Special Education Success Course:
This is a virtual course for parents of children with dyslexia, ADHD, and similar learning challenges. Through a series of live workshops & direct coaching from Veronica, parents will learn how to help their children make academic and behavioral progress at home and at school. See below for details around the 3-5 live workshops and 9 months of coaching access with Veronica.

Registration for the waitlist: March 25-April 1st, 300$

Registration for general public: April 21st-April 28th, 400$

Click the pay now button to register with the waitlist discount below:

Does this sound familiar...

Despite your child's school reassuring you that your child's difficulties with reading and spelling were normal and would decrease with time, you knew something wasn't right. You made the important, but huge, decision to invest in a private evaluation. The results indicate that yes, your child does have a significant learning or behavioral disability. But now what? You have a twenty page psychological evaluation full of terminology that is new to you, and the school still isn't acknowledging this is an actual issue or providing the right support.

While these thoughts are swimming, your child's current learning and self esteem is being impacted. Maybe that is in the form of weekly spelling tests that are impossible for them to do well. Maybe discipline referrals are starting to trickle in. Your child may be hiding assignments and pretending everything is fine, when their grades indicate otherwise. Maybe the hardest thing to hear is your own child's frustration with their difficulty learning despite their motivation to do well.

I made the Special Education Success Course for you.

What you will learn....

Why school is hard for your child and how to make it easier.

We will use the resources already available to you- your child’s evaluations, their test scores, their behavior reports and we will start to connect the dots between how their brain works and what they struggle with on a daily basis.

Once you know that- you will learn exactly what strategies, tools, and resources can help YOUR SPECIFIC CHILD grow in leaps and bounds. I am stressing YOUR SPECIFIC CHILD, because the key to growth is not another curriculum or specialized school or whatever worked for someone else’s kid- it is simply understanding your child.
How to get your child’s school on board to provide the right intervention to help them succeed.

You will learn how to apply special education law to help your child get the support in school they need and deserve. No need to be intimidated, even if you tried and failed before. I am going to guide you in understanding what parts of special education law like IDEA apply to YOUR SPECIFIC CHILD, and how to get your school to put in place what your child needs and is entitled to. You will be prepared to handle and respond to decisions or recommendations from the school that you disagree with.

I will also walk you through how to get more behavioral support at school, so the school will stop calling you at work to deal with your child. You will gain insight into why your child may have a hard time controlling their emotions and have extreme behavioral responses. I will show you both proactive strategies to put in place to prevent extreme behaviors, and also guide you on how to respond to crises.

How to prepare for long term special education advocacy. Our course is only a month, but special education advocacy is not a quick fix. Our children are constantly growing and changing, and in school for at least 13 years. I am going to give you tools you can always come back to when things shift and change, or simply when your child is getting ready to transition grades.
How to take care of yourself on this journey.

You will learn how to narrow down priorities so you do not burn yourself out while helping your child. You will shift your perspective from feeling behind and overwhelmed and let go of the misleading or untrue belief that you are failing your child. You will fully step into the truth that you are doing your best as a parent, and you will be able to celebrate all that you’ve done for your child and family. I will show you some practical tools to process big emotions, and some daily practices to stay centered in gratitude even in the face of uncertainty and set backs.

How it works....

The SESC course is a 4 week course that will be facilitated through a combination of live workshops facilitated over zoom calls, After the workshop phase is completed, you will receive email access with me through December, and access to opt in office hours. There are 3 main zoom workshops, and 2 bonus workshops with their topics outlined below. The calls will be recorded and sent to you after, but attending live will allow you the best experience. Email access with me through December will allow you to get support and coaching in real time, which will be especially helpful during the advocacy steps that you will take. See the focus of each call below to learn more.

Workshop Details...

Workshop 1: Emotional regulation Wednesday May 1st 7:30-9:00 PM EST

We will learn how to identify factors and situations that can send you or your learner into a fight, flight, or frozen state. We will work through potentially modifying the environment to reduce unnecessary stressors, but we will also learn how to regulate our nervous system in the face of uncontrollable events. We will learn a series of self awareness and self-monitoring practices as well including both relaxation and arousal techniques that can be used by both you and your learner. We will also learn about how sensory processing needs can sometimes be misidentified as willful behavior issues, and I will show you some options to respond to these situations differently.

Bonus workshop: Saturday May 4th 10 AM

Learn what a functional behavior assessment is, and how to request one from your school district.

