If you’re parenting a child who receives (or should receive) special education services you have to know about the Parent Training and Information Center (PTI) and/or the Community Parent Resource Center (CPRC) in your state. Some states have more than one. The centers’ mission is to:

provide training and information to parents of infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities and to professionals who work with children. This assistance helps parents to participate more effectively with professionals in meeting the educational needs of children and youth with disabilities. The Parent Centers work to improve educational outcomes for children and youth with all disabilities (emotional, learning, mental, and physical).

This is mandated by IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act). Some states’ PTIs are more active and visible than others, but all states have at least one. There are also PTIs for Native Americans and for those living at US Military installations.

One incredibly valuable thing that PTIs do is educate parents on special education law and procedures. Last winter I took a day-long course given by our local PTI. (Since then our state’s PTI has changed to Parent to Parent of Georgia.) The PACER Center in Minnesota is the “headquarters” if you will of the PTI/CPRC alliance and operates the Technical Assistance Alliance to all the other centers.

Some of the centers offer direct advocacy and assistance to families by attending IEP meetings or offering personal consultative support. Others focus directly on training, which is often free or at very low cost to the parent.

One of the PTI’s that I’m most impressed with is an organization called Parents Helping Parents (PHP) in California. Their website is an awesome wealth of information. And it looks like they always have an active roster of events, support group meetings, and trainings in a variety of topics. Their online IEP Preparation tool, though, is especially useful and available to anyone, regardless of where you live. It provides a very comprehensive checklist for preparing yourself for your child’s IEP meeting.

Each PTI or CPRC offers different services. In Georgia, ours has just started webinars where professionals in certain areas are available to “chat” in the evenings. This month’s was on autism and next month’s is on sensory integration. Ours also offers a searchable on-line database of resources throughout the state. Others offer advocacy and lobbying efforts, training for professionals or mentor programs. So today’s Resource Tuesday offering is not one organization, but over 100. Check out your state’s PTI/CRPC to learn more about special education and disability information in your state.


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