Going back to school in person shouldn’t be a choice between a family member and an education. But for some families, it is just that. For children living with immunocompromised family members, going back in person really isn’t a choice at all. It’s not even one of the options. This episode isn’t about special ed, it’s about education and why we need learning options for children who can’t attend school in person, disability or not. Today I talk with Dr. Marney White, both a professor at Yale Sc...
Aug 12, 2021•43 min
Justyna & Meghan from The Hangout Spot join me today to discuss how kids are adjusting to “back to normal” back to school! While I wouldn’t necessarily call it “normal” we are going back and most kids haven’t had an opportunity to flex their social muscles in a while. They will need time and patience while they acclimate. Justyna & Meghan talk about skills students will need and what you you and your kids can starts working on now. Justyna & Meghan were on a year ago, right after the...
Aug 04, 2021•42 min
My office mates join me to sum up IEP season, discuss the trends we saw, and postulate on what we should expect for '21-22. You can reach us all at SpecialEd.Law A transcript of this episode can be found here shortly after the episode is published: https://specialed.law/end-of-year-wrap-up/
Jul 01, 2021•42 min
Summer's coming! So today, special education parent and advocate, Lisa Lightner, founder of A Day in Our Shoes, joins me to discuss Extended School Year services. What are they? Who gets them? And do you need them? Check out ADayInOurShoes.com A transcript of this episode can be found here shortly after the episode is published: https://specialed.law/summer-isnt-just-a-courtesy/ TRANSCRIPT (not proofread) SUMMARY KEYWORDS parents, child, ies, extended school year, iep, school, school district, h...
Jun 23, 2021•45 min•Ep. 35
What's the deal with Mediation? Mediation is a wonderful tool for resolving disputes with your school district. It is voluntary, free, and offered by your State, so today we are going to check it out. We will discuss the entire process, all the players, and how you can prepare. NEWS: I also have exciting news about the re-brand of Need to Know with Dana Jonson. Listen to the episode to hear the details, but, in a nutshell, I will publish 3 episodes in the month of June, then I will take July off...
Jun 03, 2021•37 min
Today we head to SuperD!Ville where children who learn differently (and their peers) find out about how their brains work and social emotional learning. We talk with Peggy Stern, Founder and CEO, and Diana Correa-Cintron, COO, about how SuperD!Ville came to be and how it is helping children everywhere! https://superdville.com SuperD!Ville is a forward thinking and unique multimedia resource that combines videos with real kids and lessons plans for a broad range of social and emotional issues. Cr...
Apr 28, 2021•50 min•Ep. 34
Happy IEP season! Today, special education attorney Laura Henneghan joins Lisa Lightner and A Day in Our Shoes to discuss Compensetory Education for services missed due to the global pandemic. She covers what comp ed is, who qualifies, and how to ask for it. You'll gain tools with which to advocate for your child in your spring IEP meetings. Check out ADayInOurShoes.com You can reach Laura at Laura@SpecialEd.Law A transcript of this episode can be found here shortly after the episode is publishe...
Apr 17, 2021•1 hr 12 min
Is your child with special education needs college bound? What do they need to get there? And where is there? Today, Special Education Attorney Laura Heneghan shares her journey helping her children navigate transition skills for college and what questions to ask. You can find both Laura and me at https://SpecialEd.Law and you can reach Laura directly at Laura @SpecialEd.Law The TRANSCRIPT for this episode can be found in the show notes at https://SpecialEd.Law/were-college-bound TRANSCRIPTS (no...
Mar 24, 2021•52 min•Ep. 33
With IEP season comes IEPs and with IEPs comes Goals and Objectives, the heart and soul of your child's IEP. So it is critical that your child's goals and objectives are Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Today, Special Education Advocate Stacey Tié and I talk about what you need to know to make sure your child has SMART goals and objectives! We discuss what SMART means, pull apart examples from actual IEPs, and offer questions for parents to ask in their IEP meetings to he...
Mar 17, 2021•47 min•Ep. 32
With March comes IEP season and it's time to prep! Around the middle of March, schools start holding IEP meetings to plan for the following school year. School districts are slammed trying to schedule all the meetings, students are at the beginning of the end of their school year, and parents need to prepare to advocate on behalf of their child. So how can you be best prepared? Today I speak with special education Attorney Laura Heneghan and non-lawyer special education Advocate Stacey Tié about...
