Every academic goal, in plain English
I read the whole IEP and write back what each goal actually asks your child to do — no jargon — then map those goals across 36 weeks of work.
What you get
Three things you can hold in your hand.
A real build, not a worksheet packet
Your child picks a problem they care about and builds toward solving it. The reading, writing, and math goals get wired into the build, so practicing the skill has a point.
Written proof of what they did
Dated entries of the work completed, week by week, in your child's own words and mine. Bring it to the next meeting so you're not the only one in the room without paper.
How it works
Four steps. About a week from payment to first lesson.
1
Pay and tell me about your child. A short form — age, grade, what's going well, what's hard, what they're into.
About 10 minutes.
2
Upload the IEP through a private link. I email you a secure upload page after checkout. The document goes straight into an encrypted folder only I can open.
Never posted on this site or sent over regular email.
3
I build the plan. Goals translated, 36 weeks mapped, first expedition designed around something your child actually cares about.
5 business days. Then a 30-minute call to walk you through it.
4
You start. Weekly lessons land in your inbox. We check in once a month and adjust anything that isn't landing.
Cancel anytime, no notice period.
How you'll know
You shouldn't have to take my word for whether it's working.
Before I teach anything, I measure where your child is right now — using the same measure the goal itself is written in. Everything after that gets compared to that starting point.
Week 0, before any teaching
What your child can do today, written down and dated. Without it, every number later is just a number.
Cold, and on a fixed schedule
Decoding every week; comprehension and math on even weeks; writing on odd. Always using work they have never seen — never the material they practiced that week.
Four flat checks and the teaching changes
Not the goal. The criterion in the IEP doesn't soften because the work got hard — and you hear it from me on the monthly call before you read it in the Log.
The practice your child does during the week is coached, so it never counts as a score — only the cold checks do. This is collected at your kitchen table by you and me, not by an evaluator, and it does not replace the progress reporting your school does.
Free, and yours
You can start writing it down tonight. You don't need me for that part.
Put each goal in as the IEP words it, note what you see in about fifteen seconds, and print a record for the meeting. No account, no payment, nothing uploaded — it lives on your phone and only your phone.
Word for word, out of the file
Copy each goal in exactly as it's written, with what counts as meeting it. It never writes or suggests a goal — her team does that.
Fifteen seconds, on the sofa
How many she got, out of how many, and whether you helped. Help is kept but never scored, because a coached answer doesn't show what she can do alone.
Dated, printable, in the goal's own words
Each goal, the starting point, every check against it, and where it stands. Print it and walk in with paper.
Open it — it's free
Works offline. Nothing to sign up for.
This is the part you can do on your own, and I'd rather you had it either way. What the Blueprint below adds is me: I read the whole IEP, build the year of work around what your child is actually into, and keep the record with you.
Free, and nothing to do with me
Nobody explains how any of this works. So I wrote it down.
A plain-language handbook to special education in New York City. How to ask for an evaluation, what the deadlines actually are, what costs money and what does not, and what to do when nobody calls you back. Sixteen questions, answered the way I would answer them on the phone.
Just diagnosed, or just worried
Whether you need a diagnosis first, how to ask the school for an evaluation in writing, and what it costs. It costs nothing.
Nobody is calling me back
What the district is required to do and by when, what to do when the service in the IEP is not happening, and how to disagree with a decision.
You do not have to sign it that day
Who you can bring, what to ask for, how to get an interpreter or a translated IEP, and what District 75 does and does not mean.
Read the handbook
Free. No email address, nothing to sign up for.
It is still being checked. Every date, phone number and deadline in it is being verified against the city and state's own published sources before I put my name behind it, and each page says so at the top until that is done. Read it, use it, and confirm anything you are about to act on. I would rather hand you something honest about its own limits than something that looks finished.
Before you pay
I work the academic goals. That's it — and I want you to know that before you spend anything.
What I do
- Reading — decoding, fluency, comprehension
- Writing — sentences, paragraphs, argument
- Math — the goals as written in the IEP
What I don't
- Speech and language therapy
- Occupational or physical therapy
- Counseling, therapy, behavior support
- Evaluations, diagnosis, or advocacy
Those are licensed professions. I'm not licensed in any of them, and in New York it isn't legal for someone without those credentials to provide them — no matter how it's worded. So I don't.
