KPS4Parents works diligently to ensure that all eligible children, regardless of disability, receive the Free and Appropriate Public Education (“FAPE”) to which they are entitled under federal special education and civil rights laws and that their parents are fully involved members of their children’s Individualized Education Plan (“IEP”) teams or 504 Plan teams. Parents are their children’s best advocates, but parents generally lack the knowledge of how the special education system was designed to work.
The only way special education law is enforced is through parent complaints and lawsuits. The regulatory oversight for special education is very poor. This means that parents have to know as much as they can about how the special education process is supposed to work so that they know to what standards they should be holding their children’s public education agencies. Parents need to know what is reasonable to expect based on their children’s respective unique needs, what the special education system is obligated to do, what it is not obligated to do, and how to go about securing appropriate services for their children without alienating the people at their schools to whom they must turn for help.
KPS4Parents provides parent training, informative web-based content for parents and educators, lay advocacy representation of children and their families, consultation services with parents and educators, and community outreach programs to employers of parents with special needs and taxpayer groups. All of KPS4Parents’ work is done with the intent of fostering positive collaborations where at all possible between parents and the public education system, but its ultimate goal, regardless of whether the public education system is receptive to its efforts or not, is to ensure that all eligible children, regardless of disability receive a FAPE by ensuring that their parents’ voices are heard in the special education and 504 processes.
- Location: Camarillo, California
- Visit the website: kps4parents.org