How do you help families navigate this with a lot less burnout and more success?

So one of the things I tell all the families is, you know, this is really their, the student's job.

And I said, I understand that up until this point, you've been accustomed to saying, you know, hey, Johnny or Susie, you do A, B, or C.

But now I want to prepare them for, you know, they're going to be on their own, you know, particularly with self-advocacy saying, I need an accommodation, whether it's extra time on test or somebody reading to me or whatever that case may be, they need to be able to articulate what it is they need to help them be successful without the parent being there.

Or even something like, if I have an eight o'clock class or nine o'clock class, I need to be able to get up on time on my own, get to breakfast, get to wherever it is I need to be without mom or dad getting you there and so it's things that I talk through with the students and you know I've got a couple that I know that I've given them reminders or I've given them documents to say well Doreen I didn't get it and so I'll pull up the emails and say remember this on this date and with all of the students neurodivergent or not because they're so accustomed to texting um or whatsapping and one of the first conversations we'll have with a student is well your professor or me we don't text we don't whatsapp in general we email so i'll show them how to you know do the email i'll show them the google calendar you know how to um use um tags in the google calendar i said mine is all colorful you don't have to do it like that but this helps me know that okay on this day i've got four things going on on this day i'm going to dedicate to you know catching up on my email and to make it the calendar in such a way that I know I'm blocking out time for certain things and showing them that, this is what works for me and let's find a system that works for them.

But that critical is learning good study skills, learning the organizational skills.

And as far as the essay, I'll devote time to, okay, now we're going to have 30 minutes of just free write.

Is there anything, or do you have any tips for parents who are way before this process, but that we can start building those self-advocacy skills now?

What do those conversations look like to determine the best path for each student as they move towards high school graduation and move on to the next step of their life?

So, you know, having conversations with the students is, you know, there's two factors with all students, particularly with neurodiversity students.

You can be college ready and you can be college capable on paper, but not college ready.

And you can have that 4.5, 5.5 weighted GPA.

Some students in Florida are up to like 11 something.

But if you're not college ready with the social, emotional piece of it, and, you know, don't know how to navigate the... circumstances of getting the accommodations for yourself, asking the teacher for help because mom and dad have always done that for you.

You might be in a class of 200 instead of 24.

Now, if college is a good next step, what are some of the most often overlooked aspects of the admissions process that you help high school students and their families navigate?