Here's the part that matters for you: most IEPs contain both kinds of goals. If your daughter has a speech goal and reading and math goals, the speech goal belongs to a licensed SLP — and the reading and math are exactly what I do. She's not a bad fit. She just has more than one person on her team.
And if you need names for the rest, ask me. I keep a list of licensed providers around the city and I don't take a dime from anyone on it.
Pricing
Start with the Blueprint. Keep going only if it's working.
The free tool tells you whether it's working. This is the part that gives your child something to do about it.
Start here
The Blueprint
$349one time
A year of work your child actually does, built from the goals in the IEP.
- A first project built around something your child is actually into — real work, not a worksheet packet
- 36 weeks of it mapped out across reading, writing, and math, aimed at the goals already in the IEP
- Every academic goal translated into plain English, so you know what each one is asking of her
- A 30-minute call where I walk you through the whole thing
- Yours to keep, whether or not you continue
Then, if you want it
Kirton Learning Family
$149per month
I keep the work coming, and keep it pointed at the goals.
- New work every week, built on the project your child is in the middle of
- The Log — a dated record of what they actually did, to bring to the next IEP meeting
- A 30-minute call each month to change whatever isn't landing
- A new project each term, so it doesn't go stale
- Cancel anytime, no notice period
Cost is the reason a lot of families never get help like this. If the price is the only thing stopping you, email me — there's a sliding scale for Brooklyn families and I'd rather have your child in the work.
Who builds it
Lamont Kirton
I've run youth programs in Brooklyn since 2009 — adaptive basketball, chess, mentorship, media. Spark Builders started because I kept watching kids get handed worksheets about problems they'd never chosen. So we flipped it: the kid finds a problem, the kid builds the fix, and the skills come along for the ride.
Kirton Learning is that same method, built one child at a time — starting from the academic goals already written into a child's IEP, because those are the goals the school is going to measure anyway. It's new. I'm opening it to a small number of families rather than pretend I can do this at scale, and I'd rather you knew that before you spent anything.
- Founder, Working Wonders Starting Home Inc. — 501(c)(3), Brooklyn, since 2009
- $50,000 in youth program funding secured to date
- Chess and computer science programs at P.S. 272 and P.S. 109
- DYCD Inclusive Adaptive Basketball Program, in partnership with Wheeling Forward
- NYC DOE PETS-cleared · 12+ years coaching at Kings Bay YM-YWHA
Straight answers
The questions parents actually ask me.
Who sees my child's IEP?
Only me. It goes into an encrypted folder, it is never sold, never used for advertising, and never shared with your school or anyone else. Ask me to delete it and I delete it and confirm in writing. I'll never ask you to send it over regular email or upload it to this page.
Is this special education advocacy or legal help?
No. I'm not an attorney or a certified advocate, I don't represent you at IEP meetings, and nothing I write is legal advice. What I give you is a clear read of the goals and a written record of your child's work — which tends to make you a much better advocate for yourself.
Does this replace what the school has to provide?
No, and don't let anyone tell you it does. Your child's school is legally required to deliver the services on that IEP. Kirton Learning is supplemental — it's what happens at your kitchen table, not instead of what happens at school.
Do you diagnose anything, or decide what services my child qualifies for?
Never. Diagnosis and eligibility are decisions for licensed professionals and your child's IEP team. I work from the goals that are already written.
My child isn't autistic — does this still work?
Yes. I build from whatever the IEP says, whether that's ADHD, dyslexia, a speech or language impairment, or anything else. The method doesn't care about the label; it cares about the goals and what your child is into.
What ages?
K–12. It runs strongest with 2nd through 8th grade, where a kid is old enough to run a build and young enough that the habit sticks.
How much time does my child need to put in?
Three to four sessions a week, 20 to 40 minutes each, depending on age. It's designed around the reality that you're tired and the evening is short.
How will I know if it's actually working?
Before I teach anything I measure where your child is, written the same way the goal is written, and everything after that gets compared to that starting point. The checks run on a fixed schedule using material your child has never seen — the coached practice they do during the week never counts as a score. If four checks in a row come back flat, I change how I'm teaching it, not the goal, and you hear that from me on the monthly call before you read it in the Log. You can see the entire design in the worked example. What I won't do is promise you a result.
What if it isn't a fit?
Tell me within 14 days of getting your Blueprint and I refund it in full. Keep the Blueprint either way.