The pursuit of equal rights for individuals with disabilities is among the largest civil rights movements occurring at this time. For families with children who have newly identified disabilities, navigating public schools, Hawaii’s special education system and federal and state laws protecting children with disabilities is a complex and confusing undertaking. It is one that parents and their children are thrust into with little or no warning.

The Learning Disabilities Association of Hawaii (LDAH) is the only agency in Hawaii providing technical assistance, training, mentoring and advocacy specifically to assist parents as they help their children with disabilities to learn and thrive within Hawaii’s public education system. All of our services are free to families of children and youth with or at risk of disabilities, from birth through age 26.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of LDAH serving as Hawaii’s Parent Training and Information center (PTI). PTIs exist in every state as mandated under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA), with services focused on ensuring the educational rights of children and students with any disability.

October also marks Learning Disabilities Awareness Month nationwide, but for families in Hawaii with children who have or are at risk of learning disabilities, every month is an opportunity to obtain information and resources vital to helping their children thrive.

Collaboration is the key to our success. Over the past eight years, LDAH’s signature Traveling Mini-Conference (TMC) held throughout Hawaii helps families learn more about resources and services available to help their children with or at risk of disabilities. We work together with local teachers and school personnel, and with parents and community organizations on each island to implement each TMC to meet the needs of the local community.

As part of our 25-year PTI celebration, our Traveling Mini-Conference is themed “Building Bridges” to highlight the importance of public, private, community and individual partnerships involving parents, professionals, state departments, community members and nonprofit and for-profit organizations — all working together to help children with disabilities and their families.

Just last month, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs designated LDAH to serve as the PTI for American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Republic of Palau.

This designation represents a large expansion of our services and we are grateful for the confidence in the quality of our work and our potential to meet the needs of special families throughout the Pacific.

The newly expanded Hawaii & Pacific PTI will build on longstanding connections among our island cultures. To provide quality services, we are capitalizing on existing relationships and building new ones with local providers and individuals in the Pacific Island areas to be served. It is our intent to ensure that the same level and quality of services are available to the parents of children and youth with disabilities and the professionals supporting these families over the course of the upcoming federal fiscal year.

We learn together and from each other so we can collectively help more families in Hawaii and throughout the Pacific to enhance education, life and work opportunities for children and youth with or at risk of learning and other disabilities.

Michael K. Moore is executive director of the Learning Disabilities Association of Hawaii.