Free meeting rooms are available for orgs. Get together with a few other parents and set up a steering committee and set a mission for your group. Hold weekly meetings. Do fund raising. Disscuss strategy. Create a mailing list.
Share information.
You have to do this because the schools are organized. They know how to manipulate you at IEP meetings. You will learn that you and your kids are not alone. Make it county wide so that you can see what other schools are doing or not doing.
Other ideas: You can advertise for free with public service announcements and the cable tv publis access channel. If fact if you video tape the meetings the public access channel will air the meetings. Get on the local news shows. Do this and the school will respect you because they’ll have to.
Re: Support and advocacy groups
Hey, they laughed at Einstien. It was G. Gordon Liddy that said “When you have em by the balls their hearts and minds will follow” From the posts I’ve read about IEP meetings the power that be take their direction from people like Mr. Liddy. People would rather bitch than take action. The schools know this and so the status quo.
Although Ball is a bit outrageous a grass roots parent org is the only sensible solution to the delemma of less than cooperative. It makes sense.