10/05/2026
Navigating entrance into special education at any age is rough and requires a steep learning curve but it’s incredibly more steep, jarring, overwhelming, and frustrating when you are the parents of a brand new 9th grader who is entering public school for the first time after spending years in schools geared for special needs like learning challenges.
Even more so if none of your other children needed special education so every inch of the process is foreign and full of acronyms, long timelines, 50+ pages of clinically written full of numbers and jargon reports to read and digest. Not to mention that if your child is not admitted into special education before the school year starts they could spend time in the wrong classes with the wrong levels of support while waiting for the process to grind forward.
This was recently experienced by one of the United Through Hope families. Luckily Dr. Harrier is an advocate and also worked in the schools and could help the family navigate hours long ARDS, help them prep, and express what their child needed. Thank you to the school district that received this 9th grader for being willing to hear what their needs and concerns were, slow down in the meetings to meet the parents where they were, listen to the child talk about himself, and bring in staff with open minds to help create unique programming for this amazing kid.