Mar 10, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 31
Today I'm speaking with John Flanders, a special education attorney and former Executive Director of Connecticut Parent Advocacy Center (CPAC), about why learning how to properly advocate for your child is so important. We talk about the importance of understanding not just your child's disability but the special education process and law! John tells us where parents often get confused, take missteps, &/or go down the wrong path when advocating for their child. We also talk about how parents...
Mar 03, 2021•40 min•Ep. 30
Today I'm speaking with Kate Pearce, of Kate Pearce Educational Services, about reading deficits, assessments, and the importance of proper reading instruction. Kate is a reading specialist, educator, advocate, mom, and, yes... proud dyslexic! She provides reading assessments, instruction, and consultative services to parents and schools. Join us while we discuss what you need to know about reading issues! You can find Kate here: https://www.empoweredreader.com/ And you can find me here: https:/...
Feb 24, 2021•57 min•Ep. 29
Today I speak with Marc Bonaguide about residential placements. Marc is the Clinical Supervisor at The Glenholme School based in Washington, Connecticut. The Glenholme School, also known as Devereux Glenholme School, is an independent coeducational therapeutic boarding school situated on over 110 acres in Washington, Connecticut. The program there has successfully serviced students with disabilities in need of residential support. We discuss why residential programs are necessary for some studen...
Feb 17, 2021•37 min•Ep. 28
In this episode, I speak with Jeff Bravin, Executive Director of the American School for the Deaf (ASD) in Hartford, CT to discuss the importance of a literacy and language rich environment (their version of LRE). Not only does ASD serve deaf and hard of hearing students, they also have a successful program for hearing and non-verbal students with Autism. Jeff's Bio: Jeffrey S. Bravin has been employed at the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford, CT since 2002. He is currently the Execu...
Feb 10, 2021•41 min•Ep. 27
Pam Margolis is An Unconventional Librarian! She loves book and she loves inspiring students to explore new literature to expand their world. She reviews both popular books and those emerging in their genre. During this episode, Pam talks about Flamingo Rampant books. They are an inclusive publisher that she recommends: https://www.flamingorampant.com/ Here’s where you can find Pam at her website: https://unconventionallibrarian.com/ TRANSCRIPT (not proofread) SUMMARY KEYWORDS book, kid, people,...
Feb 03, 2021•53 min•Ep. 26
Today I speak with Joulé Bazemore and Barb Coleman, Co-Coordinators of The Bridge Program at Wooster School, a program designed to address the needs of students with Language Based Learning Disabilities. We discuss what these are, how they impact students, and how the Bridge Program has found a successful way to remediate these challenges for students within their typical classroom. You can learn more about Wooster School and The Bridge Program here: https://www.woosterschool.org/ https://www.wo...
Dec 09, 2020•54 min
Today we talk to Mandy Favolaro & Missy Alexander about the Annual COPAA Conference. COPAA stands for Council of Parents Attorneys and Advocates, an organization dedicated to protecting and enforcing the legal and civil rights of students with disabilities and their families. Their primary goal is to secure high quality educational services and to promote excellence in advocacy and their Annual Conference is one of the ways in which they do it! If you aren't familiar with COPAA, join us to l...
Nov 25, 2020•42 min•Ep. 25
Twice-exceptional (2e) children struggle because their gifts mask their challenges and their challenges mask their gifts. So, how do we educate 2e children? Today we are talking with super-mom and co-founder of Cajal Academy (cajalacademy.org), a private special education school in CT designed for 2e children. Cajal integrates intellectually-stimulating academics and expert therapies through highly-individualized but socially-engaged programs for children with verbal reasoning skills in the “abo...
Nov 24, 2020•57 min•Ep. 3
Special Ed 101 mp3 Thu, 11/19 9:46PM • 40:50 SUMMARY KEYWORDS child, special education, student, school district, parents, evaluations, education, iep, disability, attorney, iep meeting, mediation, state, due process hearing, least restrictive environment, timelines, hearing, school, procedural safeguards, decision Transcript: Today, I want to talk to you a little bit about special education, I realized that I haven't done a brief overview of special education, I did start off my podcast by goin...
Nov 20, 2020•41 min
Today we talk with Aubrey Schmalle, a registered occupational therapist, about Body Activated Learning to support attention and engagement. This is an innovative, sensory-based program to support attention and engagement in children that can be embedded into the existing curriculum of any school environment. Schools and parents can implement this program as a universal design support for all classrooms to enhance every students’ ability to be more active learners. The outcomes include improved a...
