The world of special education is filled with acronyms and legal jargon.
A new PTA forming in the Valley hopes to help parents of special needs children learn how to navigate through the confusion.
The group — Valley Special Education Parent Teacher Association (SEPTA) — held its first meeting Monday at Plumb Memorial Library in Shelton.
“The idea is not gift wrap sales and fundraisers,” said Kevin Daly, the leader of the Connecticut Council for SEPTA, a group of the 16 SEPTA chapters in the state.
“We need to know how to advocate for our children,” Daly told a group of about 20 parents, who came from Ansonia, Derby, Seymour and Shelton. “And you don’t learn that through osmosis. You need to be educated.”
To that end, the Valley SEPTA plans to bring in speakers and hold workshops on various aspects of having a child with special needs.
Topics might range from deciphering the educational acronyms to how to organize your house to best suit your child’s needs.
“It’s a difficult job raising a special needs child,” said Natalie DiDente, the co-president of the new group. “On top of that you need to learn all these laws. A lot of parents get overwhelmed and lost.”
DiDente, of Ansonia, is leading the group with Laura Marcinauskis, of Shelton.
The group still needs to create bylaws and elect officers in order to become an official member of the National PTA. Once that happens, Valley SEPTA will be a non-profit organization.
The Valley SEPTA won’t be attached to one school or town. It is a community organization for four lower Naugatuck Valley towns.
“This is the beginning meeting to see if there’s a need in the community,” Marcinauskis said. “And clearly, there is.”
Building Bridges
The group is more than just educating parents, Marcinauskis said. It’s also about creating partnerships with school officials and teachers.
“It’s not us versus the schools,” DiDente said. “It’s a partnership, because you’re going to be working together for the next 18 years.”
Daly recommended that Valley SEPTA invite teachers to be on the board. The ‘T’ in PTA, after all, does stand for ‘teacher.’
“They need to be part of it. Equal members,” Daly said.
He said often times parent groups can be confrontational, and so it might be hard to get school officials to come on board at first.
“It’s that fear of the unknown you have to combat,” Daly said. “It takes time, diplomacy and transparency.”
A Need
The group is needed, DiDente said, because parents are otherwise trying to find their way alone.
DiDente’s son, Patrick, has severe autism and epilepsy. DiDente said she spent her first parent-teacher meeting trying to understand the “alphabet soup” of educational acronyms.
She linked up with other parents who have children with special needs, and spent a lot of time researching the laws and terminology on her own.
DiDente said SEPTA can help parents along the way.
It’s about education, and support, Daly said.
“A lot of times we feel powerless,” Daly said. “We need that feeling of empowerment and that can come from SEPTA.”
For more information on the group, e‑mail [email protected].
