New teachers. New Educational Assistants. New support staff. New routines.
For families of children with Rett syndrome, back to school often means helping an entirely new team get to know your child — how they communicate, what helps them participate, what supports they need, and how to make sure they are meaningfully included throughout the school day.
RSSBC has several free resources available to help families make that transition a little easier.
🎓 Request a Rett Education Ambassador for Your School Team
Thanks to funding from UBC’s Centre for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL) Chapman & Innovation Grant, RSSBC has trained a team of Rett Education Ambassadors to support families and school teams across British Columbia and the Yukon.
Our Ambassadors are trained volunteers who can meet with your child’s educational team to help build greater understanding of Rett syndrome and provide practical information that can support your child at school.
Depending on your family’s location and needs, Ambassador sessions can take place:
- In person
- By Microsoft Teams
- By Zoom
Support is available whether your child attends a traditional brick-and-mortar school, is homeschooled, or participates in a distributed learning program.
💜 Helping School Teams Better Understand Rett Syndrome
Every student with Rett syndrome is unique.
Our goal is not to tell a school team exactly how to teach your child, but to help give them a stronger foundation for understanding Rett syndrome and the supports that may help a student participate, communicate and feel included.
An Ambassador visit can help open conversations around areas such as:
- Understanding Rett syndrome
- Communication and AAC
- Eye-gaze communication
- Recognizing intentional responses
- Supporting regulation
- Meaningful classroom participation
- Inclusion with peers
- Creating appropriate and achievable IEP goals
- Supporting both ambulatory and non-ambulatory students
It can also give school staff an opportunity to ask questions in a supportive environment.
Most importantly, families remain an essential part of the conversation. You know your child best.
🏫 Who Can Request an Ambassador?
We encourage families throughout British Columbia and the Yukon to apply if they feel their child and school team could benefit from additional Rett-specific education and support.
At this time, RSSBC has two trained Rett Education Ambassadors serving the entire province, so we do need to prioritize requests based on capacity.
Priority is currently given first to children entering brick-and-mortar Kindergarten, as this is often a family’s first major transition into the school system.
However, we do not want that to discourage other families from applying.
If your child is already in school, entering a new school, has a new support team, is transitioning between grades, is homeschooled or participates in distributed learning, please still submit a request.
We will support as many families as possible.
📚 Start the School Year With the Right Information
A little preparation can make a big difference.
Providing your child’s school team with information about Rett syndrome early in the year can help staff feel more confident and can reduce the amount of explaining families have to do over and over again.
The beginning of the school year is also a great time to:
- Share information about how your child communicates
- Review AAC and eye-gaze systems with staff
- Discuss positioning, mobility and physical supports
- Identify your child’s preferred ways to participate
- Talk about regulation and signs of discomfort
- Review important health and safety information
- Discuss goals for inclusion and peer interaction
- Make sure your child’s strengths, interests and personality are part of the conversation
Your child is much more than their diagnosis, and helping a new team understand who they are as a person is just as important as helping them understand Rett syndrome.
💜 Request Support From RSSBC
If you would like to request a Rett Education Ambassador for your child’s school team, please complete our online request form:
Rett Education Ambassador Request Form:
https://forms.gle/mdESZqowjV4yL2yu8
Questions about the program?
📧 info@rettbc.ca
📞 (604) 468-4705
We encourage families to reach out early, especially at the beginning of the school year, so we can do our best to coordinate support.
A Strong School Year Starts With Understanding
Starting a new school year can feel overwhelming, particularly when you are once again introducing your child to a new group of people.
You do not have to do all of that education alone.
RSSBC is here to help families build stronger partnerships with their school teams and create greater understanding of Rett syndrome, communication, participation and inclusion.
Together, we can help make sure students with Rett syndrome are seen, heard, supported and included throughout their school journey. 💜other requests supported as capacity allows.) We still encourage everyone to apply that feels they can use the support.
Questions? Contact info@rettbc.ca or (604) 468-4705.