Nov 11, 2020•49 min
"Back to school" elicits images in my head of long lines in stationery stores, exorbitant shipping fees for backpacks I forgot to order, and the promise of a great new school year. None of that, however, was part of back to school 2020, at least not for us. As we have learned, nothing is written in stone with COVID-19. Here in CT, we heard schools had to open at full capacity. Then they were allowed to consider a hybrid plan. Now some are only offering virtual options and some withholding servic...
Sep 16, 2020•35 min
Being a mom is hard on a good day but just because something is hard doesn't mean it can't bring you joy! Today I talk with Meredith Masony, a work-from-home mom of 3, helping other woman through one of the most isolating jobs they have: motherhood. We talk about her new book, her quest for self-discovery, & the fun that disabilities adds to the joy of parenting! Maredith is a wife, mother to three children, dog mom of two, and founder of That’s Inappropriate and That’s Inappropriate Parents...
Sep 01, 2020•40 min•Ep. 22
What is the least restrictive environment? The one that is appropriate! And which one is that in the world of hybrid models where no one even knows what regular education looks like? Great questions. Join Stacey Tié and me as we discuss LRE, what that might look like now, and how to advocate for your child. More information about Stacey can be found on her website: https://wholechildadvocates.com/
Aug 19, 2020•33 min•Ep. 21
As parents contemplate their options for Fall 2020, the terms "online learning" and "virtual instruction" have become more commonplace than "unprecedented." Many students struggled to access their education in Spring of 2020, which made parents wary of the new digital components for Fall 2020. But what is that digital component and how can you advocate for the teaching modality your child needs? Lucky for us, Dr. Jennifer Walsh Rurak, Ed.D, is with us today and she talks to us about what success...
Jul 29, 2020•44 min•Ep. 20
Raising a child with Autism can be difficult for anyone, however, in the Black community there are additional challenges that may affect you. Although early intervention is key, African American children with autism are one to two years older than white children before they're even diagnosed! Maria Davis-Pierre is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with extensive experience working with children on the spectrum and their families. In addition, Maria is the parent of a child with Autism. Maria’s ...
Jul 15, 2020•53 min•Ep. 19
Where are your kids hanging out these days? Are they learning the social skills they need to navigate the world in-person AND online? To be a friend? To get a friend? To maintain a friend? And, what do Applied Behavior Analysis, Precision Teaching, Natural Environment Teaching (NET) have to do with any of this? This episode is what you need! Today I speak with Meghan Cave, M.Ed. BCBA LBA (CT) and Justyna Balzar, M.Ed. BCBA LBA (CT), co-founders of The Hangout Spot (https://www.thehangoutspotllc....
Jul 08, 2020•53 min•Ep. 18
Amy Pleet-Odle is an inclusion coach and founder of Inclusion Focused Coaching. She brings nearly 50 years of experience in education to her coaching work. She's been an English teacher, special educator, department chair, secondary transition coordinator, state department specialist, college professor, and parent. And in this episode she talks to me about what inclusion really is, what it should look like, and how we get there! In other words, what you need to know about inclusion! Amy Pleet-Od...
Jun 24, 2020•53 min•Ep. 17
ESY, or extended school year, provides students with services beyond the end of the school year for those who need it. While these services typically happen in the summer, they are not summer school. ESY is for students who would otherwise regress (more so than typical peers) over the long summer break or for students whose disabilities are such that they require services beyond the typical school year to meet their goals and objectives. Today, Diane Willcutts, a special education advocate, join...
Jun 17, 2020•48 min•Ep. 16
Schools closed due to a global pandemic. If that's not enough to trigger you, what about having to stay home, having to go out, having to work, not working? And the cherry on top? You now need to oversee your child's education, whatever that is right now. Speaking of your child, their schedules have been obliterated, the people who support them daily gone, and the people caring for them now (that's you!) are spread so thin, quality time is nothing more than a mirage. Terry D'Elisa, Psychologist,...
Jun 10, 2020•50 min•Ep. 15
The purpose of transition goals and objectives is to prepare your child for life after high school, whatever that may be for them. So now, all you need to figure out is what life after high school will look like for your child AND what skills your child will need to be there AND how to successfully teach those skills to your child. No pressure. Luckily, we have people like Muncie Kardos, Ph.D., OTR/L, ATP, to light the way! Muncie founded Kardos Educational Consulting, LLC, which provides famili...
May 29, 2020•54 min•Ep. 14
