3 Ways to Exercise Your Parent Rights to Advocate for Your Kid
When Lisa Barros Mosko, a special education advocate and a parent of a child with disabilities in the Los Angeles Unified School District, first moved to L.A. from New York, she said she didn't quite know how to navigate the new school system. She knew her son was not getting enough of his required speech therapy, but she wasn't sure exactly where to turn. "I didn't realize I could tell [the school] that my son needed a provider who could be there more often. I didn't realize it was the school's job to give him that and that it was my right to ask for it."
Understanding and navigating their children's rights in a school system as sprawling as LAUSD is overwhelming for most parents. The process can be particularly hard for immigrant families, English learners and parents of children with disabilities.
During the pandemic, tens of thousands of students with disabilities were denied their educational rights, including access to mental healthcare providers, occupational therapists, behavioral aides and more.
Students with disabilities have specific rights that they are legally entitled to under the "free and appropriate education" act, including a right to transportation to services and a certain amount of hours with specialists determined by an Individualized Education Program (IEP). Still, many parents don't know what they can and can't ask for from their district schools.
"...Parents often have to go through a bad experience with their school to realize that something's not right in the system. And then they learn that they have rights and that they can have a voice in the process," said Jazmine Rodriguez, a coordinator at Innovate Public Schools, a nonprofit that helps underserved parents advocate for children in public schools.
There are many ways families can learn about their child's educational rights, ensure that their child is getting what they need from their district school, and even become education activists themselves. Here are some steps for parents who want to get involved.
Know Your Rights
"Knowing that you have rights … and then knowing what those rights are is the first step," Mosko said.
According to LAUSD's Student Bill of Rights, issued in 2020, all LAUSD students have certain educational rights, including things like "access to technology, "confidentiality," and the right to "counseling from well-trained … practitioners."
Students with disabilities with an IEP have legal rights beyond this bill.
These nonprofit organizations help parents understand what their child's specific rights are:
- Special Needs Network:Based in Leimert Park and serving South L.A. families, this nonprofit helps underserved families of students with disabilities, specifically focusing on autism and other developmental disabilities. It gives comprehensive behavioral assessments and provides referrals to therapists, behavioral aides and legal counseling. It is especially concerned with helping students of color with disabilities. It also offers programs for parents to learn about the tools their children are provided in behavioral therapy so they can employ them at home.
- TASK: TASK is a California-based nonprofit that helps parents and students with disabilities navigate their special education rights from the start of school through age 26. It offers assistance with the IEP process, referrals to counselors and workshops like "Basic Rights and Responsibilities," "Navigating IEPS" and "Early Intervention." Check the TASK calendar for workshop dates.
Be Your Child's Advocate
"Parents are really the people best positioned to know what their child needs. Now, even more so after the pandemic … parents became co-educators during that time … they realized what individualized support their child needs, and they can be the ones to enact it," Rodriguez said.
The nonprofit Innovate Public Schools, along with Parent Revolution and Speak UP, are all committed to teaching parents how to serve as their child's advocate in the school system.
Innovate Schools offers resources for parents from underserved communities to learn how to become advocates for their children. One of them is the Parent Leader Institute. This weeklong program teaches parents what community organizing is about, discussing what it means to have power in a system and offering parents opportunities to connect.
Through the advocacy work of parents, Innovate Schools also created a tutoring campaign where low-income students connect with tutors to mitigate learning loss.
"Parents became aware that in wealthier neighborhoods, in schools with more resources, students use tutoring to get ahead, and through the work they did, they were able to get that resource for their children as well," Rodriguez said.
Parents are really the people best positioned to know what their child needs.Jazmine Rodriguez, Innovate Public Schools coordinator
Build a Parent Community
It can be intimidating for parents to reach out to each other. Rodriguez says it is important for the district to help facilitate community-building by hosting get-togethers and creating opportunities for new parent leadership and connection.
In LAUSD's local Northwest District, there is a Parent and Community Engagement Unitexplicitly focused on "developing welcoming environments for parents" and connecting them to each other and to resources in the school community and beyond.
"When parents start to talk to each other … that's when they're really able to make things happen and make a movement," Rodriguez said.
Parents can also use platforms like Nextdoor or the LAUSD Parent Portal to get in touch with other people in their school community.
"Knowledge is power," Rodriguez said. "Keep yourself as informed as possible and find your community of other parents whose kids have similar challenges. Compare notes and share resources."
What To Do When You Encounter Barriers
When parents are first trying to navigate the school system and their child's educational rights while advocating for their children, they can face barriers such as language and disability, Rodriguez said
According to LAUSD policy, "parents of students with disabilities have a right to be informed in their primary language."
Rodriguez also emphasized the need for more long-term Latino administrators and staff support who can bridge the linguistic divide and cultural barriers. "There's also a cultural aspect coming into play, and we need to have staff who can make families feel comfortable and welcome to be involved and ask questions."
Ensuring that interpreters are available at school meetings and advocacy groups and ensuring that all reports are translated is also crucial, Rodriguez said.
If families feel they have been wronged by the district and can't settle things on their own, legal resources are also available, such as nonprofit law centers that provide information and legal representation and private lawyers in the L.A. area who work pro bono on cases.
Legal Resources for Families
Disability Rights California
350 South Bixel Street, Suite 290
Los Angeles, CA 90017
(213) 213-8000
This nonprofit, which advocates for the rights of Californians with disabilities, offers programs to help parents learn their rights as legal clients and about counsel for cases.
Learning Rights Law Center
1625 W. Olympic Blvd., Ste. 500
Los Angeles, CA 90015
(213) 489-4030
This center works to help underserved families in Los Angeles ensure education equity for their children. It also offers an education rights clinic and one-on-one consultations with parents for free.
Public Counsel
610 South Ardmore Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90005
(213) 385-2977
Public Counsel is a national provider of pro bono legal services. Its team helps low-income communities of color in Los Angeles and beyond.
Special thanks to Nancy Hernandez and other parents in central Los Angeles who helped inspire this story by advocating for their children.
