Continuing Education Tips

Do you think this website provides good information to help parents understand special education issues better

Here's the website: www.advocate4kids.org Please provide feedback, as to what additional information is needed for you to consider this special education website useful

Public Comments

1. It needs a section on its own.
2. I checked out your website, and found the following: 1. The name, Advocates 4 Kids, sounds unprofessional to me because of the 4 instead of "for." Just a personal opinion. 2. There are many grammar, capitalization, and spelling errors all over the site, as well as odd characters. It's not only unprofessional, it diminishes confidence in your information. 3. The FAQ page is very unorganized. Questions should be grouped by subject - 504, assistive technology, IDEA, etc. 4. In the FAQ section - there are too many questions. Instead, make a separate page for each topic. 5. Identify abbreviations, either on a separate page or at the beginning of a question or section. 6. Your rates seem to be high, especially when there are many free advocacy groups. You might want to rethink your fee structure. This page also needs to be reworded and set up so that it is easier to read. 7. Your articles page is difficult to read due to spacing and the way everything runs together. It would also be nice if the links to those articles were active. 8. The resources page has the same issue. The information all runs together. Putting the information in table form may make it easier to read; at least consider uniform spacing, underlining, italicizing or bolding headings. 9. Your home page is very negative against the schools. I understand that as an advocate you often look at the school as an adversary, sometimes with good reason, but I believe that if you're more positive it will foster a better relationship between the parents and the school. You seem to be encouraging an adversarial relationship. 10. Some of your information is not totally correct for all states, some of it has slight inaccuracies, and some abbreviations and terms are not used in all states. This should be noted so parents are better able to talk to the schools. 11. FAQ answers don't always answer the question. Some of them sound as though they have been copied from another web site, book, or document. They have a distinctly different tone and style from other parts of the web site, and only a few have documented sources. They also contain numbers and abbreviations that people may be unfamiliar with. This may not be what you want to hear, but they are my honest thoughts and I hope they help. Good luck with your business.
3. You are charging for a service that in most cases are free. You should provide links and definitely cite your sources. Aside from plagiarizing many things(illegal and unethical) you have problems with syntax TRY AGAIN
4. Its a good start--though I looked for a library of articles, which would be helpful, and didn't fid one, if its there. But the cheif thing you can do is broaden the focus. Granted, your main conscern is the special education issues and how parents can effectively act/advocate for their children. But that's all you have--and that is a mistake. It's a common and understandable mistake--and in a way its unfair to tell you--or parents of childrenwith disabilities--that they need to do more. Coping with "the system" is enough to keep anyone busy! But what many parents do not realize is that their experience takes place IN THE CONTEXT o fa much wider framework: the child's entire life. What I mean is this: what happens after grade school? How does the child get into college (many can)--and how do you prepare the child for this path. How do you prepare them for vocational education, if that's the appropriate course? And how do you decide which to encourage? wWhat resources are out there AFTER the child is 18. And most parents are not aware that the law (the ADA) provides almost no protection for people with disabilities in the area of employment (I know what the rhetoric is--but in this area the ADA is a failure). I could go on, but I think you see the point: coping with the system jsut to get the child the right support in school is not enough. Parents need to learn what comes next and how to prepare for it.