Melinda has helped my entire family through our journey of all the bureaucracy and trials and tribulations that come along with a special needs child in our school districts. My family was first introduced to Melinda at House Ear Institute when we were taking our youngest daughter Jasmine for hearing evaluations. Melinda was brought in to discuss with us our concerns about the choice of a cochlear implant for Jasmine. She was a breath of fresh air, because up until that point we were only dealing with audiologists, doctors, and people that work at a desk or behind a counter telling us what we should do. Melinda was able to share her own personal story of her daughter and the choices she had to make for her daughter and choosing a cochlear implant. Melinda helped us feel that we were dealing with a real person that had gone through what we were currently going through. A Friendship was born!

Melinda has since helped us with every IFSP to IEP we have had with our district. We do not look at Melinda as a hired help to navigate us through the IEP process; we respect Melinda as a team member on Jasmine’s IEP team. We look at Melinda as a family friend that gives us the support, technical, negotiation, spiritually and common sense we need to survive all the encounters we come in contact with during our journey. I recall a recent SELPA negotiation I had by myself with the SELPA director and Superintendent of the school district. When I was finished with the meeting and was ready to share the news I called Melinda first and then my wife second. Now no disrespect to my wife, she is the most important person in my life, my wife is my better half; my point is when I left the meeting my first contact and thought of sharing the news with was Melinda. I guess she is such a help with our daughter and keeps me focused that I had to share with her the good news first.

Melinda has helped me with everything from references to attorneys for due process cases, to proof reading my emails to districts, talking with me on late nights after a long day of work, and being there at all the meetings we have for Jasmine.

Overall I feel Melinda has walked the walk and is currently walking the walk with her daughter. I want a professional well experienced person on my side when it comes to dealing with the district and SELPA. I trust Melinda full hearted and recommend her to any family in need of assistance with navigating IFSP’s or IEP’s. Anyone who reads this is more than welcome to email me direct at jwall459@yahoo.com or Melinda can provide a phone number upon request.

Melinda you are the greatest!

Melinda worked wonders for our family. My little girl was floundering in her regular classroom, falling farther behind all the time. Her IEP was woefully inadequate. Within a few months of working with Melinda, my daughter had the services she needed, and the change in her outlook was dramatic.

This is our story: My now 10 year-old daughter was diagnosed with Early Onset Bipolar Disorder and ADHD at the age of 6, in the first grade. Although my background as a pediatric psychologist was helpful in terms of identifying the problem and getting her appropriate medical help, and although I had watched my own patients go through the struggle, nothing prepared me for the emotional turmoil of the uphill battle I would face against the school district. Every IEP meeting felt like a minefield. Although I knew the rules of the game, I still couldn't seem to get my little girl the help she needed. I'm a rational, normally calm parent. I know the system well, having been a professor in an MA program for teachers and School Psychologists. Still, because it was my own child, my frustration with the seeming immobility of the school system would overwhelm me during the IEP meetings. The school did the bare minimum to accommodate her, and even that was not done well. She was placed with teachers who were obviously inappropriate for her, making a bad situation far worse. By the end of third grade, my daughter was afraid to go to school.

At the beginning of fourth grade I was determined to do something different. I did what I had advised my patients to do: hire a professional advocate. What a difference! Melinda helped first by pointing out all the ways in which my daughter was entitled to help she was not receiving. She asked me to describe what I thought the "ideal placement" for her would look like. That became our goal. I prepared an organized notebook with all of my daughter's assessments, previous IEP notes, medical history - well in advance of the first meeting that year. During the IEP's Melinda was friendly, but doggedly firm in her protection of my daughter's rights. It took several meetings, but in the end-my daughter's placement looked remarkably like the "ideal placement" I had described at the beginning of the process. My daughter went from once weekly RSP and twice monthly counseling (which I'd been repeatedly told was adequate for her educational needs) - in a classroom of 31 children, to full-time special education in a class of 12, with psychological services for my daughter and our family provided at no cost by Child and Family Services.

My little girl is thriving, no longer afraid to go school; she's learning at the upper limit of her abilities because she is finally appropriately placed. Melinda completely turned things around. I have already recommended her to parents with similar struggles, and would recommend her to anyone faced with the daunting task of navigating "the system" in order to get help for their child.