Holliston November 2016

Page 6 Local Town Pages www.hollistontownnews.com November 2016
Holliston SEPAC Creates Toolkit for Special Ed Parents
By J.D. O’Gara
When you’re a parent, learning
your child needs some sort of
accommodations at school can be
confusing, and what’s more confusing
is trying to figure out how
to get services for your child and
what the law guarantees them.
This can be even more challenging
for those parents with children
whose special needs are not
immediately evident, but now, in
Holliston, all parents of kids with
special needs have a resource. The
parent volunteer members of the
Holliston SEPAC, Special Education
Parent Advisory Council
have put together a Welcome Kit.
“Basically, we are a parentdriven
organization that supports
advocates and provides advice for
the special education community
in Holliston,” Deb Sweet, the new
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chair of SEPAC. She says the idea
was borne from two parents who
were running the SEPAC for
about a decade.
“They were still carrying it on,
because there wasn’t anybody to
take it over,” says Sweet. “There
was some negativity regarding
special education in town, and it
was their idea to do a welcome kit,
but it never got off the ground. We
carried that to fruition and made
that our first really big product.”
The booklet took about a year
in the making.
Allegra Denehy, fundraising
coordinator for SEPAC, says it
gives parents the sense that “not
only are you not alone, but these
are your rights and these are the
things that you can advocate for
your students. For parents who
have children newly diagnosed,
it’s overwhelming. You get thrown
a ton of papers from the doctors.”
The binder, she says, is a nice way
to keep papers and to have something
to reference and use the resources.
She credits SEPAC member
Marcy Randall with a lot of the
legwork in pulling together definitions
of certain terms used in
the special education world that
might be elusive to parents.
The toolkit is currently available
in three languages, English,
Spanish and Portuguese.
“We’re (SEPAC) trying to
reach parents who don’t know
to look for us,” says Sweet. The
booklet not only defines terms,
but it contains important phone
numbers and other resources.
The welcome packet is being
provided to all new families in
Holliston who receive special education
services. There will also be
a packet available at the Holliston
Public Library.
And the best detail about the
whole endeavor might just be that
it’s some of the special education
students who put the packets together.
“My students and I create all
of them,” says Ann King, a special
education teacher who incorporates
the creation of the packets
into her curriculum. “Deb gave us
all of the originals; we have a copy
machine in our classroom. The
SSA tells us how many we need,
students figure out how many they
need, read the order form, and
copy them. I holepunch them all,
and we (the students and King)
deliver them.”
“Talk about it coming full circle,”
says Sweet. “Now, here these
special education students are,
18-22, helping other families put
it together.”
With the help of Meg Camire,
Director of Student Services in
Holliston, the process became
part of vocational training for
these students.
“The whole idea behind this
was transparency,” says Sweet.
“On the parent end, it’s ‘I don’t
even know what’s offered, and
when they offer, I don’t know
what it means, and I don’t know
what my rights are.” She says she
believes there are plenty of “intelligent
free thinking families”
who are not going to ask for more
than their child needs. However,
whereas some parents of students
with an overarching need might
receive an overwhelming amount
of support, the “ones we struggle
to reach don’t have a diagnosis
they’re identifying with, but they
also don’t want their child to be
stigmatized,” says Sweet.
Sweet says she hopes the Holliston
SEPAC will reach all families
of students with special needs,
including those whose needs are
not as visible. The group has been
working to provide roundtable
discussions, and informational
events featuring speakers, and
they will provide one this month.
Holliston SEPAC has a Facebook
Page, (Holliston SEPAC)
and they’re currently looking for
a website designer to make the site
they have more user friendly.
Throughout November, Holliston
SEPAC will hold a fundraiser
through b.Luxe Salon,
165 Main Street, #208, Medway.
(508-321-1624) With mention of
the Holliston fundraiser at the
time of the appointment, b.Luxe
will offer 10% off any purchase,
including hair, makeup, eye brow
wax, products and gift cards, and
that 10% will benefit the Holliston
SEPAC.
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The Holliston Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC)
achieved a goal of outreach in aiding parents with its new Welcome
Kit, a toolkit that contains useful definitions, program information,
detailing of student rights and useful phone numbers. These students
put the packets together and deliver them as part of their vocational
training.
Event to Be Held November 19 in Medway
Saint Joseph’s Christmas Marketplace and Bake Shoppe will be
held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, November 19, 2016 at Saint
Joseph Center, 145 Holliston Street, Medway, Mass. This wonderful
annual event features shopping, food and fun, with over 50 crafters
and artisans, local baked goods, raffles, children craft room and a café
featuring clam chowder and grilled items. Admission is free.
Crafters and artisans are being sought. An 8-foot table and
space is $60 ($50 if you provide your own table) and a donation
for Saint Joseph’s raffle. Set up is from 7-9 a.m. Contact Saint
Joseph’s Center at (508) 533-7771.