My View from a Hard Plastic Chair

Posted on April 6, 2026 by admin

    I’ve been going to my local Wake County school board meetings or watching them on YouTube for some time.  Nothing prepared me for this past month. It started when I read in my morning news that Superintendent Dr. Robert Taylor’s upcoming budget draft included a cut to special education.   I was shocked and honestly a bit panicked.  The Wake central office staff presented this preview draft at a regular Tuesday school board meeting as part of an information item. It was unique in that the full budget draft was weeks away from being presented.  The presentation included budget trends and general outlook for the state.  Slide ten stated, “Even with the current year cost-cutting measures, a budget reduction will be required for 2026-2027. 

     While I was in the meeting I was told that teachers were getting an email from Special Education that had specific numbers.  The email was confusing, but what was clear was that the department needed 18 million dollars and was cutting 130 teachers.  Everyone I knew in my community with both special education teachers and parents were confused, hurt and most of all scared.  Special education has been in a crisis for as long as my kid has attended public school, many like me felt we were moving toward catastrophe.

     I was interviewed multiple times that day by local news outlets and I was the first adult speaker that night in public comment.  I shared with them their own numbers showing that Black and Brown Children with Disabilities are over represented in discipline actions as well as the district having to pay out 1.3 million dollars in settlement money for special education cases.  I wanted to clearly show that students with disabilities are struggling as it is.  A cut would devastate an already stressed system.

     As a parent who had a significant fight for accessibility and resources for her child, I have personal experience navigating the Wake County Public School system.  It has significant barriers and for many of us those barriers seem intentional.  Hard to find emails.  Getting someone’s phone number can be a game changer, until they leave the system and you’re back to square one.  Meanwhile the violations are many and vary year by year.  Getting a caring team took me years of advocating and at one point became my full time job.  So, the idea of a cut was gut wrenching and I was prepared to fight.  The language our school staff was using was definitive and it felt like a decision had been made even though I know that wasn’t true. 

    A few days after that regular school board meeting, a special school board meeting was called by the chair of the Wake County School System, Tyler Swanson.  He also reached out to me personally.  I was told that because the staff seemed to be unable to give straight answers to many questions both the board and others were asking, it was time to set the record straight. The biggest question for me was why?  Why propose cuts to special education?  This was the purpose of the special meeting, and for the most part our community got answers, but not the answers we were hoping for. 

    The special meeting was held on a Tuesday at 5pm and livestreamed and recorded on YouTube.  I attended in person, but many of my friends listened from home.  It was a very long and often tense meeting.  A table was set up in front of the school board where staff sat.  The staff presented a slide deck and the school board went slide by slide asking questions.  The answers from staff were often a strange mix of corporate buzz words and special education acronyms.  The main question was in a sense answered, but the answer was so unsatisfactory.  From the Superintendent to the special education staff in the central office, they believed that increasing the case load of existing teachers wouldn’t affect the level of services to students.  Thus with a growing need for funding in special education, they concluded that they could just simply make the cuts and pile more work onto the shoulders of our teachers and support staff at the classroom level.

     The amount of groans from the teachers and parents in the room wasn’t even funny.  It only got worse in so many ways.  One question the board wanted answered was if they should be prepared for any other areas of the budget to be at risk.  It took asking the question over and over and seemed like it was pulling teeth just to get the staff to answer honestly and more importantly directly.  The answer is unsurprising, but I don’t want it to get lost. Funding that is at risk going forward is Medicaid, Title 1(assists schools with a significant population of students in poverty) and Title III (assists with resources for students whose English is a Second Language).   These are all federal supported projects and intersect with disability. 

     I was fuming during the meeting.  It didn’t have to be so long, but that is squarely on the shoulders of the staff, who seemed to actively try and avoid answering questions directly.  All their answers felt like they lived on a completely different planet. At one point the staff actually rejected the idea of help with Individual Education Plans paperwork, they said it would atrophy the skills of special education teachers. I for one welcome any help one can give our teachers and staff. They seemed to miss the relationships and leadership skills of our teachers and instructional assistants.  Staff answers absolutely didn’t reflect the student and family experience.  It was as if they were willing to do anything, but look critically at the broken system before them.

    My anger at the Superintendent and our fiscal staff can’t be understated.  If the staff reported a financial problem, why didn’t the whole financial system step in to adjust and support?  Clearly they understand the landscape of federal and state budget challenges.  Why would they put that on the shoulders of a department that clearly needed financial propping up?  Why would they put continuing positions or expenses on non recurring funds?  Why wouldn’t they fight for our most vulnerable students first?

    The problem I’m having is not just a broken system, but a central staff and administration that seems to refuse to actually make changes.  They should be fighting for us and our kids with fidelity.  When things go wrong on the school level, these are people parents seek out for help.  After watching that meeting, how can I trust that they truly want to help?  How do I even trust?

