Parent Mentor

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Parent Mentor

Parent Mentor image
Heather Pence, Parent Mentor at Piqua City Schools

Through a competitive grant from the Ohio Department of Education, the Piqua City Schools has the honor of being able to offer our families the support of a Parent Mentor. 

Our Parent Mentor, Heather Pence, is available to support families, community members, students, teachers, and staff as they work to meet the needs of our children with disabilities as well as students not yet identified as having a disability. 


Parent Mentor services are free of charge. Her office is at the Piqua Board of Education office at 215 Looney Rd., Piqua, OH 45356.  She may be reached by telephone at 773-4321, ext. 6716, and also by e-mail at [email protected]
 
For a more in-depth look at what a Parent Mentor does please view the short 3-minute video below. 

For more information about the Parent Mentor Project visit https://parentmentor.osu.edu/

What is a Parent Mentor - Videos are created by the previous Parent Mentor









 EXCITING NEWS!!!!!!!

 The Ohio State University has created a new Parent Mentor Project  Web page. It is packed full of great resources and supporting agencies for families with special needs children.



                                                                                                                                
The Ohio Department of Education now has a new web page available to better serve Families of Students with Disabilities!


                                                                                                                               

NEW RESOURCE NOW AVAILABLE TO FAMILIES: 
100 Day Kit For Families Of Young Children Newly Diagnosed with Autism 

                                                                                                                                   

Do you currently have a student with a disability, who will soon be graduating from High School? 
Do you need help navigating future planning? Look no further!!! 
                                                                           

Guide for Families, Parents, Guardians of Students with Disabilities:

https://www.bestcolleges.com/resources/guide-families-parents-student-disabilities/

https://www.bestcolleges.com/resources/diversity-equity-inclusion/disability-scholarships

                                                                                                                                

                               Parent Scholarship Program

OCDBE offers parents/guardians of a child registered on the Ohio Deafblind Census the opportunity to support and increase their knowledge about deafblindness by assisting them in attending conferences, trainings, and workshops. To learn more about the program or submit a request, visit https://www.ohiodeafblind.com/for-families/scholarships/.
My Favorite Poem 

Welcome To Holland

by Emily Perl Kingsley

Copyright©1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. 

All rights reserved. 

Reprinted by permission of the author.


I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel.  It's like this……


When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy.  You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans.  The Coliseum.  The Michelangelo David.  The gondolas in Venice.  You may learn some handy phrases in Italian.  It's all very exciting.


After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives.  You pack your bags and off you go.  Several hours later, the plane lands. The flight attendant comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.”


"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy!  I'm supposed to be in Italy.  All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy.”


But there's been a change in the flight plan.  They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.


The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease.  It's just a different place.


So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language.  And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.


It’s just a different place.  It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy.  But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips.  Holland even has Rembrandts.


But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there.  And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."  


And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.


But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

*     *    *

Your Role During ETR/IEP Meetings *ALL VIDEOS MADE BY PREVIOUS PARENT MENTOR*

Your Role During ETR and IEP Meeting

The Evaluation Team - Your Child's Super Heroes

Transition Planning - Postsecondary Goals and Your Child's Future

Medical Diagnosis Vs. Educational Disability

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