100 Colorado parent questions

COLORADO · FAMILY NAVIGATION

Start with what your family needs. Leave with an action, a source, and someone to contact.

This is a curated starting collection for families of children with disabilities, not a measured ranking of the most common questions.

All family resources · Make a personal plan · Browse the source directory

Clear search

100 of 100 questions shown.

Getting started and early childhood

We just learned our child has a disability. Where do we begin?

Your next step: Write down the three barriers affecting daily life most. Ask a parent navigator which school, health, and community contacts fit those needs.

Who can help us without selling an evaluation or treatment?

Your next step: Ask PEAK about education questions or Family Voices about health-service navigation. Confirm what support is free and what requires another provider.

How do I refer a child under three for developmental concerns?

Your next step: Use Early Intervention Colorado’s referral route. Describe concerns with communication, movement, learning, or participation, and ask what happens after referral.

Who evaluates a preschooler ages three through five?

Your next step: Find the local Child Find contact. Ask about evaluation, preschool supports, and how to include information from existing providers.

How do we prepare for the move from early intervention to preschool?

Your next step: Ask both teams to identify the receiving contact, records needed, and transition meeting. Keep a written plan for supports across the change.

Can I connect with a parent who has been through something similar?

Your next step: Request a peer parent match or group through Parent to Parent. Share your preferred language and the kind of experience you want to discuss.

Where can a Spanish-speaking family find disability support?

Your next step: Contact El Grupo VIDA and ask for support in Spanish. Tell the school or agency separately what language access you need for meetings and documents.

We moved to Colorado. How do we restart services?

Your next step: Make a list of existing supports, authorizations, and school records. Ask the receiving school and health program which steps need a new application or transfer review.

What should I put in a family records folder?

Your next step: Keep evaluations, plans, notices, requests, and responses in dated sections. Add a one-page summary of strengths, communication, access needs, and current questions.

How can my child take part in decisions from the beginning?

Your next step: Ask how your child wants to communicate preferences. Bring those preferences and needed communication supports to planning meetings; do not substitute an adult’s assumptions.

Evaluations, dyslexia, and learning

My child struggles to read. Who can help on the Western Slope?

Your next step: Contact the Dyslexia Foundation of Western Colorado about screening and consultation. Ask about fees, service area, and availability; request a school evaluation separately when concerns warrant it.

The school says it does not test for dyslexia. What can I request?

Your next step: Describe the reading and writing difficulties in a written evaluation request. Ask which assessments will address the suspected needs and for prior written notice if the district refuses.

Can autism or ADHD coexist with a reading disability?

Your next step: Ask the team to examine persistent academic difficulties alongside attention and regulation needs. An existing diagnosis does not answer every question about learning.

The old evaluation was limited by refusal or virtual testing. Now what?

Your next step: Identify what the earlier testing could not establish. Request an updated evaluation plan that addresses participation barriers and gathers information across appropriate methods and settings.

Is a dyslexia screening the same as a comprehensive evaluation?

Your next step: Use screening to identify concerns and next questions. Ask what additional assessment is needed to understand the child’s profile and educational needs.

Which reading skills should the team investigate?

Your next step: Ask how the evaluation will examine word reading, decoding, spelling, fluency, and comprehension, and how attention or language needs affect interpretation.

How do I request an evaluation beyond reading?

Your next step: List each suspected need and its effect on school participation. Ask the team how evaluation will address communication, motor, sensory, academic, and social-emotional concerns that apply.

What if I disagree with the school’s evaluation?

Your next step: Identify the unanswered questions and ask about an independent educational evaluation. Review the district’s criteria and IDEA’s IEE process before assuming reimbursement.

My child has a READ plan. Is that enough?

Your next step: Ask what the literacy data show, how instruction is changing, and whether a special education evaluation is also needed. Bring examples of persistent difficulty.

How can I tell whether reading instruction is helping?

Your next step: Request the skill targets, instructional approach, frequency, and repeated progress data. Ask what will change if progress is inadequate and when the team will review it.

IEPs, 504 plans, and school access

How do I prepare for an IEP meeting?

Your next step: Send your priorities ahead of time. Bring current examples, your child’s preferences, and questions about goals, services, access, and progress.