    The school board stood strong and across party lines made it clear that special education funding should remain the same going forward and not be subject to cuts.  It was a relief, but that meeting still haunts me.  Even in my own backyard, our special education students are not being granted priority.  

      Special Education requires both funding and a belief in the kids and their parents and families.  It requires dedicated teachers, and support staff.  These are foundational.   Disability is intersectional.  It recognizes racism, language barriers, our LGBTQ kids, and the challenges of poverty among other things.  Kids with disabilities need to be treated as human most of all.  They are more than standardized test scores, their behaviors, and grades.  They are more than job potential or college placement.  They deserve the same opportunities as every child.  When we dispel their lives to data charts we miss so much.  Our children deserve to be seen as their whole selves.

      On top of it all a WUNC article came out highlighting the struggles of special education families trying to get reliable transportation in Wake. For me it is part of this broader story.  Charise’s story struck me most of all.  From the article, a social worker seemed quick to put the main burden of unreliable school transportation on the parent’s shoulders.  This is the type of story I’ve heard from so many other parents.  We should be looking at our systems and systems failure first.  We should work with parents and give support and not blame.  Time and time again our central office refuses to truly look at what they can do to improve the school experience not just for students with disabilities but for every child.  I believe in the power of change.  I believe they should be fighting for funding, but also for changing how we view and treat students with disabilities and all vulnerable students.  This fight should be together with staff as our allies, not our adversaries. 

     Finally, the Leandro case ruling came like a gut punch on top of everything.  The NC Supreme Court ruled against a long court case that sought to release funds into our school system.   It is hard not to feel devastated by the recent ruling. Basically our state constitution grants every child in North Carolina the right to a sound and basic education regardless of zip code or background.  However the new ruling states that the court has no authority to uphold that principle and it is the duty of the North Carolina General Assembly to fund our schools and provide that sound basic education.  Our North Carolina General Assembly is negligent and the harm is being felt everywhere and deep here in the special education world.  None of the above crises would hit as hard or feel as hopeless if we had a legislature actively funding and assisting our school systems.    

    I know the road will be long, and we must not discount the progress and relationships we’ve made along the way.  Our task is twofold. One is to address and lift up the importance of every child’s right to a sound basic education.  That is policy and funding.  The next is a mindset that all our kids deserve dignity and belief in their core humanity.  We need the funding but we also need the wisdom and expertise of all our community to make sure the money goes to our most vulnerable students.  Our school’s priorities must reflect our community’s needs, and our kids must be given the resources they need to thrive.

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The Day They Tried to Ban Books

Posted on April 30, 2025 by admin

I wish I could remember the exact date, but I’d been attending Wake County School Board meetings for a little while.  I’d been there to support our teachers, students, and staff navigating Covid-19.  I was advocating for science, for clean air, for safe returns, masks, and protections.  I was consistently met with a hostility I’d never seen before at a local school board.  I was preparing myself for another anti-mask tirade during public comment that day, but was met with something completely different.

As the meeting was set to begin, I noticed a woman with a copy of the book Jesus Land.   I thought about walking up to her.  I found that particular book thought provoking, at times difficult, but also relatable.  I thought maybe I’d catch her later.  I love to talk about books.

The thought of introducing myself quickly died. She clearly was sitting and chatting with the anti-masking crowd.  They and others had come to the meeting to ban books including Jesus Land from our school’s libraries.  I was shocked and very annoyed.  When did anti-maskers turn into book banners?  One day Mom’s for Liberty is talking about complete bodily autonomy and the next they want to restrict what children are reading.  It wasn’t just Moms for Liberty, it was also a group who called themselves the Pavement Project.  Many seemed to already know each other well from a neighborhood church.  Most were elderly and clearly didn’t have kids in the school system.

I had entered a culture war that I didn’t really sign up to join.  However, it was clear that there was a side not only dedicated to restrict, censor and ban books in our public school libraries, but also use their platform for hate.  They tried to scare folks that there was something deeply depraved lurking in our schools.  In Wake County, they used public comment at our school board to promote their hatred of Trans kids, our LGBTQ+ community with thinly veiled racist dog whistles as well. Of course sometimes the veil came off and we heard rants about divisive material and CRT.  I didn’t have a choice in this new war.  Silence was not an option.

The book banners are still using public comment at school boards, but their voices ring hollow here in Wake County for many reasons.   First and foremost, parents have and have always had the right to control what their child reads.  If you as a parent object to a book being used in an English Language Arts class, it’s a simple conversation with the teacher.  Next, the vitriol, yelling and proselytizing at the school board just made those banning books seem unhinged.  Finally, when in the history of mankind has book banning ever been a sign of a democratic society?  One of the main reasons I hate this culture war so much is that it just feels ridiculous in my lifetime to talk about book bans.