Workshop 2: Specially designed instruction Wednesday May 8th 7:30-9:00 PM EST

You will create an individualized plan to support your learner at home, at school, or both. When we specially design instruction, we use the learner’s psychological evaluation to determine which processing areas (example- speed, memory, ect) will negatively impact academic or behavioral tasks and then we identify what type of accommodations can lessen the negative impact. We will see some examples of how to put these accommodations into practice, and evaluate their potential impact in conjunction with our learner’s personality and inherent strengths. Specially designed instruction will help your learner access the general education curriculum, or essentially make school easier. But that is not the same as actual intervention. We will go over what to consider when either advocating for school based intervention, or deciding to invest in private support. I will share both recommendations and resources.

Bonus Workshop Saturday May 11th 10 AM

If you are specifically interested in teaching your child with dyslexia how to read- we will cover some basic foundational approaches that you can use with limited supplies. We will cover some common challenges you may encounter when teaching someone with dyslexia, and what to do in those scenarios. I will also provide you access to my instructional resources including lesson plan resources to use from short vowel words like cat all the way to multi-syllable words.

Workshop 3: Special Education Advocacy Wednesday May 22nd 7:30-9:00 PM

Now that you have the tools to regulate your emotions in the face of overwhelm, you understand how your learners' disability impacts their academics and behavior-now you are ready to take the final step and advocate for their academic and behavior success. We will cover the federal guidelines that decide which students receive special education services, what those services may look like, and what options are available to you. We will go over scholarships available to parents of students with disabilities, and I will share an overview of what different levels of support may look like. Finally, we will go over how to request support, what that process really entails, and what to do if you meet resistance. I will provide email templates designed for special education advocacy you can use past our session.

Office hours opt in: Every Saturday at 10 AM during the school year.

Who this is for and not for...

This course is best for parents of newly diagnosed children with dyslexia, ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia who are feeling overwhelmed but want the tools to take intentional action to help their children.

This course is also appropriate for teachers and tutors who work with child with dyslexia, ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia.

This is both for the parent who is first starting to advocate for their child and for the parent who has tried and experienced roadblocks when they have advocated in the past.

This is probably not for parents who suspect their children have a learning disability, but have yet to have an evaluation or diagnosis as we will be using the evaluation information to help you understand both how to help your child academically, and how to advocate for them.

Why I created this course

I created this course to simplify the special education process for parents. By the special education process I mean- understanding exactly how your child's disability impacts their learning and helping you get the specific resources they need to grow. This could mean teaching you new strategies and tools, or it could mean helping you advocate for your child.

I knew I needed to make this course when I filled up my 1:1 tutoring sessions and I had to start turning parents away within less than a year of working directly with families. This course is necessary because our school system is not equipped to support students with dyslexia and ADHD. Every trained professional I know has a long waiting list. There is just not yet enough support for our students. I believe training parents with the tools to help their children is a needed service that makes our communities stronger.

What most programs are missing

There are at least ten different curriculums for dyslexia, and completely different ones for ADHD. In Metro Atlanta alone, there are over 100 private schools to choose from. There are THOUSANDS of tutors saying they can help your child. And yet, so many of these programs fall short of being able to meet the needs of complex learners. Why? The focus of most programs is on teaching one type of thing to everyone in roughly the same way.

The curriculums that even specialized schools use fail to teach the user how to adapt based on the child in front of them.

That is the most important part.

That is what this course is designed to help you do. It will help you sort through the chaos of choosing schools, curriculums, and providers. It's designed to help you understand YOUR child & their specific needs. From there, the type of support needed will no longer feel mysterious and vague. No more throwing a bunch of different strategies and tools at the situation and seeing what sticks. No more sleepless nights or emotional breakdowns.

This course is designed to help overwhelmed parents understand what their child needs to be successful academically and behaviorally, and what steps they can take as the parent to get them there. The course is meant to stop you from sprinting towards burn out, and to help you on the marathon that is your child's development. This journey is also for you, to help you regain a sense of calm, clarity, and confidence as a parent.

Calm. Clarity. Confidence.

For you. For your child. For your family.

Who am I, and why is this course so personal for me?

I am Veronica Karwoski, an educational therapist and the owner of Growth Educational Therapy. I am also someone who also grew up with a speech disability and many executive functioning weaknesses. Disability justice is extremely personal to me, and so creating this course has been super special for me.

For the last ten years I have served the Metro Atlanta community as a special education teacher, IEP case manager, and reading specialist.

