Communicating with Schools 

In this section, the handbook makes the assumption that the reader is a parent who has a child in a school rather than in a homeschooling environment. Still, because those parents who homeschool their children still need to communicate about their children with other individuals and agencies, the following advice should still be relevant and helpful to them. And again, much of the information in this section is given far more detailed development in the Pam and Pete Wright book, From Emotions to Advocacy, Chapters 21-27.

Possibly the single most important rule for parents who wish to advocate successfully for their children is that successful relationships between parents and schools lead most effectively to healthy educational environments for the students. In case after case, parents have told how their success stories were due to their having open lines of communication with teachers and supportive school administrators dedicated to caring for a student with Barth syndrome (BTHS). And, in almost every unsuccessful educational experience, parents found themselves in negative relationships with teachers and administrators in their son’s school.

To be sure, parents cannot always control the nature of their relationships with educators, especially when an educator seems reluctant to care properly for their child. Still, the primary piece of advice that this handbook can offer is the following: parents must try very hard to cultivate positive, friendly, and mutually supportive relationships with the people in their child’s school.