Overview:
A veteran teacher and parent of an autistic son says federal cuts and restructuring at the Department of Education threaten special education and IDEA protections, and calls on parents, teachers, and advocates to educate themselves, unite, and contact their legislators to protect services for students with disabilities.
I am a seasoned teacher with over twenty-four years of experience, but more importantly, I am a parent first. My dual role made me not only my child’s advocate, but his advocate everything children with different needs. Reading more about the changes in the Ministry of Education has also raised the alarm in my spirit of advocacy.
Here I sit, as a parent teacher in the summer of 2026, enjoying what should be a time of rest, renewal, and reset. As a parent of a child with different needs, I like to be able to spend quality time with my son, stop worrying about his education, his development, his safety, and his overall health. But as much as I’m thankful that my son has a wonderful professional who eliminates most of these worries during the school year, I know that many parents don’t have that privilege.
As a parent educator, I have been blessed to see the inner workings of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) in and out of the process, but I know that many parents do not have that privilege. As a teacher, I have been blessed to receive training in teaching students with diverse needs. And as a parent, I’ve done research on the basis of my own son’s advocacy, especially when it comes to students with autism. But I know that many parents do not have such a right.
Raising a black son with autism comes with an entirely different set of challenges: those that require us to acknowledge his race and gender identity as a black male in America. The fact that he has a teacher as a parent and two parent advocates in his home, all of these layers contribute to who he is and how we lead his academic, social, and overall development. But that is my personal story.
There are so many stories that I have come across in my journey of raising voices that are stigmatized. They all spoke of “the great need for culturally responsive and sensorially inclusive teacher training”.
So what can we do? everything what did i do
Educate Ourselves and Share Knowledge
Reading articles, attending virtual webinars, joining advocacy organizations, seeking community through social media, and forming alliances with parents in our schools, our districts, our states, and across the country, are all ways to amplify our voices as a collective.
I was able to of the tap I networked with teachers, administrators, professionals, therapists, and advocates in my quest to learn everything I could.
We need to encourage others to join our journey and fight together!
Get involved
We must get rid of the dangerous “us versus them” mentality. Parents, teachers, therapists, paraprofessionals, advocates, and everyone with a valid interest must unite in fighting for the rights of students with different needs. We must unite to raise our voices for sustainable change.
Call to Action
Pop Quiz: How often has the federal government fulfilled its original commitment to provide 40 percent of the general cost per student to cover the cost of special education?
Answer: Never.
How long will we sit by and watch the federal government make cuts and changes to important programs for our special needs students, knowing that they have never followed through on previous promises to fund services for our most vulnerable students?
Answer the call from organizations such as Teacher’s Room. Read their articles. Watch their webinars. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) study. Research on Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). A webinar Special Education at Risk: What Department of Education Decisions Mean for Parents, Staff, and Students it was my motivation to tag my legislators, and I highly encourage everyone to watch the performance on YouTube.
Start by answering the call from organizations like the Teacher’s Room. Their articles and webinars are a solid place to start. From there, research the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). Watching the webinar Special Education at Risk: What the Department of Education’s Decisions Mean for Us is what prompted me to tag my lawyers, and I encourage everyone to find it on YouTube.
Call or Write Your Local Legislators
As a parent, teacher, advocate, and tax-paying citizen, let this article serve as a much-needed call to action. Recent changes at the Department of Education have the potential to reverse decades of progress that advocates have been fighting for since long before the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA), now known as IDEA. (see the Department of Education’s official IDEA history at sites.ed.gov/idea/IDEA-History).
In the summer of 2026, as I look into my son’s beautiful brown eyes, I may not answer the phone. This fight is for all of us as parents, teachers, advocates, and citizens who believe that every child deserves a free and fair public education, regardless of what Washington decides. I am tagging our legislators, and please do the same. Our kids can’t wait.
- Senator Dave Cortese, who is already the special education attorney for the State of California
- John Garamendi, representing my hometown of Vallejo, California
- Mike Thompson, representing my home state of Solano County
- Mark DeSaulnier, who represents the district where I work and where most of my students live
