Those were words of more than one parent I spoke with whose children had been tested to see if they needed special education services. I could always hear discouragement in their voices as they spoke.

I heard same tone of voice in a person a little closer to home just recently. A relative of mine has a son who has just been evaluated, and parents had been given a copy of report. He and his wife both have college educations, and they still had difficulty understanding what was being said. He looked totally helpless as he showed me paperwork.

It's important to realize that every occupation in life has it's own terms, and special education is no different. Unless you work in that occupation on a daily basis, you can't be expected to know what those terms mean - not much consolation when it's your child's education and success that are at stake.

The good news is that there is help out there.

Here are some suggestions for how you can become an informed, active participant in meeting:

1) Contact special education office in your school district. Either someone there can explain it to you, or they can tell you who to talk with to help you understand report.

2) Set up an appointment to speak with special education person in your child's school.

Despite increased importance of a high school education for entry to postsecondary education and labor market, high school completion rate has shown little to no gains over last four decades. Data from Bureau of Labor Statistics reveal that those who learn more earn more.

Those who have less than a high school education represent largest proportion of unemployed and on average will earn less than $20 thousand per year. The Find Your Future program has a two-part goal; to help reduce drop out rate and to target those who have already dropped out.