Spirit Lake Consulting Forum

A few months ago our Research Assistant posted that we (SLC) was awarded another grant from NIDRR, the RUSH award (Research Utilization Support and Help), for their Disability Access Dissemination Project.  One of the tasks in this award is to interview tribal members who have a family member with a disability.  I interviewed several tribal members who have a family member with a disability and was surprised at the amount of anger in the interviewees.  At first, I thought this anger was directed toward me but I soon realized the anger was really about lack of information and services they encountered when they discovered their family member had a disability.  Here on Spirit Lake I am finding a lot anger directed specifically toward our Special Education staff in the elementary and secondary schools.  Although we have already conducted a workshop on the IEP, (Individual Education Plan) here on Spirit Lake I have made decision to offer our three-hour IEP presentation to approximately six individuals who have children currently in Special Ed program and who never attended our IEP workshop. Knowledge is power.