Louisiana Families Helping Families: Free Transition Support for Parents

What Parents Wish They Knew About FHF Before the Transition IEP

Most Louisiana parents discover Families Helping Families the hard way — after a frustrating IEP meeting, a confusing OCDD application, or a phone call to a state agency that went nowhere. By then, they've already spent weeks trying to decode transition planning on their own.

Families Helping Families (FHF) is Louisiana's network of ten family-directed regional resource centers — with Families Helping Families of Greater New Orleans serving as the federally funded Parent Training and Information Center for the entire state. Each center is staffed primarily by parents who have navigated the same special education and adult services systems you're facing now. Their services are completely free. No income requirements, no waitlists for basic support, no limit on how many times you can call.

What FHF Centers Actually Do for Transition-Age Families

FHF centers are not advocacy firms and they won't represent you at a due process hearing. What they provide is the kind of practical, system-navigation support that fills the gap between what the school tells you and what you actually need to know:

IEP meeting preparation. An FHF staff member can walk you through your child's transition IEP before the meeting happens. They'll help you understand what measurable postsecondary goals should look like, whether your school has invited the right outside agencies (LRS, OCDD), and what questions to ask about diploma pathways.

Agency navigation. When your teenager needs to apply for OCDD services through the Local Governing Entity, or you're trying to figure out the LRS Pre-ETS referral process, FHF staff can explain the steps because they've walked families through them hundreds of times. They know which regional offices respond quickly, which forms to submit together, and which deadlines are real versus flexible.

Peer-to-peer connection. Every FHF center can connect you with other parents in your region whose children have gone through the transition process. This isn't a support group in the therapeutic sense — it's parents telling you what actually happened when their child turned 18, applied for SSI under adult rules, or aged out of school at 22.

Training workshops. FHF centers run regular workshops on transition planning, the April Dunn Act graduation pathway, supported decision-making versus interdiction, ABLE accounts, and other topics that directly affect families during the high school to adult services handoff.

The Ten Regional FHF Centers

Each center serves a defined set of parishes. Contact the one covering your area:

Families Helping Families of Southeast Louisiana — Orleans, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard parishes. Phone: (504) 943-0343.

Families Helping Families of Greater Baton Rouge — Ascension, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, West Baton Rouge, and West Feliciana parishes. Phone: (225) 216-7474.

Bayou Land Families Helping Families — Assumption, Lafourche, St. Charles, St. James, St. John, St. Mary, and Terrebonne parishes. Phone: (985) 447-4461.

Families Helping Families of Acadiana — Acadia, Evangeline, Iberia, Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Martin, and Vermilion parishes. Phone: (337) 984-3458.

Families Helping Families of Southwest Louisiana — Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, and Jefferson Davis parishes. Phone: (337) 436-2570.

Families Helping Families at the Crossroads of Louisiana — Avoyelles, Catahoula, Concordia, Grant, LaSalle, Rapides, Vernon, and Winn parishes. Phone: (318) 641-7373.

Families Helping Families of Region VII — Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Claiborne, DeSoto, Natchitoches, Red River, Sabine, and Webster parishes. Phone: (318) 226-4541.

Families Helping Families of Northeast Louisiana — Caldwell, East Carroll, Franklin, Jackson, Lincoln, Madison, Morehouse, Ouachita, Richland, Tensas, Union, and West Carroll parishes. Phone: (318) 361-0487.

Northshore Families Helping Families — Livingston, St. Helena, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington parishes. Phone: (985) 875-0511.

Families Helping Families of Greater New Orleans — Jefferson Parish (primary service area); also the statewide Parent Training and Information Center. Phone: (504) 888-9111.

If you're unsure which center covers your parish, any FHF center can redirect you to the right one.

How FHF Differs From DRLA and Private Advocates

Parents sometimes confuse FHF with Disability Rights Louisiana (DRLA) or private special education advocates. The distinction matters:

FHF provides information, training, and peer support. They help you understand your rights and prepare for meetings, but they don't attend meetings on your behalf or file legal actions. Their strength is accessibility — you can call with a question and get a knowledgeable answer the same day.

DRLA is Louisiana's designated Protection and Advocacy organization. They handle systemic violations, legal representation, and formal complaints. DRLA has a selective intake process and focuses on cases that affect policy or involve clear rights violations. Their Client Assistance Program (CAP) specifically helps if LRS denies or reduces vocational rehabilitation services.

Private advocates and attorneys attend IEP meetings with you, negotiate directly with the school district, and handle due process hearings. They charge hourly rates typically between $80 and $500 depending on whether you hire an educational consultant or a special education attorney.

FHF fills the space before you need legal help. For most families in the transition window (ages 14 to 22), FHF's guidance on understanding the system is what prevents problems from escalating to the point where an attorney becomes necessary.

Getting the Most From Your FHF Center During Transition

Three practical steps to make FHF work for you:

1. Call before the transition IEP meeting, not after. FHF staff can review your child's current IEP and flag missing transition components — like whether the school has addressed all three postsecondary goal domains (education, employment, independent living) or whether the April Dunn Act pathway has been properly discussed.

2. Ask about upcoming workshops. FHF centers run transition-specific events throughout the school year. These workshops often bring in LRS counselors, OCDD coordinators, and SSA representatives who answer questions directly — a level of access that's hard to get through individual phone calls.

3. Request a parent mentor match. If your teenager has a specific disability profile (autism with high support needs, intellectual disability with employment goals, etc.), ask FHF to connect you with a parent whose child has already completed the transition. The specificity of that match makes the advice immediately actionable.

The Louisiana IEP Transition to Adulthood Guide complements FHF's support with the integrated timeline and fillable worksheets that bridge the LDOE, LRS, OCDD, and SSA systems into a single planning document — the kind of cross-agency integration that no single state resource currently provides.

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