Champagne Taste, Beer Budget: How to Use the Latest AI Tools to Strengthen Your IEP Prep
Working in tech these days means I’m surrounded by nonstop AI hype. AI this, AI that. It’s all enough to make me roll my eyes and curl into fetal 🙉🙄😭. But here’s the thing: strip away the guff, and AI really can deliver. I’ve seen it in my professional ife, and I’ve seen it as I navigated the IEP process. Parents often cannot afford the thousands of dollars a full advocate review costs and frankly, the system is not designed to make it easy for those without deep pockets. AI can help close that gap, giving families sharper tools and more confidence at a fraction of the cost. It gives parents a way to bridge the gap, offering support that is accessible, practical, and affordable.
AI or LLMs (large language models) are not magic, but they are powerful. They can translate and condense long assessment reports into plain language, highlight strengths and areas of need, reframe vague goals into measurable ones, and even let you rehearse conversations by role-playing district pushback.
At the same time, new technologies always come with tradeoffs. AI will never replace your judgment as a parent, and it should never be used blindly. There are privacy and safety considerations to weigh, and every family has to decide what feels right for them. In my own professional and personal journey, I have found LLMs to be most effective when used as a way to lighten the cognitive load and sharpen the work I was already doing. For parents navigating the IEP process, they can provide a level of advocate-like support at a fraction of the cost.
The results you get will depend on what you put in. In AI terms, this comes down to prompts. A vague prompt will give you a vague answer, just as a weak search term in Google will give you a messy results page. Clear, focused questions produce sharper and more useful responses. That is why I think of AI not as a substitute for advocacy, but as a sidekick of sorts.
No tool can understand your child the way you do, or negotiate strategy with a district. But when used with care, AI can save time and reduce the exhaustion that often overwhelms parents during the IEP process. For families without the budget for a full case review, that can mean the difference between walking into a meeting depleted and walking in prepared.
I believe when deployed thoughtfully, this technology can democratize advocacy. For far too long, only families with money could afford comprehensive case reviews, polished letters, or airtight goals. AI creates a new layer of access. It allows parents on a budget to prepare smarter, show up more confident, and shift the balance of power even without a professional advocate at their side.
Harnessing AI in advocacy will always require human judgment, persistence, and care. It can never replace your voice, but it can amplify it. By driving efficiencies in the more tedious tasks, it can free up your mental load for narrative, strategy, connection, and the bigger picture of your child’s education.
If you want help weaving these tools into your advocacy work, AdvoPal offers a low-cost, personalized AI prompt pack to help parents start their AI journey with strong, tailored prompts. It is a simple way to get more value out of these tools while keeping your child’s story at the center.
In solidarity,
Eunice Wells
AdvoPal, Founder
