Many youth are unable to function in academic settings due to a myriad of reasons. Unfortunately, most parents do not understand the complexities of the educational system or lack the skills to negotiate it. Many are intimidated by teachers, school administrators, the child study team and other school personnel. Often parents find themselves unable to advocate for their children and verbalize their feelings and opinions to school personnel.

The Educational Advocate Program helps to identify children who are currently being failed by the educational system and helps facilitate services which insure them an appropriate academic setting.

Many things define the 1960’s: John F. Kennedy’s Camelot, The Vietnam War, The Beatles, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Title IX, The Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was civil rights legislation that proved to be the key, the catalyst that would serve to pave the road toward the creation of what we now call SPECIAL EDUCATION.

To chart the history of special education is really to chart the increasing progression of human value accorded those who differ to the extent that they possess what society calls a “disability,” a diminished capacity way. Early efforts at ameliorating the devastating impact to individuals with disabilities, as well as the devastating impact to their families, involved merely attempting to reduce the prevailing widespread dehumanizing treatment, society’s outright rejection and, ultimately, abandonment. At a time when any disability was considered untreatable, Western history points to French physician Jean Marc Itard (1775-1838) as a classic example of an enlightened professional who sought to treat people with disabilities humanely through an educational process-special education.