Who We Are

Parents Advocacy in the School has been assisting parents, children and families with concerns regarding special needs for many years.

Our accomplishments during this time include the first direct involvement of a representative of PAS in obtaining an important Trillium Grant involving the role of collaboration between teachers and parents in the school system, the publication by the director of PAS, Dr. Norm Forman, of the only Canadian parent advocacy book to date: Exceptional Children-Ordinary Schools: Getting the Education You Want for Your Special Needs Child, and the production of curricula, derived from this book, for a Parent Consultant in Advocacy Training program run on the distance learning website of the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario. In addition, Dr. Forman has produced a unique guide called “Take an Advocate to School: A Resource Guide to Finding and Keeping a Qualified Parent Advocate.”

As a member, and former Chair, of the Special Education Advisory Committee of the Toronto District School Board Dr. Forman is able to share important information with parents and others involved in assisting students with exceptionalities. He currently serves as the Chairperson for a committee designed to increase awareness of the work and relevance of SEAC so that parents and families can benefit.

He has taught in schools at the primary, secondary and university levels. Dr. Forman has also worked as a school psychologist, a director of student services, a consultant to Bloorview Children's Hospital, and as an advisor to Children's Services in the Ministry of Health.

Teaching and training are also important aspects of the work of PAS. With this in mind Dr. Forman will be offering Parent Advocate Coaching Sessions where parents can learn all about how to help their children with special needs in the school. Currently he is developing curricula for parent advocacy awareness, regarding children with special needs, to be utilized by parents and other stakeholders across Canada.

Parent’s Advocacy in the School (PAS) is made up of people who have a wide range of experience in the areas of schooling, advocacy, education and related endeavors. The founder, Dr. Forman, is an educator, psychologist, author and parent advocate. He has been involved in his field for over twenty-five years, has written the textbook used for the website training program: Exceptional Children-Ordinary Schools : Getting the Education You Want for Your Special Needs Child and is one of the leading parent advocates in Canada.

The goals of PAS include actively networking with parents and others who are involved in the education of children and youth with exceptionalities and creating opportunities for parents, school personnel, and members of special needs associations to share information and resources in order to work in greater harmony on behalf of the children.
PAS informs parents who have issues with schools about how they can use community groups and organizations such as SEACs (Special Education Advisory Committees), the CAS (Children’s Aid Society) and the Human Rights Legal Support Centre to help them in direct and meaningful ways, on behalf of their children with special needs, so as to increase their sense of empowerment and reduce their feelings of isolation and frustration.

PAS fully supports collaborative approaches, (as explored in a Trillium Grant) and also promoted by the Ontario Ministry of Education documents, between parents and the schools, using conflict resolution and mediation. The Trillium grant program presentation: The Special Education Advocacy Institute, with which Dr. Forman was associated, provided convincing proof that working together in good faith, with true caring, openness, accountability and transparency can result in extraordinary outcomes on behalf of children with exceptionalities in the schools.