The more you understand the assessments, the better you can work with the IEP team to support your child’s growth. 

How do I understand my child's test scores?

The new California state budget for 2025–26 includes a $22.5 million cut to the Self-Determination Program (SDP), with even bigger cuts planned in the coming years. We break down what these changes mean, how they might affect your family, and what you can do if your Regional Center pushes for cuts to your services.

Self-Determination Program Changes Coming to California (2025-26)

Learn about how Regional Center, SELPAs, Medi-Cal, and other state programs support children with vision or hearing loss, orthopedic impairment, and intellectual disability.

Funding Support for Low-Incidence Disabilities in California

Learn about special education services, everything you need to know about IEPs, and how to advocate for the services and supports your child needs.

Education and IEPs

Whether you’re using private insurance or public benefits like Medi-Cal or a combination of the two, get tips on how to fund the supports and services your child needs.

Insurance

Has your child received a new diagnosis? Are you concerned about a developmental delay? Check out these resources to help you navigate medical services, funding, and more.

New Diagnosis

Depending on your income, your child’s age and diagnosis, and other factors, there are a variety of government programs available to you.

Public Benefits

Learn how to help your child manage stress, anxiety, and other mental health challenges with these resources from therapists and other experts.

Mental Health

Check out our resources to help plan your child's transition into adulthood and set them up for success.

Future and Financial Planning

Parenting a child with disabilities comes with unique joys and challenges. Learn how to meet your family's diverse needs and how to talk about disability together.

Family Life

Raising a child with disabilities can place a lot of demands on parents. Check in with your own mental and physical health needs through these resources.

Self-Care for Parents

Learn about potential changes to federal law that could affect our kids who need special education services to access a free, appropriate public education.

Potential Changes in Education This Fall — and What We Can Do Now to Protect Our Kids’ Rights

How do you know what you don't know? Hear an education advocate's tips for seeing if your child's IEP supports and services are helping them at school.

How to Tell If Your Child’s IEP Is Working as It Should

How is Congress posing to cut Medicaid, and how can we advocate to protect federal Medicaid funding? Learn from the executive director of the SCDD.

Understanding Proposed Cuts to Medicaid and How You Can Make a Difference

Here are some quick tips for fostering a positive, educational, productive environment at home if your child has writing difficulties.

What activities can I do at home to help my child practice writing skills?

If handwriting takes longer than typing, that can cause kids to fall behind not just in writing but in other subjects as well.

Should my child focus on writing or typing IEP goals if they struggle with handwriting?

Assistive technology options can make writing possible and even enjoyable for children to learn if they struggle with handwriting.

What classroom accommodations can help my child with writing?

Parents cannot insist on or limit their consent to evaluation to specific assessments, but it may be helpful to talk to your child’s teacher and share your concerns.

Can I request a specific assessment for my child?

Orton-Gillingham is a reading intervention usually provided in a small group or one-on-one in a pull out from the larger classroom.

What is Orton-Gillingham?

Reading IEP goals should look at the baseline of what a child can do now and what skill they are targeting.

Where can I find example IEP goals for reading?

Not being able to read is not fun, and it excludes a student from so many meaningful life opportunities. Here are tips to read more at home.

What activities can I do at home to help my child practice reading?

 The basic steps (the scope and sequence) to learning to read are the same, although the pacing and teaching strategies might differ for neurodivergent kids.

How do I help my child improve their reading?

Structured literacy includes the five fundamental pillars of phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

What is structured literacy?

The school district may be anxious for you to sign the IEP during the meeting, but it is better to take it home so you have time to review everything in the document.

Can I take home the IEP to review before I sign it?

What’s changing with proposed updates to federal education, what’s not changing, and what do we need to know to protect our children’s rights?

Special Education Updates: How Federal Proposals Could Affect Our Kids

CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA), Denise Marshall, explains how these grants provide essential training, resources, and support services that directly impact the quality of special education and advocacy efforts.

How IDEA Part D Grants Help Families & Educators

CEO of COPAA (Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates), Denise Marshall, breaks it down and explains what it could mean for education and disability rights across the country.