What the College Admissions Scandal Reveals About Privilege Inequality For Disabled Students

March 15, 2019January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Photo © US Department of Education | Creative Commons / Flickr [image: Three students at computer workstations, seen from behind.] Shannon Rosa Senior Editor Wealthy people using their privilege to bypass regular people problems like paying taxes is nothing new. But using that clout to exploit disability accommodations—to give their college-aspiring children truly unfair and also illegal advantages—is infuriating on multiple levels. As disability policy professional Rebecca Cokley noted at Teen Vogue: “This behavior is harmful because when celebrities and others with privilege use a marginalized community’s civil rights as a ‘VIP pass,’ it frames reasonable accommodations as something ‘special’ that you should be able to buy, versus actual civil rights that give people with disabilities an equal seat at the table.” Adrienne Wichard-Edds reported on the scandal for the Washington Post, from the perspectives of several irate parents of students with disabilities: “For children who really do struggle with…

Disability

OASIS: A Groundbreaking New School for Autistic Students

August 7, 2016January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

The specific learning needs of Autistic students are not always met in traditional special education, or even in specialized autism classes or schools. We talked with Susan Walton, founder of the new OASIS school near Santa Cruz, California, about ensuring her autistic son had access to an educational environment that not only helps him learn, but lets him thrive. TPGA: Tell us about OASIS. Who are your ideal students? [image: the OASIS school sign outside an exterior building door.] Susan Walton: OASIS, the Outdoor Autism and Special Issues School, is a new Non-Public School in Freedom, California, which is in Santa Cruz county. We’ve developed a program that we are excited to offer to new students. We serve seriously autistic students between Junior High and school completion. But more specifically, we cater to those autistic students who need a lot of activity. Our students crave movement and need variety. They…

Disability

Autism and the Quest for Knowledge

January 18, 2013January 31, 2022 by Jen Myers

Jennifer Byde Myers jennyalice.com Jack doesn’t fit the mold. Not the mold for a typical kid, not the one for cerebral palsy, not autism, not ADHD. Whenever we try to “box him up”, another piece of him pops out, unexplainable by a typical convention. I like it that way. I know I didn’t fit into the parameters that were set up for me as a kid, and I do my best to keep growing and changing so I can steer clear of the typical; “what I am supposed to do.” The problem with being outside of the norms is that other people don’t always know how to handle you, or help you, or befriend you, or teach you, or be your doctor, or your therapist. People sometimes become exasperated, or assume less of you, or ignore you. And some of that might happen out in the big bad world, but…

Disability

Autism & Back-to-School: What Do You Wish You Knew?

August 27, 2012January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Does back-to-school make your stomach do backflips? Ours, too. So we asked some of TPGA’s contributors what they wish they’d known — as parents, or as students — about the back-to-school season. Here’s what they shared: Mir Kamin wouldashoulda.com I knew it was okay to press for what my kid needed, but it took me a really long time to learn that it was also okay to admit when it’s time to stop trying to hammer your square peg into a round hole (and go find a square hole). I never in my wildest dreams expected to be a part-time homeschooler/unschooler, and yet it turned out to be a wonderful solution for our family once I gave up on the assumption of “making it work” with public school. Mind you, classroom accommodations provided by my son’s IEP worked for a while … until they didn’t. I’m so glad I finally…

Disability

Autism After 22: Nat’s First ISP Meeting

July 2, 2012January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Susan Senator susansenator.com We had Nat’s ISP meeting today, which is basically an IEP for adults. Although there are fewer requirements for the service providers to fulfill for their clients, Nat’s service provider and also his dayhab/day program staff seem more than eager to outline comprehensive goals for him. Clearly charmed by his intense work ethic as well as his sudden smile and the occasional surprising flash of violet-blue Bambi eyes, his entire team wants to watch Nat soar. Everything I heard pre-22 told me that Autism Adulthood would be the dregs of the universe, but it has been the opposite for Nat. Yes, it is true that Nat has Priority One funding (because of occasional intense episodes of frustration that can become self-injurious) and so he has enough support in his life. He is lucky in that way, lucky in the way that would otherwise be considered unlucky, for…

