This Fall, PEAK's Parent Training and Information Project hosted a Back to School webinar series! The webinar series was attended by families and educators from Colorado and beyond, and was tremendously well received by all participants! So, we wanted to be sure you had access to the archives and the resources shared! Click on the links below to access the recording from each webinar as well as additional resources shared during the webinar! Accessibility note: all of the links belowRead more

A Vision for the Future By Guest Author Sue Swenson Here's to a day when a loving mother has options other than 'a group home,' options that provide gentle teaching and positive support, and that those options strengthen her connection to her son even if he lives elsewhere, and they do not make her feel that she is abandoning her beloved son, or abdicating her responsibilities, but rather the options allow her to feel that she is deserving of havingRead more

This article, originally prepared in 1979 and republished in 2000, is still very relevant to the work that families, self-advocates, and systems-change leaders engage in on a daily basis. Enjoy, and please take a moment to learn more about the author at the end of this blog post. Negotiation, By Steven J. Taylor Short-term/Long-term You can use negotiations to work for either short-term or long-term change. Short-term change usually means helping one or a small number of people without radicallyRead more

When designed individually and implemented effectively, the Individualized Education Program (IEP) is an important tool that helps assure a student's success in education. PEAK is excited to share Part Two of this three-part series, Making the IEP Work for You, where we explore key components of the IEP including: Evaluation (Part One), How Families Can Get The Most Out of This Valuable Tool (Part Two), and Progress Monitoring (Part Three)! If you missed Part One on Evaluation, you can accessRead more

We are delighted to share these interesting insights from long-time PEAK colleague Emma Van der Klift. When we first read the title, we wondered exactly how much hostage negotiators and parents/advocates really could have in common. But, in fact many of the skill sets are very much the same! Respect, listening, and relationship building are skills parents need to work successfully with school IEP teams. We hope you enjoy this great read, and that it makes you think of waysRead more

Now that your student's teachers, paraprofessionals, and related service personnel are getting to know the learning styles and strengths of your son or daughter, it's time to move on and think about next year. Families and educators work hard in the spring creating IEPs, but often forget to tell next year's team ways the student was successful. This spring parents should urge their child's team to record what works for their student. Often, this is the last thing families andRead more