Resources and Support for Parents of Children With Special Needs

Children With Special Needs Oakland may suffer from various health conditions, ranging from serious mental health conditions to developmental disabilities.

Start searching for assistance for your family by finding a local group; these groups are available in most metropolitan areas.

Parent to Parent USA provides emotional support for new parents of children with special needs by matching them with experienced support parents.

Parent to Parent USA

Parent to Parent USA offers information and emotional support services for parents of children with disabilities or special needs. To locate an available program near you, visit their website and click on your state.

Discovering that your child has a disability or condition can be both terrifying and isolating, which makes the support from someone with experience all the more invaluable.

Parent to Parent provides families with support by connecting them with volunteer Helping Parents who have been carefully matched according to family needs and experience, similar disabilities involved, as well as any discussions held confidentially between talks. Parents may choose from phone, email or virtual communication (such as Skype). In addition, Parent to Parent offers training programs for those interested in becoming Helping Parents themselves.

Child Development Institute

Child Development Institute provides research-based professional development for those working with young children. Their program offers certificates, associate degrees and the first two years of credit toward a baccalaureate degree.

The Center for Parent Information and Resources offers parents information about laws that can assist them in finding services for their disabled child, such as IDEA. It also features links to state agencies and programs offering early intervention services, special education courses, medical and rehabilitation treatments as well as community support benefits.

This resource assists families in navigating the complex public school systems to get their children the services they require. It includes tips on preparing for meetings with educators and resources available online as well as sample conversations.

Child Mind Institute

Child Mind Institute is an independent, national nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of children and families struggling with mental health and learning disorders. Their teams strive daily to deliver exceptional standards of care while furthering research on developing brain science. Furthermore, Child Mind Institute helps parents, professionals, and policymakers provide support when needed most for these children.

At their clinics they offer several programs, such as Baby Steps Clinic which tracks babies from birth to age 3, High Risk Infant Follow-up clinic for children at increased risk for developmental delays, Behavioral Parent Education Workshops to support parents of ADHD children and Transition to Adulthood Clinic which assists young adults transitioning into adulthood with neurodevelopmental disabilities.

IDEA

No matter whether it is your child with special needs or someone close to you with them, there are numerous resources available to provide support and services. These may include government agencies, nonprofit organizations and online support groups. These may include:

The M.O.R.G.A.N Project is a nationwide group that assists parents raising children with special needs - whether biological or adopted. Through providing access to a library of information and helping with travel costs and gifts (such as medical equipment that's not covered by insurance policies), they provide invaluable assistance.

IDEA, or Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, is a federal law that establishes rights for students with disabilities and requires schools to meet two key obligations under its provisions: providing a free appropriate public education (FAPE) and placing students with disabilities into classrooms with their peers as much as possible, through least restrictive environments (LREs).

Center for Parent Information and Resources

The Center for Parent Information and Resources serves as a central hub that produces and supplies information and products to a nationwide network of Parent Training and Information (PTI) centers and Community Parent Resource Centers, serving families of children with disabilities and is funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs.

INCLUDEnyc serves the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island neighborhoods in New York City. Their mission is to foster meaningful family involvement within educational systems while building collaborative community relations - their resources can be found free online.

Different Dream provides you with access to support parents who understand what you're going through and can offer emotional assistance, information and literature.