Oak Wealth Advisors‘ Educational Special Needs Advisory is out! Below is their list of Top Ten Recommendations for Optimizing Success in School:

1. Establish Relationships. Teachers, social workers, psychiatrists, and administrators will be part of your family’s lives for many years. Do whatever you can to foster positive relationships with them.

2. Do Not Allow Little Problems To Develop Into Big Problems. Staying proactive and communicating regularly can prevent the confrontations that develop when minor issues are allowed to persist without being addressed.

3. Accept Mutual Responsibility. You can hold the schools to high standards but you must be willing to work with your child at home and share updates if you expect goals and milestones to be met on schedule.

4. Agree Upon Communication Type And Frequency. Phone calls are difficult to complete during the day and they are not easily documented. Email, if not excessive, usually works wonders at informing and providing a record which can be tracked over time.

5. Seek Knowledge. Well informed families tend to have children that have more success in school than those who do not work to educate themselves about available resources and their rights to access them.

6. Share Praise Frequently. School staff members who know that their efforts are appreciated are naturally going to be more receptive to new ideas and be more positively predisposed toward your child.

7. Request IEP Drafts In Advance Of Meetings. Knowing in advance what the school has seen in your child’s development before your IEP meeting is beneficial in many ways. You will have time to absorb any bad news and to generate ideas for alternative approaches to challenges.

8. Keep Good Records. Both for reminding you of the successes that have been achieved and for being a reference when issues arise, detailed records have great value. They are also essential if problems escalate and relationships become more adversarial.

9. Prepare Well In Advance For The First Day Of Each School Year. Introducing your child to his or her teachers and staff at a less stressful time before the school year starts will ease the beginning of the new year.

10. Plan For Transition Before Your School Initiates The Discussion. Thinking ahead about adult goals and life skills as early as middle school will allow for a more productive transition process and increased clarity in goals at the start of high school so that the final years of school can be as productive as possible.

Want a copy of the entire Educational Special Needs Advisory? Let us know and we’ll send it to you.

About the Author

This blog was written by Michael C. Walther II, founder of Oak Wealth Advisors.  The mission of Oak Wealth Advisors is to provide peace of mind by delivering successful financial experiences. Mike has been recognized by Institutional Investor News as one of the 20 Rising Stars of Wealth Management, with feature stories about Mike and Oak Wealth Advisors’ special needs practice.