Parents Advocating Together is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation formed by parents for the purpose of helping families who have children with disabilities. We offer services which are low-cost and donation based. Our goals are to assure that children with disabilities, acquire specialized education and services in order to prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living. PAT's advocates will review client's documentation and join clients in meetings with their school district. While we don't provide legal representation, our advocates can help you work through the pitfalls and confusing language - often avoiding the adversarial conditions that can sometimes develop between parents and schools.

 

To become a client of Parents Advocating Together, email our Intake Coordinator at . Please include your full name, child's name, address, phone number, name of school, grade, and disability.

We can not take any action on your case until you have retained our services, and provide all of your documents, including copies (not originals) of your child's educational records, assessments and IEPs in a 3" binder with tabs. To protect the integrity of our advocates, we can not offer specific recommendations or advice before a thorough record review. Once an advocate reviews all your educational files, you will be contacted for a phone consultation. After your phone consultation, if you are interested in our advocate attending your child's IEP, ask the school district for more than one time/date to be offered. Contact the advocate who provided your phone consultation directly to verify the IEP date works for their schedule. You will also need to inform the school district, in writing at least 24 hours in advance, that you intend to audio record the IEP meeting. You can email the program specialist, or district representative, to provide notice of your intent to audio record, or you can handwrite your intend to audio record on their IEP Notice of Meeting form. You will need to purchase an audio voice recorder. Our advocates may also audio record the IEP meeting, however due to liability concerns, the advocate is not responsible to retain or preserve the audio recording.

Monthly meetings are now being held at the IHOP Restaurant in Rancho Bernardo - 16759 Bernardo Center Dr San Diego, CA 92128. For information on current events at PAT and within the community, see our Events page. Meetings are usually on the 2nd Wednesday of each month from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm.