2024 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 17-19, 2024 • Denver, CO

<< BACK TO INSTRUCTIONAL SESSIONS

3/08/2020  |   8:30 AM - 1:00 PM   |  IDEA and Advocacy Learning Session   |  Benton

IDEA and Advocacy Learning Session

What makes a parent a successful advocate for the child who is deaf/HOH? What helps a professional understand what a parent is going through? Legal protection is available for parents of children with disabilities; sadly, not all parents are aware of it. This presentation offers both parents and professionals the tools to successfully work with IEP teams for a child’s educational future. Protection of the parent/school relationship is the most important aspect of successfully advocating for a child with disabilities. Professionals can easily educate parents in this model of parent/school relationship building without jeopardizing their position. IDEA protects parents; it’s up to the parents to protect their relationship with school personnel. Presentation covers IDEA, Section 504 and ADA and how to advocate successfully, strongly hitting on protecting the parent school relationship because as we know once a parent becomes defensive and argumentative the meeting can go bad. It also helps parents to understand who the members of an IEP team are and that they deserve to be heard as the parent does. It strongly focuses on working as a team and leaving demands at home. This also helps professionals get the training from a parent perspective. As this training has developed, parents and professionals who attend have become more successful within their teams. The presenter is a parent first who deals with her own difficult district issues with her own child who is deaf and a current senior in high school. This training has been both locally in IL and nationally presented. Q&A and examples will be abundant in this session.

• Participants will gain understanding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
• Participants will gain advocacy skills they can use during school meetings.
• Tools and Strategies will be provided for use after the session concludes as well as direct contact to the presenter for individual assistance.

Presentation:
21060_12512AndreaMarwah.pdf

Handouts:
Handout is not Available

Transcripts:
CART transcripts are NOT YET available, but will be posted shortly after the conference

---

Presenters/Authors

Andrea Marwah (Primary Presenter), IL Hands & Voices Guide By Your Side, executivedirector@ilhandsandvoices.com;
Andrea Marwah received her BA degree in Psychology from North Central College. Since her daughter was diagnosed with hearing loss in 2002, she has taken a special interest in educating parents and professionals on matters concerning ADA, IDEA - special education rights, and advocacy for students who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing or DeafBlind. Andrea presents both locally and nationally on advocacy and IDEA; deafness with other disabilities; impact of deafness; socialization and many other topics surrounding parenting and working with children who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing. She works for the Illinois School for the Deaf as an outreach trainer/consultant for families and professionals who work with children who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, low vision or deaf-blind. She is also a parent advocate supporting families in Illinois at their child’s IEP meeting or behind the scenes preparing them to attend the meeting and advocate themselves. Andrea is the Executive Director at Illinois Hands & Voices and has been a leader with them since 2010 and is a national trainer for the Hands & Voices ASTra Training Program and a member of the Hands & Voices speakers bureau. She works closely with Designated Service Coordinators providing group training and individual consulting. These are trained individuals who work directly with infants and toddlers in Illinois birth to three who have a diagnosis involving vision, hearing or a combination of both in her state early intervention program. Andrea works as a liaison with the Early Intervention Training Program on issues surrounding deafness and hearing loss. She sits on numerous committees both locally and nationally. Andrea also served for six years on the Advisory Commission on Disabilities in her hometown of Naperville, where she lives with her husband Ajay and children Samantha, Julia and Andrew.

---

ASHA DISCLOSURE:

Financial -
• Receives Speaker for Teaching and speaking from Hands & Voices.
• Receives Salary for Employment from IL School for the Deaf.

Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.

AAA DISCLOSURE:

Financial -
Financial relationship with Hands & Voices IL School for the Deaf Outreach.
Nature: I word for IL School for the Deaf, they may pay me to attend the conference (if approved), I work as requested by Hands & Voices, they will not pay me for this conference.

Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.