What is the difference between an IEP and a 504 plan?

Your next step: Ask which process addresses the student’s instruction and access needs. PEAK can help you prepare questions; the label should not replace discussion of actual supports.

How should an IEP describe present levels and goals?

Your next step: Ask for a clear starting point, measurable targets, and how progress will be reported. Connect each target to a need affecting learning or participation.

How do I document services that were not provided?

Your next step: Keep dates, scheduled services, what occurred, and resulting barriers. Ask the team to reconcile records and discuss how it will address missed support.

Can we discuss inclusion before changing placement?

Your next step: Ask which supports were tried, what data show, and how access with peers would be supported. Request a written explanation of the proposed placement decision.

  • CDE: IEP parent training

    Parent learning modules covering evaluation, IEPs, and participation.

    Colorado

  • IDEA: prior written notice

    Federal rule describing notice of proposed or refused identification, evaluation, placement, or FAPE actions.

    Federal reference

How do I request assistive technology at school?

Your next step: Describe the task the student cannot access. Ask for assessment or trials, staff and student training, and a way to measure whether the tool helps.

What should I do when transportation prevents school attendance?

Your next step: Document the transportation barrier and its impact. Ask the IEP team and transportation office for a coordinated plan that addresses individual access and safety needs.

How do I ask for prior written notice?

Your next step: Ask the district to document the action proposed or refused, its reasons, and the information used. Keep the notice with the original request.

Which special education dispute route should I consider?

Your next step: Use CDE’s comparison of dispute options. Match the concern and requested remedy to the process, and seek advice about deadlines before filing.

How do I get education records or correct factual errors?

Your next step: Make a specific records request and keep a copy. Use the school’s records process for disputed factual entries and ask for its written response.

Behavior, regulation, and safety

Behavior is dominating meetings. How do we keep learning in view?

Your next step: Ask the team to review academic access and progress alongside behavior data. Request a plan that addresses both instruction and regulation needs.

When should we ask about a functional behavioral assessment?

Your next step: Describe the recurring behavior, what happens before and after, and its effect on learning. Ask whether an assessment would clarify supports rather than relying on punishment.

How do we make a behavior support plan useful?

Your next step: Ask for prevention strategies, replacement skills, staff responsibilities, and a method to review results. Include the student’s communication and sensory access needs.

My child is repeatedly sent home. What should I track?

Your next step: Record each removal, duration, reason given, and instruction missed. Ask the school to explain the pattern and review access, services, and procedural protections.

What should I do after a restraint or seclusion incident?

Your next step: Request the incident documentation and applicable policy. Record injuries or concerns factually, seek needed care, and ask CDE or Disability Justice about review options.

How do we address bullying linked to disability?

Your next step: Report specific incidents and their effect on access in writing. Ask for immediate supports, an investigation contact, and a follow-up plan.

My child is refusing school. Where can we start?

Your next step: Track barriers such as anxiety, sensory demands, peer safety, and inaccessible work. Ask school and health providers to coordinate a return-and-support plan.

How do we plan for elopement or wandering at school?

Your next step: Ask for an individualized safety plan with prevention, supervision, communication, and emergency-response roles. Review how the plan protects participation as well as safety.

Where can we turn for a mental health crisis?

Your next step: Call or text 988 for crisis support. If there is immediate physical danger or a medical emergency, contact emergency services; do not wait for a website follow-up.

  • 988 Colorado

    Call or text 988 for mental health or suicide crisis support; the website also offers chat and walk-in information.

    Colorado · 988

Where can a young person begin counseling outside a crisis?

Your next step: Check I Matter’s current participation requirements and appointment options. If insured, also ask the health plan for accessible ongoing care and continuity after brief support.

Blindness, low vision, and accessible communication

Our child has optic nerve hypoplasia. What questions come next?

Your next step: Use AdvocateDad’s ONH guide to organize education and family questions. Discuss individual medical follow-up with the treating clinician.

Who supports young blind or low-vision children in Colorado?

Your next step: Ask Anchor Center about current services and referral steps. Connect those supports with early intervention or preschool planning as appropriate.

Which blindness-specific evaluations should we discuss?

