Moms on the Move

Contact

MOMS Co-administrators: Cyndi Gerlach & Dawn Steele

Contact us at: [email protected]

MOMS Advocacy Committee:

MOMS invites parents representing a wide range of disabilities, regions and interests to sit on our ad hoc advocacy committee to provide guidance on major campaigns.

MOMS network:

Please contact us if you wish to be added to our provincial email network

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  1. I am the mother of a deaf child with cerebral palsy. I have just discovered your group (via a friend on FB).
    Thanks so much for writing the op ed about the cuts to services. With all the cuts in so many areas, it was very helpful to see them all documented so clearly.

    I hope to be able to make it to some of your events in the Vancouver area.

  2. I am a mother with a 6 year old autisic son. I am trying to change his primary residence to Kamloops because he is not recieving any services in the small town he lives in. I need to find a child psycologist who is familiar with autism and is qualified to do a section 15. I’m hoping someone might know someone I could hire asap.

    Jessica Schmunk

  3. Hi Jessica – I’ll contact you offline and connect you with the Kamloops autism parent support group

  4. Hello,

    I am a mother of a 5 year old twins with autism. We just recently diagnosed. And one of my new found friend at FSI forwarded me your email link. I would love to be added on your email list.

  5. I am looking for an education advocate to prepare for the school year. Previous years I have had problems so I would like some resources ahead of time if possible. Does anyone have any info on advocates in port coquitlam or coquitlam?

  6. Hi Anastasia, I will reply offline but will include key points below for others who may have the same question:

    If your child has Autism/ASD, then ACT (Autism Community Training), is contracted by the provincial govt to provide family support: Info/contacts at http://www.actcommunity.net/

    They also organize excellent training workshops. They have one coming up in October that focusses on parent advocacy in the school system & knowing your rights that would be very useful: http://www.actcommunity.net/autism-education/upcoming-live-events/438-info-bc-schls.html

    If your child has learning disabilities, the LDA (Learning Disabilities Association of BC) may be able to provide support or info: http://www.ldabc.ca/

    Other options include:

    BCACL family outreach: http://www.bcacl.org/

    Family Support Institute: http://www.familysupportbc.com/ (They also host workshops on parent advocacy and navigating the school system, but I don’t see anything specific scheduled on their website, though you can ask.)

    MOMS does not have the funding/resources to provide one-one advocacy as a rule, but we can send a message out via our email network to see if any experienced families in your community are able to provide the support you need. If you have specific questions, please free to send them to the MOMS email address and ask us to post them (if we can’t answer them outselves).

    Your local DPAC may also provide family advocacy. It varies, but as a rule, DPAC parent advocates tend to not be as well informed about the intricacies of special ed rights/challenges. The provincial parent body BCCPAC also used to provide advocacy but that’s been eliminated due to provincial budget cuts.

    Another resource you may find useful, in terms of learning more and empowering yourself to deal with the BC public school system and to assure that your child gets his/her special education needs addressed, is this website that I also maintain for a Vancouver parent group: /index.html It includes links to Ministry info, legal decisions, news & other important resources.

    Another option is to join our MOMS Facebook page, which we’re encouraging parents to use to chat/ discuss, share thoughts directly with other families on advocacy issues: http://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=03c6991c3497b360e8179d4da0cbd4c6&#!/groups/152308497771/

    I’ve copied this to Cyndi, who coordinates the MOMS network with me, in case she can think of anything I’ve missed, and to XXX at the Simon Fraser Association for Community Living, who may have better info about what’s available in your area.

    Some added words of advice on successful parent advocacy in the public school system:

    1) Arm yourself with as much info as possible on what you can and cannot ask of the public school system – you are your child’s best advocate.

    2) Try as much as possible to get the classroom teachers & school staff onside to work WITH you vs AGAINST you. In most cases, they want to do the right thing, but cutbacks and pressures put them in survival mode. The source of the problem may be way up the bureaucratic ladder but the reality on the ground is to gloss over special needs unless you become a “squeaky wheel” and push back. So try to create a dynamic where you and local principal/teacher are working together to pressure higher authorities to provide the teacher & the classroom with the support your child needs and is entitled to. If they can’t do what’s needed, ask what’s missing and who’s responsible for providing it and work out a plan together on how to address that. If the school can’t solve the problem, go up to the next level. If you’re going over someone’s head, try to do it with their consent or at least inform them. Keep going up the bureaucratic ladder until a reasonable solution is found. It may be a compromise – the key is to insist on a “reasonable” solution.

    3) Use the IEP (Individual Education Plan) process to its full potential. You are entitled to participate in preparing your child’s IEP. Document your child’s needs and the required special ed resources in the IEP. It’s a legal, enforceable document – and then follow up to ensure those needs are being met.

    4) Sometimes you need to take legal action to force schools to meet your child’s needs, but that should always be a last resort. Once you even mention legal action, school staff will be required to stop meeting with you and all communications must go through the lawyers.

    5) Sometimes the problem IS the teacher or principal (or a personality conflict) or a parent whose demands aren’t reasonable. Going in with six guns blazing will probably just aggravate that. Try to be sensitive, firm and reasonable in your expectations and realize that sometimes personality issues are insurmountable and it’s not worth fighting if you can get your child into an alternate school that is more receptive and willign to work with you to overcome the many challenges involved.

    A final point is that teachers are in the midst of a labour dispute and on a “work to rule” job action, which will add a further challenge to resolving issues. Here’s a brief on that issue shared by a parent and very experienced advocate whose children attended Tri-Cities schools: http://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=03c6991c3497b360e8179d4da0cbd4c6&#!/notes/clair-schuman/bc-parents-of-children-with-special-needs-starting-out-the-school-year-with-your/265164883508164

    Please feel free to email us back if there’s anything else we can offer.

