Callie Oettinger, Founder & Editor

The short version: I’m a mother who pivoted 20+ years of experiences in the book publishing and documentary film industries toward 1) advocating for children who have special education needs; 2) helping to educate the parents and teachers of these children; and 3) sharing news and other information related to special education.

The long version: In the mid-80s, my family was based in Heidelberg, Germany. I had one of the greatest teachers of my life (Mrs. J. George) and some of the most bizarre via DODDS. After Dad’s tour, he and Mom headed to Washington, D.C., to testify about problems related to the DODDS system. I didn’t fully understand what they were doing at the time. I just knew that they were considered troublemakers by one mom who thought it just fine to trash them to my face. Decades later I learned their testimony addressed special education.

We returned to the States for a second tour at Fort Bragg, and then I headed to Emerson College in Boston, which beget 20+ years helping bestselling authors and journalists, publishing houses, award-winning indie and documentary filmmakers, and other entrepreneurs and business leaders create what matters to them and connect their creations with what matters to their audiences—to include propelling their projects to bestselling and/or award-winning status, featured by everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Howard Stern.

Along the way, I saw J.M. struggle to obtain services for her son—and then to have them implemented in full. For years she and I ran the Army 10 miler together and our training consisted of laps around Burke Lake, running and talking about special education. During those runs, she schooled me on Dyslexia.

And then Dyslexia entered my home—and Fairfax County Public Schools denied my son an evaluation for special education three times between first and sixth grades.

And then I pivoted.

I channeled the advocacy examples my parents set years earlier and I turned those 20+ years of researching, reading, writing, and public relations, toward holding Fairfax County Public Schools and the Virginia Department of Education accountable.

At the time of this writing, I’ve submitted over 30 complaints to VDOE, which have resulted in Fairfax County Public Schools being found in noncompliance of IDEA; am responsible for FCPS having to return over $30,000 that it incorrectly charged families of students who have IEPs or 504 Plans; and another parent and I prevailed after FCPS sued me and the parent, in an attempt to censor information shared with the public. For the latter, I was initially forced to remove already-published articles from this site. This was later reversed by a judge who stated: “This is about as much a prior restraint as there ever could be. . . . And while it’s not a matter of something like the Pentagon papers where we’re talking about the war in Vietnam, certainly it’s a matter of public significance as to what the taxpayers — what bills the taxpayers are having to absorb. . . . The Board makes what I think to be almost a frivolous argument. . . . What we’re doing here is — what the defendants are doing is enforcing their rights under the First Amendment, and those rights, enforcing their rights under the First Amendment, is about as high in the public interest scale as you can get.”

I don’t plan on stopping.

J.M. helped me in those early days and I’m here to send her kindness and support forward—and help as many other children and families as possible.

[Articles published and/or shared by Special Education Action are done so for educational purposes, with the understanding that neither editor Callie Oettinger, nor other writers or editors working with Special Education Action, nor Special Education Action’s board members, nor Special Education Action itself are providing legal advice.]