Your next step: Review the essential evaluations guide and ask the team which assessments address access, literacy, mobility, technology, and daily participation.

  • AdvocateDad: family guides

    Existing IEP checklist, essential evaluations, and ECC/transition guides. Guide access requires an email.

    AdvocateDad guide

  • APH FamilyConnect

    Family information about blindness, low vision, education, and daily life.

    National

How do we discuss Braille without assuming print is enough?

Your next step: Ask how literacy decisions use evaluation data and future access needs. Discuss Braille, print, and technology together with qualified vision personnel.

How do I request orientation and mobility support?

Your next step: Describe travel tasks and safety barriers at school and in the community. Ask for an O&M evaluation and specific instruction linked to those needs.

  • AdvocateDad: family guides

    Existing IEP checklist, essential evaluations, and ECC/transition guides. Guide access requires an email.

    AdvocateDad guide

  • APH FamilyConnect

    Family information about blindness, low vision, education, and daily life.

    National

What is the Expanded Core Curriculum?

Your next step: Use the ECC guide to discuss disability-specific skills beyond academics, including technology, travel, daily living, and self-determination. Ask who teaches and measures each needed skill.

  • AdvocateDad: family guides

    Existing IEP checklist, essential evaluations, and ECC/transition guides. Guide access requires an email.

    AdvocateDad guide

  • APH FamilyConnect

    Family information about blindness, low vision, education, and daily life.

    National

Assignments arrive in inaccessible formats. What can we request?

Your next step: List the exact formats and tasks that fail. Ask for usable materials at the time peers receive theirs, and a named person to verify accessibility.

  • AdvocateDad: family guides

    Existing IEP checklist, essential evaluations, and ECC/transition guides. Guide access requires an email.

    AdvocateDad guide

  • Bookshare

    Accessible ebooks for eligible people with reading barriers; review qualification and membership options.

    National

Where can my child get accessible ebooks?

Your next step: Check Bookshare’s qualification and membership information. Ask the school how accessible books will be selected, delivered, and taught with the child’s reading tools.

  • Bookshare

    Accessible ebooks for eligible people with reading barriers; review qualification and membership options.

    National

How can my child meet blind adults and peers?

Your next step: Ask the NFB of Colorado about age-appropriate local activities and family connections. Let your child help choose what they want to explore.

How do we plan for combined hearing, vision, or communication needs?

Your next step: List how the child receives information and expresses choices. Ask the school for personnel with relevant expertise and a coordinated communication-access evaluation.

Medicaid and health coverage

How do I apply for Health First Colorado?

Your next step: Use the official application page and ask for help if the form is inaccessible. Keep submission confirmation and respond to requests for information.

We earn too much for ordinary Medicaid. Are there disability options?

Your next step: Ask about disability-related Buy-In and waiver pathways. Have the program review your actual circumstances rather than assuming income alone resolves eligibility.

How do I avoid losing coverage at renewal?

Your next step: Check the renewal date and contact information in the official system. Keep copies of forms and proof of submission; ask for help promptly with unresolved requests.

How can I find a provider who accepts our coverage?

Your next step: Ask the regional organization for help finding a provider who can meet the specific need. Confirm acceptance of new patients and required referrals directly.

What is EPSDT and how do I ask about a child’s needed service?

Your next step: Ask the member contact center and treating provider how the child’s request is reviewed under EPSDT. Request the applicable coverage and authorization process in writing.

Equipment or therapy was denied. What do I do first?

Your next step: Obtain the written notice, reason, and supporting records. Check the correct appeal route and time limits immediately; ask the provider for relevant clinical documentation.

Can services continue while we appeal a reduction?

Your next step: Ask immediately about continuation of benefits and the deadline that applies to your notice. Filing an appeal and keeping benefits may require different timing.

Who helps when health plans and providers send us in circles?

Your next step: Ask your regional organization for a care-coordination contact. Send a short list of unresolved barriers and request a named person responsible for follow-through.

How do we arrange a ride to a covered appointment?

Your next step: Check the official transportation page for your county’s current instructions. Ask about wheelchair access, an accompanying caregiver, and advance arrangements.

Can private insurance and Medicaid work together?

