Ep. 5: Parental Rights & Responsibilities

About this Podcast 

‘Parental Rights & Responsibilities’ is the fifth episode in our PCS Caregiving podcast series where we discuss a variety of family caregiver issues and how helping professionals can better serve military families as they PCS from their role as a spouse, friend, partner, or loved one to a caregiver.

Tune in as guest speaker, Lakshmi Mahadevan, Ph.D., discusses parental rights, responsibilities, and roles of parents or guardians of individuals with special needs within the special education system. Dr. Mahadevan briefly goes over Individual Education Programs (IEPs), procedural safeguards, and confidentiality agreements in public schools. Resources for caregivers and military helping professionals are also provided to listeners.

Guest Bio

Lakshmi Mahadevan has a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in Career Development Education from Texas A&M University. Her areas of expertise include career assessment, post-secondary options for individuals with special needs, special education, and multicultural career counseling. As Associate Professor and Extension Specialist – Special Populations, Dr. Mahadevan has over ten years of experience in conducting face-to-face and online professional development with educators in Texas addressing various special populations-related issues (particularly students with disabilities and English Language Learners). Her other activities include program evaluation, conducting workshops and presentations, preparing newsletters, creating webcasts and special interest web materials, maintaining and supervising the design of online modules, maintaining websites, liaising with stakeholders and experts, preparing evaluation reports, and providing technical assistance.

Host

Rachel Brauner, M.Ag., is an Extension Program Specialist in Military Programs at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Her focus is to enhance educational programming for military caregivers through OneOp (MFLN) initiative. Rachel works closely with military professionals across the nation in assessing caregiver needs and providing the necessary education and resources to alleviate the stress that comes with caring for individuals with special needs or wounded service members. Rachel is also responsible for providing prevention education for the Joint Base Substance Abuse Program at Joint Base San Antonio – Fort Sam Houston, Texas.