The Intersection of Foster Care and Special Education Services: Improving IEP Advocacy for Students in Foster Care with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDDs)

Presenter: Alison Maria Irwin

Faculty Sponsor: Ellen Correa

School: UMass Amherst

Research Area: Disability Studies

Session: Poster Session 1, 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM, Auditorium, A26

ABSTRACT

An Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is a contract between a student’s parent/guardian and their school that identifies the student’s diagnosed disabilities and goals, and creates a plan to reach those goals with specific special education services.  Every student with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) has a right to an IEP under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 1975). In creating and reviewing IEPs, the student’s parent/guardian serves as the student’s fiercest advocate. For students in foster care, this role is often lost, and the quality of the student’s education suffers.

In Massachusetts, the Special Education Surrogate Parent Program (SESPP) fills this parent/guardian role via a network of volunteers. Each volunteer is paired with a student(s) to serve as their legal parent/guardian in all major educational decisions for the student, such as in IEPs. Currently, the program receives 650 student referrals every year, but only has about 500 active SESPs, thus many students are still waiting for an SESP (SESPP, 2021). This increasing demand is filled by the Federation for Children with Special Needs (FCSN). The objective of my critical civic engagement project, partnering with FCSN, is to expand the network of SESPs in Massachusetts by recruiting and supporting a group of SESPs at UMass Amherst. As a new SESP myself, I am well placed to promote and recruit for the program within the UMass Amherst student community. Thus, my project will address one consequence of injustices at play at the broader intersection of ableism and classism.

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