advocacy

Pounding the Pavement

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Last week, I had the opportunity to go to MANSEF Advocacy Day in Annapolis, the first time I’ve ever availed myself of the opportunity.

MANSEF – the Maryland Association of Nonpublic Special Education Facilities – is the umbrella group for schools like the Monster’s, private schools that take students from the public school system who need more resources than the schools themselves can provide.  (This is a key distinction that I constantly have to emphasize when I’m at various meetings.  Yes, it’s a private school… but the city schools pay the tuition to send the Monster there, and he’s still legally a city school student.)  Nonpublic special education facilities help the public education system fulfill their FAPE obligations under IDEA. Continue reading →

Stepping Up

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I think everyone has seen, through the two plus years that I have been blogging about being the father of a child with Autism, about how I advocate for my son in the schools to get him the resources he needs to succeed.  You’ve seen my struggles and frustrations, and the occasional victory, all while I’ve groaned and grumbled about how the school district seems to be rigged against children like my Monster and that they don’t seem to hear us when we complain to them.

Well, it looks like I’m about to have more of a voice.
Continue reading →

Spectrum of Support

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So I’m going to wade into the whole thing from last night that blew up (yet again), my Tweet feed, but let me come around to it slowly.

Obviously, being a large community (and, if you listen to the CDC prevalence rate, we’re getting larger faster!), there’s a slew of organizations in the Autism space.  From local organizations to national ones, there’s a vast spectrum that we can pick from when we’re looking for somewhere to ‘belong’, and indeed, somewhere to give our money. Continue reading →