 You've been talking to me about how you're concerned about your son being able to graduate in time next year and I've learned about this method of asking questions or formulating questions for parents to advocate for their children. So I thought we could go through the process today of thinking about questions to ask and having you be more prepared when you go to the guidance counselor at the high school. We're going to list some questions and don't stop to try to answer or to say oh this is a dumb question or this is a great question or this is not good enough. You write the question just as you're thinking of it and then if you have any thoughts that are statements then we'll change them up to be a question but they all have to be questions. So the topic today would be your son doesn't have enough credits to graduate next year. What's the first question that comes to mind? What can he do to ensure he graduates at cost? He goes to an alternative high school so is that the issue? Why? He was told he couldn't. Who else could I talk to? Yeah, maybe put it down here. One little exercise we do with analyzing questions is to figure out which questions are closed questions, closed-ended questions and which questions are open-ended questions. A closed-ended question would be a definite answer, a single answer, a yes or a no question usually. And an open-ended question is usually an explanation, a long sentence. Out of these questions you can mark with a C the ones that are closed and an O with the ones that are open. So what would be the advantage of an open question? You find out more details. What is the disadvantage of an open question? Too many choices. That could be too many choices and more information that you really needed. How about a closed question? What's the advantage of a closed question? It's just straightforward. You definitely have the answer right then and there. What would be a disadvantage? You don't get all the information. You might not get all. So there's advantages and disadvantages to each one. Is there a question in this list that you think you might want to change from closed to open or open to closed? Maybe could you please tell me all the cost? You can write it next to it if you want to. Now think about these questions and think about again my son doesn't have enough credits to graduate high school next year. If you had only three questions that you could ask, which would be the three questions that you would ask? Call the director and ask her who else we could speak to other than guidance concerning this. So put a star next to that one. And then I would ask all the options to ensure that Chris graduates in class and the cost associated with them. Okay, so star those two. Why didn't you learn? I'm going to go a different route. Sometimes you have to go above to get answers instead of just being told no. Right. Because there has to be options. And there's got to be another way. So that's my... How do you feel? Better. Because now I know who to contact and what questions to ask. Alright, thank you. Thank you. We're working on a new method in which we can help parents formulate some questions to be prepared for IEP meetings. I'm not sure if you are aware that for IEPs you're part of the team. So there's teachers, but as a guardian of your brother, you're in place of your mom, right? You come in as your mom and then you go back home and you tell mom what happened at the meetings. So as a guardian you're there as part of the team. So you get to make choices too and decisions. I think I can do it this way that I can help them out more. When I go to the meeting, then I know what can I ask, you know, and how can I ask and when. For parents to formulate their own questions is extremely important because I'm not going to be there with them all the time. I'm not going to be able to hand them a list of questions. They know what's in their hearts. They know their children better than anyone else. They can... Even though they may not think that they know what questions to ask, they have them in them.