Your next step: Ask Family Voices and each insurer how benefits coordinate for the requested service. Confirm billing order, authorization requirements, and any remaining family responsibility.

HCBS, caregiving, and community living

What are home and community-based services?

Your next step: Use the waiver guide to identify supports to discuss. Describe what is needed to live and participate at home and in the community.

Which children’s waiver should we ask about?

Your next step: Compare the children’s waiver guide with your child’s actual support needs. Ask the case management agency for an individualized assessment and written eligibility explanation.

How do I find the right case management agency?

Your next step: Ask Family Voices or Health First Colorado to identify the agency serving your address and program. Confirm the referral reached the correct intake team.

How should we prepare for a functional assessment?

Your next step: Keep a representative support log, including overnight needs and help that prevents problems. Describe what assistance is required, rather than only a good day.

What is Community First Choice changing for our family?

Your next step: Use the current CFC toolkit and ask the case manager to compare present and proposed services in writing, including authorization dates and provider arrangements.

Can a parent or family member be paid to provide care?

Your next step: Ask which program and service allow family caregivers, and what enrollment, training, employment, and documentation rules apply. Do not assume all family care is payable.

Where can we find respite?

Your next step: Ask the Colorado Respite Coalition about its resource finder and current options. Confirm training, accessibility, availability, and payment arrangements with each provider.

Authorized care hours are unfilled. What can we do?

Your next step: Document unfilled shifts and the effect on safety and participation. Ask the agency and case manager for a written staffing and backup plan.

What if our family cannot safely sustain the current care plan?

Your next step: Describe the unmet needs and immediate risks to the care team and case manager. Request reassessment and a concrete backup plan; use emergency help when needed.

How can we challenge a cut in home supports?

Your next step: Request the written decision and assessment used. Check the appeal and continued-benefit instructions promptly, and seek advocacy help with the records.

Health care and complex conditions

How do we prepare for a specialist visit?

Your next step: Bring a concise concern list, current medications, relevant reports, and communication needs. Ask what decision is needed and how results will reach the rest of the team.

How do we ask for a second opinion?

Your next step: Ask the treating team and insurer about referral and record-transfer steps. Clarify the unanswered clinical question and coverage before scheduling.

My child’s seizures continue. Who can help us prepare questions?

Your next step: Ask the treating epilepsy team about the next evaluation options. For peer support around epilepsy surgery, contact the Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery Alliance’s navigators.

How do we coordinate school and medical care?

Your next step: Ask each team which information is needed and how consent will work. Agree on responsibility for school-day supports without assuming a medical note alone changes an IEP.

How do we request accessible communication in medical care?

Your next step: Tell the office what format, interpretation, equipment, or communication support is needed before the visit. Ask who will confirm the arrangement.

Where can families find autism information and community support?

Your next step: Use the Autism Society of Colorado to explore resources and connections. Ask providers to explain options, evidence, fit, costs, and the child’s participation.

How do we organize a complex care plan?

Your next step: Ask for one current plan naming conditions, supports, contacts, and follow-up responsibilities. Have clinicians verify medical instructions and review it after changes.

What should we ask before hospital discharge?

Your next step: Confirm equipment, medications, training, home staffing, and follow-up arrangements with the discharge team. Describe any gap that makes the proposed plan unworkable.

How do we begin the move from pediatric to adult health care?

Your next step: Use Got Transition’s planning tools. Ask who will accept the young person, what records transfer, and how communication and decision support will continue.

Where can I find support for the emotional load of caregiving?

Your next step: Choose whether peer connection, respite, counseling, or crisis support best fits the immediate need. Ask about practical access barriers such as time, language, or transportation.

  • Parent to Parent of Colorado

    Peer parent matching, groups, and family connection through Ability Connection Colorado.

    Colorado

  • Colorado Respite Coalition

    Respite information and connections; ask about trained providers and current assistance.

    Colorado

  • 988 Colorado

    Call or text 988 for mental health or suicide crisis support; the website also offers chat and walk-in information.

    Colorado · 988

Transition, work, and adult decisions

How do we make school transition planning practical?

Your next step: Start with the young person’s goals. Ask for specific experiences, skill instruction, agency contacts, and a way to track progress toward life after school.

