I have been involved in the
advocacy world for a very long time. As a child with significant learning disabilities, I had to learn to
advocate for myself and for my right to an education— sometimes even within my
own family. Luckily, I was able to
figure out what worked for me and despite having to graduate high school with a
non-academic diploma (I could not pass the high stakes tests required for an
academic diploma), I managed to go to college and graduate Phi Beta Kappa,
Summa Cum Laude. I went on to graduate
school and from there, to a long and successful career in the marketing and
high tech world. Despite my
outward business success, I had no passion and no love for what I was
doing. When my young son was
diagnosed with learning disabilities, the easiest thing in the world for me was
to leave the business world so that I could help teach my son what he couldn’t
seem to learn in school.
Unfortunately, having his mother try to teach him was not what my son needed. He needed a parent who could parent, school administrators who were on board with an individualized educational plan that worked, teachers who were trained in proven methodologies, and most importantly, a smart, wise, and calm educational advocate who could accompany me to TEAM meetings and tell me what I could reasonably expect from the school. As a parent, I was too stressed, worried, angry, and confused to be able to process the information I was being given at every turn. What I was being told by the school didn’t make sense to me and it wasn’t until I hired an experienced educational advocate; one who could guide me through the complex maze of special education law that my son started receiving an appropriate education. Over the years, I’ve become increasingly involved in the rights of children to a free and appropriate education; one that’s individualized and one that matters. I am both Wrightslaw and Federation trained, I am a foster parent advocate for anywhere between 1–3 children at any given time, I am the listserv moderator for the Concord SPED PAC (700 members strong and counting), and most importantly, I am the mother of a rising college junior who has gotten to where he is thanks to his own hard work, the appropriate accommodations, and an educational placement geared to his individual learning style and needs. These are the rights of every child and I won’t rest until your child has what they’re entitled to, because it’s their right and because it’s the law. |
Contact
Telephone: 978.371.9886 Fax: 978.369.4161 Email: polakfoffadvocacy@gmail.com Address: 68 Whit's End, Concord, MA 01742 |