Customer Reviews

How to Compromise with Your School District Without Compromising Your Child: A Practical Guide for Parents of Children with Developmental Disorders an

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Parenting a child with Autism is challenging enough! Having to fight with your school district to get what is "APPROPRIATE" for our children is a whole other battle. Many of us so defeated from the day to day struggles of therapy schedules, doctor visits, and caring for our other family members, we rarely have the energy to start fighting for services that our special children really need. Most of the special education law resources are very complex to sift through, and retaining a lawyer to guide you can be a very costly and a financial impossibility for some families. Sometimes solutions to these problems may be as simple as writing a letter to the CSE chair. Gary has presented us with a powerful and simple tool to help parents get started in the process!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOOO! I LOVE IT! How wonderful to share the secrets of the system! Because I run an educational foundation for children with Autism in New York, my phone rings several times on a daily basis regarding these exact issues. How can I get extended hours? Why is the district telling me they don't have the money to pay for the services? Do I have to send my son to the Special Ed school they recommended, why can't he be in the regular ed setting? etc.etc. it's endless. I keep this book in my office, so that I can easily grab it when helping families on the phone. I also keep an extra copy at home for my personal use. It's not expensive, and it's not an encyclopedia. It's simple and to the point!!! Thank You Gary for sharing your information, it is a wonderful gift to us all.

Gary Mayerson has produced a book that all parents facing school-based programmatic decisions should read. The education review process is often far from rational, and sometimes far from fair. Parents who don't know what their rights are, and what their CHILD'S rights are, may not be able to advocate for educational programming that maximizes their child's potential. This book shows parents how to be assertive, without being aggressive and making the process emotionally antagonistic on either side. This book is an exceptional guide to highly specicialized knowledge, knowledge you may not be able to come by any other way. The Einstein quote that ends the book sums it up: peace cannot be maintained through force but only through understanding.

I have a copy and shared it with participants in my Advocacy training.
They expressed a lot of great feedback.
Very empowering tool for parents, especially those just entering the system. Examples of letters included, what
not to say and say, how to help secure extended day services, language
of intimidation Districts try to use (most of the quotes I have heard my district
say!! It was funny because I was reading them aloud to some of my training partners
on our way to Albany on Amtrak, a women in the seat in front of me looked horrified,
stood up and turned to us and said, "People actually say things like that???!!" I was
like "Yup. These are the reasons and explanations we get from many of our school districts
when we trying to secure an appropriate education for our children with developmental
disabilites")
It is very easy to read and understand. I loved the inspirational quotes at the beginning of each chapter, really driving the point home. Mr. Mayerson has a very engaging writing syle, the analogies and examples make this book extremely comprehensive.

I found the title misleading. The book does not have you compromise with your school district. It has you go in with all guns blazing, basically using a scorched earth policy. I preferred "From Emotions to Advocacy" by Pam and Pete Wright (ISBN 1-892320-08-8). The Wrights have you go through a multi-stage approach. Yes, you build your documentation to prepare you for future stages, but you start with trying to work with the school district as a team member. It's more of a carrot and stick approach. Mayerson's approach has you going straight to court, skipping all previous stages and forming an adversarial relationship with your school. Sometimes this is necessary, but if you can form a cooperative relationship with your school, you'll get more accomplished and form a better environment for your child.

A must read for all parents of children with developmental or other disabilities. The author's extensive experience and easy to read writing style combine to make this an extremely informative and, in practical terms, an extremely useful book.

This book is an invaluable resource, whether you are completing the Initial IEP or are updating your child's IEP. The book gives straightforward, honest advice, and helps to educate parents on ways of approaching sensitive issues, without becoming confrontational. Written in easy to understand terms. Incredibly helpful!!

This book is a practical guide that is clearly written and efficiently presented designed to help parents understand how to get the best outcome for their child during the IEP process. Mayerson is a nationally known special education lawyer who does this work because he believes in it, not because he isnt skiled at other forms of practice (he was a very successful corporate lawyer before fate led him into this field). He has special interest in and a history of success with autism related issues, and has gone al the way with families into the appeals process in order to defend their child's right to a free appropriate special education. I recommend this book to all my patients (I am a pediatric psyachologist) who anticipate difficulty or who just have questions about an upcoming IEP or IEP revision. It is the kind of book you can read the week before as you ready yourself and gather your thoughts before meeting with the team.

This book is an excellent help if you are or may be having trouble with your school district regarding the education of your child with a disability. Easy to read, yet full of great information and tips about how to work with your school district without compromising your child.

This book is amazing. The author takes an incredible amount of information on special education services and puts them into a quick and easy-to-read book. After reading this book, my confidence level going into my son's IEP was soaring.

This book is exactly what it says it will be. I've found it useful for prepping for IEPs. THe attorneys we have spoken with in person have been impressed with my understanding of the legalities of special ed considerations. Much of that is due to reading this book. I recommend it!