  7. I have a son who was born at 1.1lb and 23 weeks. He is 10 by birthdate but functioning at a 3-4 year level with limited speech, intellectual abilities, epilepsy, ADHD, and recently diagnosed austism with TICS syndrome. I am a single mom trying to understand this all and ways to better support my son in his overrall development. I was wondering if there are support groups in surrey bc and if there is an association for people to turn to for help and support. Are there awareness driven projects in process?

  8. Hi Dawn,
    Thanks for the above information. We are also needing advocacy in the school system.
    Please add me to your email list. I was once on it, but our email address changed.

    Thanks!
    Buffy

  9. It’s upsetting that the BC Liberal continue to be callous about the way CLBC is doing.
    Where is the opposition in all these? Where’s the human rights advocate in all these?
    CLBC should not be a Crown corporation. It should be a social services dept. with tax payers having a majority vote on how the vulnerable people in society must be treated.
    Let’s eliminate this govt. in the next election.

  10. I need to move my son to another classroom with support inside the classroom.
    He is 10 with high function autism. Live in the try city area-port moody. Had a meeting yesterday with Asst. superintendent,director of special needs,principal and vice principal. We moved from another district where my son had an aide,group setting directed by the special needs teacher. His current teacher had order him out of the classroom and had said at my face that my son does not belong in his class infront of him. Also the teacher had the children in his class rejecting my son by stating that we are immigrants amoung other things to make the children not wanting to be around my son.

  11. Hi Preet Brar,
    Please send me an email regarding your son. I will let you about the services available in Surrey. Currently, I am running a group with Youth with special needs in Surrey to teach them pre-employment readiness skills and social skills as well.
    Please send me an email.
    Thanks
    Raminder kaur

  12. I really like the positions that you guys are taking. It’s nice to finally find some people talking sense about special needs in public education in BC. It’s too bad you guys aren’t called Parents on the Move, but let me know if you need any help from Dads.

  13. Thank you Martin! MOMS made for a nice acronym but dads have been a core part of our group from Day One and huge contributors to our work at every stage! Consider yourself one of many honourary and valued members of MOMkind!

  14. We have a son with high functioning Austim in Grade 12. He has been intergrated since kingergarden – we spent the first 3 years in Montreal Quebec.
    We have come for far – but he was just expelled Feb 20, 2012 – I can’t go into details in this email – other than to say he has never been violent in all his years at school -Has been experiencing anxiety in the last year and 1/2 – when the TA who was working with him successfully was bumped out of her position and a TA who did not want to work with him was given no choice to be assigned to his case. The school will not consider reintergration and is only funding one 1/2 day a week sick teacher on call to help complete work at home. He is supposed to graduate with a “Dogwood”. We have asked the school board for more hours and they at this point will not consider it. They want to have another meeting May 9 ….. we are upset as we feel that we are being put off…. and because of funding due to his diagnosis we feel that we are not being adequately treated.

  15. Hi Gwen – This is very troubling, particularly as your description suggests the school is violating your son’s rights: 1) to a TA with the appropriate qualifications to provide the support he needs (as per the Hewko legal decision) and 2) to be provided with a full educational program (expulsion of a child with special needs is one of the few situations that provides grounds for a provincial appeal). You need advocacy support and fast, as time is running out for your son. You should call the Autism Society of BC (www.autismbc.ca) and/or ACT (www.actcommunity.net), which is funded by the province to provide trained staff who can provide family support and advocacy in such situations. If they can’t help you, please email us urgently at [email protected] and we will try to connect you to a volunteer parent advocate.

  16. Thanks Dawn,
    I appreciate your support. I will email my letter I sent to school district #8 in Nelson BC to the telus.net email address. My mother who lives and works on Vancouver Island had a meeting with a women who works for the Austims society in Naniamo – she also has a son with Autism. She refered us to your website. I feel badly that our son was suffering with so much anxiety -we thought that it was his disease process and his age 18 yrs – never ever believed that it was partly due to change in TA – hindsight is 20/20. Our letter will explain are story better…. and you can give us some clear direction how to move on this…. hopefully one day we can mentor other parents… right now there is too much pain…Gwen

  17. In the fall of 2011, after living with his dad for a decade my 15 year old teen (with high functioning Austim, ADD who is a stage three Cancer survivor with one kidney and a heart defect) decided to come and live with me.

    As a single parent already living on BC provincial disability(I’m on a cane), I need help finding a parent advocate that can connect me with social resources and perhaps suggestions how to access additional funding beyond the Autism 6K. It’s just not enough money. Any leads would be fantastic.

    BTW: His Dad’s child support each month could help pay for the services we need, but the provincial government claws that back dollar for dollar. After our rent is paid, we live on less than 600 a month.

  18. Hi,

    My son is 4 years old next week and has Down Syndrome. He was diagnosed with autism last week. We need to find a behavioural consultant who has experience with both DS and ASD. This would be a longer term arrangement as we need to -create behaviour plans and they would manage the multi-disciplinary team.

    Ideally they would live/work in the Maple Ridge area so that travel is minimised – paying for travel will quickly erode my son’s funding.

    I would welcome suggestions.

    Thank you

    Paddy

  19. Hi Raminder Kaur,

    Where can i find your email address?

    Thank you,

    Preet

  20. Hi..I have a 13 year old child with high functioning autism..he is very outgoing however he is having problems making friends and is need of a youth social group where he can make friends and have a social life with other like minded youth.I also have a 6 year old child with autism who loves sports and I have had difficulty finding a program for him so he can learn and play with others with autism..thanks Stephanie…surrey.


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