions

If the student experiences isolation/seclusion/or restraint and there is no collaborative meeting process to consider a change to the student s support.

  If a student with disabilities misses 10 or more school days due to behavior and there is no meeting to make changes in services. A Manifestation Determination meeting is required when a student is removed from their regular placement for 10 or more days because of behavior.

  If a student is regularly disciplined and there is no formal evaluation process to figure out what the student might be trying to communicate through their behavior

  If a student is suspended or secluded and the school doesn’t t provide appropriate paperwork to the family

  If the family requests an evaluation or additional services and is turned away with an explanation that the school cannot afford to provide that support due to staffing or other resource shortages

PAVE provides more information on these topics and links to federal and state guidance documents in an article called: What Parents Need to Know when Disability Impacts Behavior and Discipline at School

Note that there is movement in Washington State and nationally to eliminate the use of isolation also called seclusion and reduce the use of restraint. Six states have banned seclusion in some form, including Hawaii, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.

Parents can tell their school that they want to be involved. Asking school staff to share what’s going well, what’s not going so well, and what’s really a problem can build collaboration from the start. Here s a tip for families: Tell the school you want to know The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Catching problems before they escalate can stop practices like off books  suspensions and focus the work on building a support plan before punishment is necessary. Remember, you can tell the school that you are helping them follow the law. Your child has the civil right to be supported in non-discriminatory ways at school. That means they get social-emotional and behavioral skill building and support as part of their education.

Here s more information from OCR. Keep in mind that the Office for Civil Rights manages complaint options for anyone who believes a civil right has been violated. Civil Rights complaints can be handled at the district, state, and national level.

A key point OCR makes is that schools are required to evaluate a student or reconsider the services plan if a student consistently misses school because of behavior. OCR guidance clearly states that schools cannot use resource shortages as a reason to deny or delay an evaluation.

On this slide is a quote from OCR. I ll summarize it for you: The agency would not support a district to delay a student s evaluation because they don t have enough trained staff to get it done and are unwilling to hire an outside expert to do the assessment. Also included in this quote is a reminder that doing well academically does not justify a delay. Referrals and exclusionary discipline can be reasons to do an evaluation to find out what’s going on and where help is needed.

Attendance can also become a challenge when a student is struggling to maintain well-being. New rules in Washington State prioritize support over punishment for students who miss school for behavioral health reasons.

Washington s truancy law is called the Becca Bill. This law requires schools to file truancy petitions if a student 17 or younger misses 7 days of school in a month or 15 days a year without a documented excuse.

A truancy petition can trigger actions to get a student more help. Schools are required to follow up with a special education evaluation or a review of services if disability might be a factor.

This slide includes information from Washington’s state law, the Revised Code of Washington. There’s a link on PAVE s website page where you found this video. In short, if a student who is found truant has a Section 504 Plan or an IEP, the school is required to recruit behavioral specialists and bring them into a meeting process to figure out what needs to change to better support the student. If the student isn’t yet identified as having a disability but disability is likely part of what’s going on, then the school is required to evaluate the student at no cost to the family to see what’s happening and where the student may have unmet service needs.

We’ve been talking about truancy, which relates to unexcused absences. Washington State has a new law directing schools to excuse absences for students who are missing school because of needs related to behavioral health. The point is to focus on help and services and remove the punishing elements of truancy. The point is NOT to give schools a pass on stepping up to help.

The state law that excuses absences for mental health reasons came from passage of HB 1834 in 2022. In a document explaining the law, OSPI states that the new law does not change the rights of students to receive education or the responsibilities of school districts to support students with disabilities. A link to this OSPI document is included in the resources in the article that goes with this video.

Here’s the Washington Administrative Code (the WAC) that was rewritten to incorporate the new law that requires schools to excuse absences for mental health reasons. Highlighted in purple are some of the new words. Notice that mental health symptoms can be cause for a student to be excused for missing school. So can appointments and treatment, including treatment related to substance use.

The state has made clear that doctor s notes are not required. School districts can write their own policies about how many excused absences are allowable before certain consequences happen. The point here is to help students and not punish them for attempting to care for their mental well-being. Families can engage with their district school boards about how these state rules are implemented at the local level.

