Table of contents
Introduction
Surrogate parent laws and guidelines:
- Children who need surrogate parents
- What is a surrogate parent
- Responsibilities of surrogate parents
- Summary of surrogate parents and special education
How to learn the surrogate parent role:
- Gather information
- Learn about the disability
- Learn about the child
- Keeping confidentiality
The special education process
- Overview of special education
- The process
- Early intervention
- Transition
- Emotional or behavior disorders
- IIIP
- Structure of special education in Minnesota
- Communication in the special education process
- Preparing for a school meeting
- Resolving differences
Additional Information
- Questions and answers
- Student profile sheet
- The Laws
- More information
Written by Carolyn Anderson, PACER Center Parent Training Advocate
Paula F. Goldberg, PACER Center Executive Director
2006 by PACER Center. All rights reserved.
Funding provided in part by
Minnesota Department of Education
No portions of this product may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of PACER Center, except for credited brief quotations or critical reviews.
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Online Training for Surrogate parents
Congress recognized the importance of active parents' involvement in planning their children's educational programs, monitoring progress, and challenging inappropriate decisions. This child advocate role is usually filled by parents. However, the laws give an alternative if the parents of a child with a disability are unknown or completely unavailable or if the child is a ward of the state. Surrogate parents fill the parental role in these situations. Most often a surrogate is either a foster parent or a volunteer from the local community.
Surrogate parents play an important role in a child's education. The surrogate parent is an advocate for the student. The more surrogate parents know and the more comfortable they are with the special education process and procedures, the more effective they will be in the role of surrogate parent.
This training module is a guide for training surrogate parents. It includes information on the laws and procedures for representing a child in the special education process.
*Note: All references to IEP (Individualized Education Program) include IIIP (Individual Interagency Intervention Plan) and IFSP (Individual Family Service Plan).
PACER's site offers many PDF files for download, which require