Disability

Back to School

September 7, 2011January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

KAL autismtwins.blogspot.com I am alone for the first time in months. Hello silence! How I’ve missed you. Which also means: Hello self! There you are! How are we feeling about being alone? Should we eat some ice cream or should we write. I’ve carried half-written posts around in my head all summer, never finding the space or time to sit down and share them. My boys turned seven. We had a lovely family vacation and I sank into brief breaks here and there — a book on the beach, a stroll on the sand — but nothing quite beats the sound of silence for this weary mom. Back to school brings with it the familiar angst, the wringing of the hands, the transition to something new. We’re in second grade. The amount of worrying I do as back-to-school ramps up is ridiculous. Ridiculous. It helps when I hear that I’m…

Disability

Why We Are Homeschooling Our Autistic Son

August 24, 2011January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Emily Willingham daisymayfattypants.blogspot.com biologyfiles.fieldofscience.com Since TH was in kindergarten, he’s had a nemesis. Ironically, it was the very first person he met at his school, as we had just moved into the district. Idiots that we were, we thought she seemed pretty nice and encouraged TH to engage with her. Of course, he didn’t. Or, at least, he didn’t do it the “right” way. Two weeks into the kindergarten year, we learned that a parent had contacted the teacher, complaining about our son, claiming he’d made “death threats” against her son. Turns out, her son and this girl we’d met that first day together had teamed up against TH and had (and I’m not making this up) threatened to cut his head off and throw it in the trash. TH had parrotted this back to them, and that’s the part that the boy had told his mother, conveniently skipping over…

Disability

Checking the “Autism” Box

August 15, 2011January 31, 2022 by Jen Myers

Jennifer Byde Myers www.jennyalice.com My son was almost three when we realized how much he needed a label. Without an official diagnosis, it would be nearly impossible for him to get services he needed from the county or state. A label is required so bureaucrats can check the correct boxes, which allows everyone to take money out of the right vat with the right dipper. It’s a huge pain, by the way, more difficult than finding childcare or signing your kid up for summer camp. Getting someone, anyone, to write down, definitively, what is “wrong” with your child is a serious lesson in patience, persistence and the power of language. No one wants to be the first person to label your child. We begged to get “cerebral palsy, ataxia” to describe Jake’s odd way of hipping, and hopping, and stumbling around. No one worried about anything behavioral at that point,…

Disability

Interview: iAdvocate’s Alan Foley on Empowering Parents of Children in Special Education

June 24, 2011January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Syracuse University professor Alan Foley developed iAdvocate, a free iPhone app that helps parents of school-age children with special needs “share and develop specific strategies with parents for working collaboratively with a school team to improve their children’s education.” We’re grateful to Dr. Foley for talking with us about how iAdvocate can help our families, his development process, and how his app is setting a advocacy precedent. We recommend reading Syracuse University Magazine’s excellent Spring 2011 Access and Opportunity article for more information about Dr. Foley’s work. Your app is remarkable, and is filling a role a lot of people hadn’t anticipated — when it comes to autism and other developmental disabilities that can have a language component, folks tend to focus on iPods and iPads in an AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) capacity. Apps like iAdvocate clearly demonstrate that these devices can be so much more. What inspired you…

Disability

Some thoughts on Dads, IEPs, and PTOs

June 17, 2011January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

With love and respect for our dads with autism, and our dads of children with autism. Have a rewarding Fathers Day. -The Editors G. Brett Miller blog.gbrettmiller.com This is a repost of something I originally wrote in the summer of 2007. Three years old, but just as relevant now as it was then. Last summer (2006) in the post Men must attend IEP meetings, I quoted Charles Fox of the Special Education Law Blog on the important role men can (should) play in the IEP process. With the beginning of the school year and IEP season looming, I felt it appropriate to reprint Fox’s quote: Fathers and men too often fail to realize that sometimes just showing up at a meeting in support of the child can make an enormous difference. In my list of essential advocacy points, I list that ‘men must attend meetings.’ [number 11] I was actually accused of…