Parent Advocate User Guide

Your step-by-step guide to getting the most from Guidance and Assistance.

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Getting Started: Your 6-Step Path

Create Your Account

Choose Guidance or Assistance

Use Guidance for information. Use Assistance for structured tools that help complete a task.

Add Information & Documents

Add relevant profile information and upload current school or student documents when appropriate.

Describe Your Need

Tell Parent Advocate the concern, desired outcome, important dates, people involved, and context.

Review & Edit the Results

Check names, dates, facts, tone, requested actions, timelines, and fit for the child’s needs.

Approve Before Final Use

Edit as needed and approve before using a document or before supported outbound communication is sent.

Using Guidance — Answers & Information

Guidance is ideal when you want clear information or help understanding options related to special education.

Use Guidance for:

Parent rights and responsibilities
Procedures and timelines
IEPs and evaluations
Services and accommodations
General special-education questions

Example questions:

What are my rights if the school delays an evaluation?
What services might my child qualify for?
What should be included in an IEP?
What is the IEP process and timeline?
Help me understand this special-education term.

Using Assistance — Tools That Take Action

Assistance is for structured help completing a specific parent-advocacy task. Review, edit, and approve the result before final use.

1. Send Mail

Use when you need a draft communication or supported approved delivery.

2. Schedule Meetings

Use to prepare or request meetings and organize dates and follow-up.

3. Analyze Document

Use to review IEPs, evaluations, progress reports, school communications, or other relevant materials.

4. Build IEP Draft

Use when there is an existing IEP draft that needs to be updated, strengthened, or revised.

5. Create New IEP Draft

Use to create an initial IEP draft as a parent-preparation tool, including needs, goals, services, supports, and accommodations to discuss with the IEP team.

6. Generate Plan

Use to build a long-term roadmap: 0–3 years, 3–5 years, and 5+ years.

What to Upload

Use current, relevant documents when the Assistance workflow supports uploaded document context.

IEPs and amendments
Evaluations and eligibility reports
Progress reports and grades
Teacher notes and school communications
Relevant therapy or medical reports when they relate to education

Data Set

The Data Set stores the information Parent Advocate uses to personalize supported Assistance workflows.

Parent/contact information
School/team contacts
Uploaded student and school documents

When uploading files, choose the document type that best matches the file. Accurate document types help the Assistance tools use the right information.

Files Used By Assistance Tools

Analyze Document

Uses the file selected in the Uploaded File field.

Build IEP Draft

Uses IEP and Grades.

Create New IEP Draft

Uses Evaluation Report, Grades, the IEP core format/template uploaded as Other, and may also use an existing IEP if available.

Generate Plan

Uses IEP and Grades.

Best Practices

Be specific about the concern and desired outcome.
Include important dates, names, and details.
Use current relevant documents.
Keep copies of school communications.
Review AI-generated content carefully.
Verify names, dates, facts, requests, and deadlines.
Use Parent Advocate as educational and organizational assistance; it is not a substitute for legal advice.

Ready to Get Started?

Open Parent Advocate and begin with Guidance or Assistance.

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