IEP
I’m Glad To Be Back in the Classroom. My Students Need Me.
November 12th was our first day of school in-person since March of last year. On my drive to school, I was excited and grateful—thinking about my students who (unlike most teachers in the country) I...
IEP
We Need a Cooperative Approach to Improve Education for Students With Disabilities
Ten years ago last month, a team of advocacy organizations filed the New Orleans special education lawsuit (P.B. v. White) in federal court. The class-action suit laid out the harms caused by the...
IEP
I Thought Vouchers Were Wrong, But Now I Realize They Helped My Son
Recently I wrote that a residency hearing with two children, Kayla and Tasha, represented to me our deeply-embedded structural inequities in education that decades of initiatives, as well as...
IEP
How I'm Helping My Child With Special Needs Navigate Remote Learning
My children always start school two weeks before everyone else. So after two weeks of e-learning—or what I am calling two-weeks “in the trenches”—I feel like I am ready to offer suggestions to all...
IEP
Our Students Have Strong Emotions Right Now, And That's Not a Disability
When a local newspaper featured a picture of one of our students at a peaceful protest against police brutality, the staff at the small special education program where I work were filled with pride....
IEP
My Son Cracked the Code in an Atypical Way With a Focus on Phonics
When my three older children learned to read, it seemed to us as natural a process as learning to talk. We read to them every day and filled the house with children’s books and made regular trips to...