Our Services
We provide a range of services tailored to each client. All of our services are provided with a commitment to ethical practice. Our intake process includes a 30-minute call to discuss if and how we can serve your specific needs.
Special Education Parent Navigation and Advocacy
Melissa Stein, M.A.L.T.SpEd., CAS, partners with parents to provide direct advocacy to school teams and navigates the special education process and available services to empower their efficacy as their child's best advocate.
Melissa Stein ensures your child's school has gathered adequate data to fully understand your child's unique strengths and needs, their disability and its impact on their current and future performance outcomes before working with school teams to create Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) that include SMART goals, appropriate supports, accommodations and modifications, school-parent communication, and evidence-based services that leverage your child's strengths to achieve their social-emotional, behavioral, and/or academic goals.
We help parents avoid common challenges, identifying when schools are not providing appropriate special education, communicating with school staff and leadership, preparing parents for IEP meeting messaging, attending IEP meetings as a special education consultant, and monitoring school compliance with parental rights and procedural safeguards.
Roadmap: Navigation for families facing a recent Autism identification
This service is designed for families whose child recently received an autism diagnosis. Melissa Stein helps parents build a roadmap of next steps, including helping parents assess their goals for their child and how, when and where to advocate for their child towards reaching those goals. We also help parents understand how existing evaluations inform special education decisions, and identify areas requiring additional data. While we are not clinicians, we can explain how different disciplines can support your child, and we work with parents to develop a list of questions to ask providers to assess if they are a good fit for your child and your family.
Other Services
Educational Testing
Melissa provides comprehensive academic evaluations privately or as part of an IEE. While she also offers basic autism assessments, only physicians and psychologists are qualified to make a diagnosis.
Professional Development
Melissa works with non-profit organizations to increase their understanding of autism and supports their efforts to make their programs and publications more inclusive.
Advocate Navigator LLC Embraces Neurodiversity
Each child has unique needs, strengths and abilities. All people with disabilities have an inalienable right to self-advocacy and self-determination.
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We navigate. You advocate.