Who can help us explore employment supports?

Your next step: Ask the transition team and local Arc about vocational rehabilitation referral and work experiences. Confirm which agency will provide each support.

How can a young person understand work and disability benefits?

Your next step: Request individualized benefits counseling before relying on general earnings rules. Use Social Security’s work information to prepare questions about the benefits involved.

What changes when a child approaches adulthood?

Your next step: Review health coverage, benefits, decision-making, education, and service transitions separately. Ask each program about timing and documents for that person’s situation.

Do we have to choose guardianship?

Your next step: Ask about supported decision-making, authorizations, and other alternatives alongside guardianship. Discuss the person’s preferences and obtain advice about legal consequences.

How do we discuss an ABLE account?

Your next step: Review Colorado ABLE’s official eligibility and account information. Ask how contributions, spending, and savings interact with the person’s specific benefits before opening an account.

  • Colorado ABLE

    Official Colorado ABLE account information. Check current eligibility, fees, limits, and benefits interactions.

    Colorado

How do we prepare for college accommodations?

Your next step: Contact the receiving school’s disability office early. Ask about documentation, accessible materials, housing, and how the student requests accommodations.

How can a young person practice independent travel?

Your next step: Identify actual routes and access barriers. Ask about instruction, O&M when relevant, and supported practice that increases choice and participation.

How do we plan adult services before school ends?

Your next step: Request a joint planning conversation with school and adult-service contacts. Track referrals, eligibility decisions, waiting lists, and what will bridge any gap.

How can the young person lead their own planning meeting?

Your next step: Offer accessible ways to share goals beforehand and during the meeting. Agree on decision support and let the person choose which topics and supports matter most.

Daily needs, rights, and systems change

Where do we look for food, utilities, or emergency housing help?

Your next step: Use 2-1-1 Colorado with your location and immediate need. Confirm current eligibility, availability, and application steps directly with the referred program.

  • 2-1-1 Colorado

    Search local food, housing, utilities, transportation, and other community assistance.

    Colorado · 211

Where can we look for civil legal help?

Your next step: Use Colorado Legal Services intake and describe the issue and any notice dates. Ask whether they can assist or provide a referral.

Who handles disability discrimination concerns?

Your next step: Ask Disability Justice about the issue and appropriate route. Education complaints may also fit the U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights process.

How do I request an accommodation from a public program?

Your next step: Describe the access barrier and a workable modification or communication aid. Ask for a response and an alternative if the first request cannot be provided.

How can we find inclusive community activities?

Your next step: Ask local disability and family networks for options, then speak directly with the activity provider about access, staff preparation, and the child’s interests.

How do I raise a concern without losing the paper trail?

Your next step: Send a brief factual summary with dates, impact, requested action, and the responsible contact. Keep the response and confirm the next check-in.

How can I share our experience without exposing my child’s privacy?

Your next step: Remove identifiers and unnecessary medical or school details. Decide with the person affected what may be shared, with whom, and for what purpose.

How do I find my Colorado legislators and a relevant bill?

Your next step: Use the General Assembly’s official site to find legislators and bill status. Separate a proposal from an enacted law and ask for a specific action.

How can a family participate in a hearing or public meeting?

Your next step: Check the organizer’s current registration and testimony instructions. Request access supports early and prepare a short statement connecting lived experience to a concrete change.

What can I do when a resource does not answer or no longer works?

Your next step: Try the organization’s published website or alternate contact, record the attempt, and ask AdvocateDad to correct the listing. Use another relevant navigator if the need cannot wait.

Verified source directory

53 active source pages. Checked September 13, 2026; next editorial review due December 13, 2026. Links and published contact details were checked, but phone calls were not made and service availability is not guaranteed. National and federal references are labeled. Sources past their review date are withheld from new recommendations until reviewed.

Help keep this useful

Report an outdated link or contact to AdvocateDad resource corrections. Include the listing and what failed, without private records or identifying child information. Listing an organization does not imply a partnership or endorsement of every service.

General navigation, not a diagnosis, eligibility decision, or individual legal advice. Check program rules and notice deadlines with the responsible organization. For mental health crisis support, call or text 988; for immediate danger or a medical emergency, contact emergency services.