Advocating for students doesn’t always mean making signs and participating in marches. It doesn’t have to mean fighting with your administration or other teachers for your students’ rights. Most teachers advocate for their students everyday through daily interactions with administration, teachers, parents, and other school staff. Often times, advocating is simply ensuring your students’ needs are being met in the best way you can with the resources you have. We've all heard the phrase, "It takes a village to raise a kid." This statement holds weight for educating our students as well as advocating for them. We don't have an IEP person, we have a team; we don't review data and discuss curriculum alone, we have professional learning communities; we need one another! But beyond the basic team requirements for paperwork or analyzing data, how exactly do we build partnerships within the school to advocate for our students? Who are the people we need in our village? What are we advocating for? In my years of teaching, my village has changed year to year, but what has been consistent is that I have always had people advocating along with me for students who need it most. The following is a snap shot of some of the folks in my village throughout my career. 1. The obvious - other teachers | Whether in your department or a different one, it is imperative to find a comrade who can empathize with you, support you, listen to your concerns, and understand your vision and cause. Teachers NEED other teachers! But we don’t just need each other to vent or have lunch together; we need to establish trust and rapport with other teachers who work daily with our students with disabilities in the general education settings. At times, we have to stand up for our students to ensure they receive equitable access to the general curriculum, and we need other teachers who understand this battle who can partner with us to provide an appropriate education. We need teachers who aren’t scared to think out of the box for differentiation or who are willing to modify their learning environment to become inclusive. 2. School Resource Officers | SROs are at many schools to help ensure the safety of students in the event of a crisis, however, they are also allies in the fight for advocacy. They often establish rapport with students and form bonds that many law enforcement officers are unable to do. I have worked with SROs to deescalate students, find out about legal issues going on outside of school for my students, and make home visits. One SRO drove around town with me motel to motel to try to track down a student. I would have not felt comfortable or safe doing this alone, so having that support helped me locate a student and provide services to assist him. 3. School Social Workers | Not all schools have SWs on staff, and their value is often underestimated. I have gone on numerous home visits with our SW to meet with parents, get paper work signed, conduct attendance follow ups, and simply drop off food to needy families. She carries bags of food in her car at all times so she can meet a need when she sees one. She is able to connect with families in ways that I can't, and she has access to resources that I don't. If you haven't formed a collaboration with your SW, I would highly recommend you do so soon. School counselors may also fall in with this category if your school has counselors instead of social workers. 4. Parents | This can be a tough one sometimes. Communicating with parents of students with disabilities or disadvantaged youth can present challenges, especially if the parent is a contributing factor to the hardships the student is facing. HOWEVER, you should never forgo the opportunity to built trust and rapport with a parent. More times than not, a parent can be your biggest ally. By forming relationships with the parent, you are often able to advocate for the child and family. Parents are more likely to work with you if you communicate with grace and love and demonstrate the willingness to help. Parents are a child's first advocate and generally want the best for their child, so always take the time to work with them, not against them. 5. Students | This may be the most important person in your village. Some students may or may not be able to understand what you’re advocating for, but by watching you advocate, they can learn critical skills needed for advocating for themselves. At the high school level, my students often have average intellectual abilities. When I advocate for their needs, I can discuss my concerns with them and include them on the conversations I have with other teachers or administrators. We can discuss the issues at hand and problem solve strategies for making progress. This allows them to take ownership in the process and promotes use of the strategies in future situations. How do you build these partnerships? 1. Having a vision and working toward a common goal. Do you want to help the student make better grades; decrease suspensions; improve attendance; or increase anger management skills? Do you want to advocate for more rights for students or greater safety measures at schools? You must first identify your goal before you can build your village. My goal is simply to keep kids in school, but working with students with significant behavioral challenges, it can't be quite difficult to keep them in school. I have to fight daily for their rights to an education, for teachers to understand the underlying cause of anger, for students to learn coping strategies to handle basic life situations. One of the school resource officers at my school has a passion for keeping African-American male students out of the school to prison pipeline. While my vision differs slightly from his, we have a common goal of teaching this population of students coping strategies and interpersonal relationship skills to be more successful in the classroom and total school environment. I often go to him for information and to have the hard conversations about race and inequality that most people shy away from. Which leads me to the second point... 2. Communication. Keeping the lines of communication open with those in your village is a necessity to see change and growth. As mentioned above, some conversations are difficult to have, but they are critical to making progress in society. Without being able to hear first hand the struggles my students face, I would not be able to empathize with them. I can never say I "understand" what they are going through, but I can show empathy to their situation. Advocacy means that you make your voice heard and let people know what you want to accomplish. You must communicate that to the people in your village to ensure the strategies each of you are using are working toward that vision or goal. It's also important to take time to find out what the role of that individual is. Often times, we don't see the value in a person's position because we haven't had the communication with that person to understand the requirements and barriers they have or the resources they can share with us. 3. Trust. This is most important when building partnerships with parents. Parents need to know that they can trust you to make decisions in the best interest of their child. Parents are protective and can become defensive if they feel they are being blamed or accused. Find ways to build trust by communicating positive information about their child or sending them resources that will help without diminishing their worth. I'd love to hear from you in the comments! Tell me about your village. Do you have the same people, different people, or are you still trying to establish your village? What makes your village great? What challenges have you faced while advocating for your students?
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