Whether it be a small change in your own home or school to lobbying for Federal legislation, I’ll give you the information, support, stories, and inspiration you need to make the world a better place for our kids.
New for 2022: Lobbying and Systems Change will be a component of my online training to Become a Special Education Advocate.
Some examples:
Talking about Race with Kids This past summer, I hosted a series of chats about Race. It’s an issue that is important to me and this post is long overdue. That chat series wasn’t without controversy, but I am committed to using my platform for positive change. With that, I had promised that we would…
On November 29, 1975, President Gerald Ford signed IDEA 1975 into law. Prior to IDEA 1975 taking effect, only 20% of children with disabilities were in the public school system. Most of the others were either institutionalized or being kept at home in a custodial care situation–parents taking care of them but they were not…
PA Lt. Governor John Fetterman for US Senate Today PA Lt. Governor began officially ‘exploring’ the idea of running for Senate in 2022. He ran in 2016, but lost in the primary to Katie McGinty. Much has changed since then–he’s now our Lt Governor. Back in 2015, when I interviewed him, he was Mayor of…
Citizen and Parent Advocacy I think we’re in this for the long haul. I wrote this right after the 2016 election, in hopes of inspiring parents to step it up and get more involved. And so many have! That’s fantastic. I am updating this post as we head into a new Congress at the beginning…
Special Needs Mom Burnout On Tuesday, when my son came home from school, his newly revised IEP was in his backpack. All 54 pages of it. And his FBA (12 pages) and PBSP (another 12 pages) and that doesn’t include the ER/RR, NOREP and other fun stuff. But basically I have 80 pages of documents…
Ableist Movie Tropes and Characters I think most of us would agree that if a movie calls for a Black character, then a Black actor/actress should fill that role. Right? It would be incredibly offensive to have a white person dress up as Black and play the role. However, this happens to disabled people all…
Microaggressions Against Black IEP Students Most of you know I’m all in, as far as working harder to educate others, and my own personal biases as far as racism. And, I have a platform. I have been using that platform and will continue to do so. From the series of Race Listening Sessions this summer,…
Ableist Microaggressions Microaggressions have been getting a lot more attention recently, and with good cause. It’s very easy to spot someone who is openly hateful, racist or ableist. I mean, I think we can all agree that if you call someone the R word, that’s ableist. But ableism takes many different forms and shapes. And,…
It’s who I am. When I was in high school in the 1980s, during the summers my friends and I would drive around the mid-Atlantic states to see the Grateful Dead. I’ve also seen Jefferson Airplane, CSN, Pink Floyd and other groups in that genre. Long hippie skirts, tie-dyed shirts, jingly bell bracelets on our…