Yes, there are advocates here. My wife and I have talked to quite a few of them. In our case they have been of little help. But they are nice people who do try to help. So I am thankful they are there.

The problem with the IDEA (and believe me when I say I am very familiar with the laws) is that it is a good intentioned law that is written with numerous holes in it and with very vague language. What at first appears to be cut and dry say something like "least restrictive environment" is not cut and dry at all. Sure by law the school must comply with the IDEA as well as several other laws that are active. But they don't. I'll give you an example from our case. But keep in mind it's very involved and I am trying to keep it short.

My wife and I had the school system do all of the evaluations for our older son (at the time was 5 years old). In the beginning we trusted the school and had no reason to believe they had anything but our sons best interests at heart. I asked numerous times to watch or take part in the evaluations and was told no (this even though many of the tests suggest that the parents should be there to help calm the child if necessary or the results of the test will not be accurate). In the end, to make a long story short. Their result were ridicules. They wanted to just throw our son into a special education class with far more severely handicapped children than my son. Their findings had no resemblance to our sons abilities or demeanor. We had to go out and get our own private evaluations (an expensive proposition). The private evaluations we got were in direct contrast to the schools findings. The law says the school has to take into account all private evaluations. The schools position was "ok, we looked at your evaluations and took them into consideration but we still feel we are correct in our findings and our recommendations stand". Next comes the court cases. We went through several. I have my two psychologists that did the private evaluations and the school has a never ending supply of teachers and psychologists that will come forward and testify to lies. So we have two witnesses and the school has 20. That coupled with the fact that the judges in these cases are very pro school. They see themselves as protecting the schools funding and usually rule that way. So it's almost impossible to win in the court system. Of course we could have hired a lawyer and sued the school but who has that kind of money. We don't. The above was a very abbreviated version. As I said it's long and involved. I would be happy to answer any questions you have. Or your friends have for that matter. I took the time to find out the laws and understand them fairly well. I could easily be an advocate for other parents. But my hands are full most of the time just home schooling my two sons. Bottom line is that the schools where I live only care about money. Will lie to get what they want and if you disagree with them will think nothing of turning the case over to their internal lawyers. Very difficult to win. And it takes many hours of reading and going to meetings. I doubt few parents have the time to invest. So I think most parents just go along to get along. My wife and I are not going to do this. Our battles with the school system cost us plenty. Both in money and our sanity. I also had to quit my job so I could home school my sons. Believe me when I say it is very hard on both of us.

Hope I didn't ramble. I could spend all day telling you the horror stories. I just don't have the time. Feel free to ask any other questions you may have. I will try to answer the best I can.