In August 2022, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) provided a webinar to talk about student anxiety and its impacts on attendance. Available on YouTube, the recorded webinar provides information for students, their families, and schools to talk about how to support a student to stay in school or come back after an absence related to anxiety.

Here are a few key takeaways from the webinar. Data show that students furthest from justice have missed the most school since the pandemic began. The training points out that school refusal is separate from truancy and requires very different interventions. Key is always the relationship and communication between family and school.

Pictured on this slide is a snapshot from OSPI s training video. At about 55 minutes, the presentation provides a step-by-step plan for re-integrating a student who has been absent due to school refusal.

Families may be interested in watching this OSPI training and/or sharing it with school staff. The link is included on the page where you clicked to watch this video.

By every state and national measure, the mental health of children and young people got worse because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of that, new resources have been released to help schools help the students impacted the most.

The federal Office for Civil Rights (OCR) during summer 2022 published new documents about COVID and how to help students get caught up. PAVE has an article called Recovery Services: What Families Need to Know as Schools Reopen with more detail about that document and the rights of students.

In short, federal money is available to help schools offer additional special education services to students who have been underserved because of the pandemic. Those additional services have more than one name, and in Washington they might be called Recovery Services or Compensatory Services. Students whose well-being was impacted by loss, isolation, illness, and more are prioritized for additional support.

There is no magic formula for deciding who gets these additional services: Decisions are made by IEP and Section 504 teams that include family participants. The key is to consider how a student s learning and development were affected by the pandemic and what is needed to get them back on track. Federal law requires decisions to be individualized in other words, a school cannot build programs for batches of students without meeting with each family to discuss student-specific progress, regression, and needs. For example, a student who started to struggle during the pandemic and wasn’t evaluated promptly because of the pandemic may experience lasting impacts for a team to consider when making decisions about current services that might include recovery services as a component.

These requirements and funds are available into the future, not just in the immediate time after schools reopened their buildings.

This training is provided by Parent Training and Information (PTI), a program of PAVE. Our non-profit has been helping families in Washington State since 1979. This slide shows a picture of our website home page. Our address is wapave.org.

Students, family members, and professionals can get direct assistance by clicking Get Help, highlighted with the yellow circle. You can also leave a message by phone to request help: 800-572-7368.

We provide language translation options. The teal arrow is pointing the place on our website to choose a language for reading our articles online.

If you need help with the accessibility of any of our resources, please let us know. The final few slides describe a few more resources PAVE offers to help you. On our home page, under the calendar, we provide toolkits. One of them is a Behavioral Health Toolkit, with information about crisis systems, school-based services, medical systems, family support agencies, advocacy opportunities, and more.

Within the behavioral health toolkit is a video about best practices for supporting behavior at school. A Functional Behavioral Assessment is called an FBA. That assessment can gather information for schools and families to develop a positive behavior support plan. The name for that plan is BIP Behavior Intervention Plan. PAVE s video can help families and schools work to make sure the FBA and BIP are unbiased and built to teach a student what they can choose instead of behaviors that are leading to problems.

Research shows that students with conditions impacting their mental health and behavior can struggle the most during the transition into adulthood perhaps related to immense changes in the brain during this developmental stage. PAVE provides a School to Adulthood toolkit to support families navigating this important time of life. Look for it under the calendar on our home page. You can also type Transition Triangle into the search bar to find this graphic and an in-depth explanation of its parts.

These are other agencies that can help: The Three O s are OSPI, the Office for Civil Rights, and the Governor s Office of the Educational Ombuds. The state’s nine Educational Services Districts (referred to as ESDs) provide support to school districts. Some are licensed as behavioral health agencies and provide direct help for students who need counseling or other therapeutic services. If the school doesn’t seem equipped to meet a need, families can ask if there are supports available from the ESD.

This slide is a reminder that PAVE is not a legal service agency and cannot provide advocacy, advice or legal representation. Our goal is to empower families by providing information and access to resources.

Thank you for listening and learning today and for being an advocate for someone with unique needs! Remember that it’s not your job to hold up the entire world and that you need time to care for yourself and recharge your own batteries. Please consider your own well-being as a priority throughout every day. PAVE is here to help at wapave.org.