Like I mentioned earlier, there is no one size fits all approach to special education. So, I have quite a lot of training and education I have acquired over the years in order to help as many different students as I can. I have a Bachelor's of Social Work and a Master's in Behavioral and Learning Disabilities, a reading endorsement, and I am a member of the Academy of Orton-Gillingham. I have also been trained multiple times in de-escalation and crisis prevention, and I have conducted many functional behavior assessments. I am also a certified yoga instructor for both adults and children with ADHD and Autism.

I have facilitated over 100 different special education meetings and plans including IEPs, eligibility meetings and reevaluations, behavior intervention plans, and manifestation determination meetings. I have worked in or alongside four different districts at this point, as well as 2 private schools.

My values are self-determination, empathy, service, tenacity, and perseverance. You will see these values in the way that I cultivate a space for vulnerability, learning, and growth. I believe that all students can grow. Sometimes it is messy and challenging and definitely not linear. But it is possible, and I will help you find what helps your child grow into their best selves.

Testimonials

"I had Veronica work with my son this summer. She was instrumental in keeping him on target with his reading and assignments. Veronica is very organized and communicative. I would highly recommend her."

-Shannon McConnell, parent

“Thank you for everything you have done for Laurel Rose over the past 5 years. She made it across the graduation stage on Thursday, May 25, 2023 with honors. We could not have done it without you!”

-Rebecca Rudich, parent

"I’ve had the privilege and pleasure of working with Veronica for several years. Veronica is the consummate educator: she’s extremely knowledgeable, she’s passionate about helping children, and she’s always looking to expand what she knows. She is so thoughtful about her approach and individualizes her instruction with great precision and detail. Every client with whom she has worked--and she has worked with many--has thrived under her care because of her excellence. I would have my own child work with her and cannot recommend her enough."
-Leslie Quigless, owner of Now I Get It Tutoring

"My son worked with Veronica over the summer to build the foundational writing skills that he was lacking. She was organized, thorough, and communicative. She created a structured program that made his learning and progress visible, making me confident that their sessions were productive and valuable. I highly recommend her!"

-Sarah Bonham, parent

"Veronica worked with my Dyslexic rising 9th grade son over the summer as well as the 1st month of school. She gave him great guidance in his summer reading and set him up for great success in ELA. He received high As on the project and continues to do well this school year.

She also helped him with executive functioning and I firmly believed she is the reason he is doing so well in a new and more challenging school. I highly recommend her and wished I would have found her years ago."

-Debbie Askins, parent

"We hired Veronica to tutor our son, Will, almost three years ago when Will was in 10th grade. We knew Will was very bright, but we felt he was not living up to his academic potential. He had been diagnosed with moderately severe ADD in elementary school, and, with the increased demands of high school, he was struggling.

It was apparent to us from the beginning that Veronica was meticulously organized, responsible and professional, and truly cared about our son’s academic progress. Over the years, Veronica has taught Will good study skills such as keeping a daily agenda, planning ahead by planning “backwards” and other time management strategies. Veronica also taught Will self-advocacy, and he is now comfortable asking for clarity and help from teachers when he needs it. We are proud to say that, Will, now a senior, was accepted into seven of the eight colleges to which he applied.

Veronica has given Will skills that are truly priceless. With her help, we feel confident that Will has the skills he needs to continue being successful in college."

Kathryn Shipe, parent

"I like how you meet me where I am while also treating me with respect, and I appreciate that sometimes you can see things that I can't and point out where my thinking is flawed. I'd recommend you as a tutor because you're both practical and compassionate, and you work efficiently during session and make sure I have a framework to take out of session so I can keep working."

-Emma Eisenberg, student

"Veronica is an exceptional intermediary between parent and child. Parents always have the best intentions, but if the parent doesn't have the experience or the learning challenge themselves, it is almost impossible. Veronica sees what the student doesn't see and what the parent does and passes that knowledge to the student."

-Emma's parent

FAQ

When is it? 3-5 Live workshops between April 28-May 25. Who is it for? Parents of children with dyslexia, ADHD, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia. When are the workshops? Wednesday evenings at 7:30-9:00 PM EST What if I can't make the live workshops? They will be recorded and sent to you. You can also follow up with questions to me during email access. What does email access mean? From the beginning of the course through December, I will provide individualized coaching or advocacy assistance via email Monday through Friday within 24 hours of when you first reach out with a question. This can include tips for helping your child, or providing you with an written response for your child's school if in the advocacy process. What are we doing in the workshops? Learning how to respond to emotional dysregulation, equip you with the tools to help your child learn to read and spell, and make a plan for school advocacy. How much is the course? 300$ for those on the waitlist, 400$ for the general public Do you take insurance? No