Children are our priority. Ensuring their needs are met is our goal.
Short version: Founder and editor of Special Education Action. Mother of two. Wife of 25+ years. Daughter, sister, and friend. Army Brat. Reader. Writer. Believer in action, change, and walking the talk. Books, skiing, and family are my happy places.
Long version: I’m an Army Brat who grew up in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia; Fort Ord, California; Fayetteville, North Carolina; and Heidelberg, Germany; and who landed at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, where I obtained a B.F.A. in creative writing.
After college and marrying my oldest friend, I moved to Virginia, launched a company, had kids, spent 20+ years helping bestselling authors and journalists, publishing houses, award-winning indie and documentary filmmakers, and other entrepreneurs and business leaders create what mattered to them and connect their creations with what mattered 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 from Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) for her son who struggled with Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, and Dysgraphia. For years, I listened to her talk and cry as we ran (and often walked) laps around Burke Lake, training for the annual Army 10 miler. During those laps, she schooled me on special education.
And then Dyslexia and other surprises entered my home—and I realized special education was a foreign language, that the years of listening to J.M.’s experiences were more tip of the iceberg than master class. I made it a few pages into J.M.’s copy of Pete and Pam Wright’s Wrightslaw before giving up and spending a lot of time crying. Nothing made sense. How could one of the largest and most well-funded school districts in the U.S. refuse to help children in need?
And then one day things started clicking, Wrightslaw became my constant companion, and I realized I knew more about special education law than the educators at the IEP meetings. Unfortunately, that knowledge came too late to fully address the Dyslexia and other surprises that FCPS refused to address for so long. When those surprises introduced themselves to my family over a decade ago, I wish I’d had then the knowledge I have now.
I can’t change the past, but I hope that some of what I learned might help other families, educators, and students change the future for children who have special education needs—whether it is learning to write IEP goals or state complaints, filing Office for Civil Rights complaints or Freedom of Information Act requests, or simply learning enough about special education rights to ensure decisions made are in the best interest of students.
In 2020, I deep sixed the company I launched in 2002 and pivoted 20+ years of researching, writing, editing, and community outreach toward special education. The Special Education Action site launched the same year and Special Education Action obtained 501(c)(3) status as a nonprofit publisher in 2022.
The parents allege that the defendants “peddled” and “hawked” a “raft of products” and “defective goods and services” that were based on “unreliable, methodologically flawed” research, that they “attempted to boost their credibility by selling literacy assessments created to “validate” their own products.”
If you missed it, USDOE announced today it will be posting the recording of the webinar on its site with other resources and its new guidance document addressing FBA’s. It was an interesting session and won’t take but about an hour of your time to watch.
Can you file a complaint? If yes, how? Parents and/or students who believe a student’s privacy has been violated under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), have a right to file a complaint. FERPA applies to all students. However, students who have IEPs have additional protection under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Let’s explore both below.
The guidance document, “Using Functional Behavioral Assessments to Create Supportive Learning Environments”, focuses on supporting all students whose behaviors impact their learning, regardless of disability status.
In the case of initial evaluations, §300.301(a) of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) is your go-to regulation:
Each public agency must conduct a full and individual initial evaluation, in accordance with §§300.304 through 300.306, before the initial provision of special education and related services to a child with a disability under this part.