Education Advocacy- Just Another Job??!?!

Not Just Another Job

Effective Advocacy More Than Theory and Law

We recognize the need to shift the role of education advocates into Servant Leaders. This comes from understanding a bigger mission and the gifts advocates can offer. Education advocates learn to make decisions and discern the important and different roles that they play in each challenging situation. This is a field full of conflict that needs to be diffused and redirected.  As leaders, advocates must honor all people, recognize their unity and interconnectedness, and apply this understanding. NSEAI shows students how to bring and use their gifts into these states of conflict by offering a broad cross-training program, that is not offered anywhere else. The program is focused on the application of advanced educational and clinical “Predict and Prevent” skills - not just theory or the law. It offers a structure and space within its framework to respond to the individual education advocates’ professional needs.

Know Your Mission - Have a Vision 

Servant leaders in education advocacy learn to lead from their mission and vision. This is done by the professional education advocate being able to maintain child-focus and be more present to the people because of the confidence they have in their skills and knowledge. This, in turn, brings out the best in an IEP team. Highly trained education advocates do this by seeing team members' gifts and how they can address the child’s needs as presented by the parents, staff, and administration at the IEP table. Then the advocate can help the team also let go of ego-based conflicts of interest and listen to how they can best serve a student’s needs across multiple environments. The resulting teams become more effective in how they work together and are better able to achieve the primary missions of being individually child-focused and outcome-focused while using evidence-based interventions.  

Transformation is an ongoing process that tends to

appear ordinary, when, in fact, something

extraordinary is taking place.

Suzy Ross.               

We teach education advocates how to take some space to reflect on how their vision ties to the connections at the IEP table and the way they hold space for transformation. The NSEAI Board Certification Program in Education Advocacy ^TM also gives students a sense of not being alone in the world or in their calling. It recognizes that others are finding ways to integrate other professional purposes, goals, and practices with what's important to them in terms of their life around social justice. They explore and find out what they want to do with their gifts.

The important thing about this calling of servant leadership for education advocates is to get the message out that they can be present to the needs of the child, parent, school, and community, work better with their IEP teams, and be energized through a deep grounding in this profession, through the tools, strategies, and resources laid out in the program that NSEAI offers.

NSEAI's online courses efficiently lead parents and professionals to an expert level of education advocacy in just 12 days of on-demand courses that you can do at your convenience.

OUR CHILDREN DO NOT HAVE TIME TO WASTE.

LEARN TO DEVELOP A CHILD FOCUSED IEP CORRECTLY FROM THE START 

WE TEACH HOW TO GO FROM

LEGALLY SUFFICIENT  TO HIGHLY EFFECTIVE IEPs

CHANGE THEIR LIVES NOW

  CLICK HERE

AUTHORS

Marie Lewis is an author, consultant, and national speaker on best practices in education advocacy. She is a parent of 3 children and a Disability Case Manager, Board Certified Education Advocate, and Behavior Specialist Consultant. She has assisted in the development of thousands of IEPs nationally and consults on developing appropriately individualized IEPs that are outcome-based vs legally sufficient. She brings a great depth of expertise, practical experience, and compassion to her work as well as expert insight, vision, and systemic thinking. She is passionate and funny and she always inspires and informs.

MJ Gore has an MEd in counseling and a degree in elementary education and natural sciences. She worked as a life-skills and learning support teacher She has been honored with the Presidential Volunteer Service Award. She is the Director and on the faculty at the National Special Education Advocacy Institute. Her passion is social justice, especially in the area of education. She is a Board Certified Education Advocate who teaches professional advocates, educators, and clinicians the best practices in education advocacy.