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For families with children who have newly identified disabilities, navigating public schools, Hawaii’s special education system and federal and state laws protecting children with disabilities is a complex and confusing undertaking. It is one that parents and their children are thrust into with little or no warning.

For 25 years, has served as Hawaii’s Parent Training & Information Center. PTIs exist in every state as mandated under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004. PTI services focus on ensuring the educational rights of children and students with any disabilities.

We provide technical assistance, training, mentoring and advocacy specifically to assist parents as they help their children with disabilities to learn and thrive within Hawaii’s public special education system. All of our services are free to families of children and youth with or at risk of disabilities, ages zero through 26 years.

Parents of children with disabilities in Hawaii are effective participants and partners to improve early intervention, education, transition services and results for children with disabilities.

In light of that, we launched the LDAH Parents as Partners volunteer program in 2010 to give opportunities to previously served parents interested in becoming involved and better equipped to support other parents of children with disabilities. Within the first year of the program, eight parents committed to “pay it forward” by mentoring other parents and helping them with the complexities of navigating public schools, special education programs, and federal and state law protecting children with disabilities. Today our PAP network numbers more than 15 parents who touch the lives of dozens of others across the state each year.

PAP volunteers support other parents of children with disabilities by sharing information and resources, modeling mentoring and advocacy skills, partnering with community resources to improve local service systems and contributing to increased parental involvement at all levels affecting their children with disabilities.

PAP volunteers may partner with the Learning Disabilities Association of Hawaii on a long-term or short-term basis and while volunteering, working primarily under the guidance and supervision of our parent consultants. Parent consultants identify and match volunteers with parents served in a mentor-mentee relationship. All mentor-mentee partnerships are decided with thoughtfulness about the importance of the relationship with the hope it will be truly symbiotic. Factors contributing to pairing choices include experiences, needs, strengths, geography, gender, culture and others.

One of our PAP volunteers remarked that when she moved to Hawaii and her son started high school, even though she had many years of experience working with school systems, she became a much better advocate for her son with the help of the association. She now connects with other parents to support them and to help provide the peace of mind that they are doing everything possible to ensure a successful future for their children.

She noted that we’re all in this together, with schools, parents and professionals working to provide the resources for families with children with learning disabilities to build skills, confidence and achievement in school and beyond. We are proud to partner with these parents to meet the needs of children with or at risk of disabilities throughout Hawaii.