Parent Mentors provide free support and resources to families of children with disabilities and school staff members.

• Improving student success, especially in literacy

• Planning transitions from age 3 to age 22 or until the student graduates from high school

• Understanding the rights and responsibilities of families and students

• Attend individualized education program (IEP) meetings and other meetings at the request of families or staff members

• Host information sessions for families and staff members

• Connect families, schools and communities by providing links to local services and organizations that support students with disabilities

• Provide information about federal, state and local special education laws and policies

• Share updated information about special education, such as timelines and deadlines, eligibility processes, informed consent, prior written notice and other requirements

Amy Beam has recently stepped into the Parent Mentor position with Zane Trace Local School District. She is a graduate of Chillicothe High School and holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Ohio State University. Beam has been living in Chillicothe since 1995 with her husband, Wayne, and their five children. She served three years of Active Duty in the Navy Nurse Corps from 1988-91, and since has been a substitute school nurse while raising her children where she homeschooled four out of five over the course of 17 years. During this time, the family was navigating their oldest son’s education from early intervention in central Florida, to our local Carver Community Center, to Pioneer School, and finally The Pickaway Ross Career and Technology Center. Beam states, “Alex (their oldest son) happens to have Down Syndrome, but our life with him has been way more UP than Down!