Everything No One Tells You about Parenting a Disabled Child: Your Guide to the Essential Systems, Services, and Supports

The honest, relatable, actionable roadmap to the practicalities of parenting a disabled child, featuring personal stories, expert interviews, and the foundational information parents need to know about topics including diagnosis, school, doctors, insurance, financial planning, disability rights, and what life looks like as a parent caregiver. For parents of disabled children, navigating the systems, services, and supports is a daunting, and often overwhelming, task. No one explains to parents how to figure out the complex medical, educational, and social service systems essential to their child's success. Over and over, parents are being asked to reinvent the exact same wheels. According to the CDC, "Every 4 1/2 minutes a baby is born with a birth defect in the United States." That's 1 in 33. There's no handbook for how to do this. Until now. Presented with empathy and humor, Everything No One Tells You About Parenting a Disabled Child: Your Guide to the Essential Systems, Services, and Supports gives parents the tools to conquer the stuff, so that they can spend less time filling out forms, and more time loving their children exactly as they are. With over a decade of experience navigating these systems for her own child, author Kelley Coleman presents key information, templates, and wisdom alongside practical advice from over 40 experts, covering topics such as diagnosis, working with your medical team, insurance, financial planning, disability rights and advocacy, and individualized education plans. Everything No One Tells You About Parenting a Disabled Child gives parents the tools they need to stop wasting unnecessary time, money, and stress. If you need to know how to actually do the things, this book is for you.