The war isn’t over, just the battle is now at the state and federal level too.  We’ve seen lawmakers do a simple search and replace in bills once called anti-CRT and now are anti-DEI.  They’re hoping you don’t know the difference because it feels like they don’t either. North Carolina had a parents bill of rights in the last legislative session.  In order to get it to pass, lawmakers stripped some of its extreme book ban policies out of the bill.  Well, they’ve now bundled that into a new bill and are reintroducing it calling it House Bill 636 Promoting Wholesome Content for Students.  

The bill would set up a committee to review all books, current and future. Just going through all the books is going to take time that our educators don’t have to spend.  It would also require that materials not include any depiction of sexual activity and the bill uses the vague term “pervasively vulgar”.  There is also a mechanism for parents to sue the school.  We’ve seen this happen in other states and it absolutely is censorship with the purpose of erasing LGBTQ+ lived experiences from the shelves of our libraries and using that as a gateway to erasing others as well.

Many will tell you, it was never about the books.  They say there are deeper forces at play. They include the destruction and privatization of our public schools, Christian Nationalism and the breakdown of the separation between church and state. Perhaps folk will mention the broader authoritarian ideals at play.  However, none of that really matters to many of us with kids in public schools.  We must fight the bills in front of us. I just hope you feel as I do, silence is not an option.

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The Sunflower

Posted on February 19, 2025 by admin

I asked my son if he wanted to use the Sunflower Program the last time we took a flight. This is a program at many airports where you can choose to wear a sunflower themed lanyard or wear the symbol of a sunflower to denote you have a hidden disability. From their website, “The Hidden Disabilities Sunflower is a simple tool for you to voluntarily share that you have a disability or condition that may not be immediately apparent – and that you may need a helping hand, understanding, or more time in shops, at work, on transport, or in public spaces.” My son said, “no thanks”. I was honestly surprised.

My son asked the very good question, “Why can’t they just provide those things to everyone? Why can’t they be patient and kind because we’re human?” I wasn’t expecting it, so I just pondered on his thoughts for a while. He’s right, but the Sunflower Program does exist for a reason. People don’t always do what’s right.

This is why the Office of Civil Rights in the Federal Department of Education is so important to so many of us. While I never filed a complaint myself, it is a tool against discrimination that many use to make sure laws are enforced. The agency is specifically responsible for enforcing two laws that prohibit discrimination based on disability in public education. These two laws are Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Laws without agency and enforcement are meaningless. This is why the dismantling and moving of the Department of Education is so frightening so many parents with students who are vulnerable.

The right keeps arguing that their simply reorganizing. That nothing with funding will change despite already seeing grants and funding disappear from teacher training programs. Of course I understand the idea of block grants to our states. However, how much do you trust your state? Who makes sure they’re doing their job? Having a dedicated department of education ensures that education access doesn’t get lost in a larger department especially as we see the federal workforce be dismantled. Having a separate department sends a message that we care and prioritize the education of children in this country.

The scariest concept to me at all is moving anything right now into the Department of Health and Human Services. RFKJr is at the helm. A person who has zero training in health and human services let alone education and the welfare of children. His callous and absolutely wrong views of vaccines is just one example. Vaccines are imperative to keeping our public spaces like public schools safe. However, if you research his views on ADHD and Autism it just gets worse. How can you protect these kids if you don’t see their humanity?

The Department of Education and our Federal Government does a lot of good for education and at the very least has tracked and collected data which can or should be used to better understand our systems and how we can make them better for all students. Yes, that means tracking how race intersects with those systems and how we can make sure we’re not disproportionally discriminating or withholding access to key learning resources for Black and Brown students. From magnet schools to crucial grants to agencies like the Exceptional Children’s Assistance Center, many of us benefit from the Department of Education.

My child is correct. We shouldn’t need a law to tell us be kind and good citizens. Yet we also know that racism, ableism, trans discrimination, LGBT discrimination, xenophobia, and a host of other bias persist in our society. Last night I went before the Wake County School Board during public comment and asked them to provide actions that support our disability community. Going forward without strong dedicated federal protections this might be only leverage we have going forward. Our voices standing as a community to remind our school boards we’re watching and we care about the lives of our vulnerable students.

If I can I’ll clip a video of my public comment, but in the meantime you may read it here.

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The Day After

Posted on November 6, 2024 by admin

The stench was overwhelming as my son and I entered the car to drive to school in the morning. I had left all the campaign signs from my polling place in the back of the car too exhausted the previous evening to move them. The smell was like a mix of lawn clippings and urine and it filled my tiny hatchback with an overwhelming stench. My son looked at me annoyed and put his backpack on his lap instead of in the back where the signs were stacked up.

I had just told my son about the election results. Like ripping off a band aid, I just had my son sit down and I told him who won and lost on both the state and federal level. It was important because there were some wins here in North Carolina. Still my son asked about his safety as a kid with a disability, he asked about climate change and unchecked corporate greed. I didn’t sugar coat. I simply said I would protect his rights and that we would work together to fight for the rights of others.

It was a heartbreaking conversation. I was physically and mentally exhausted, but somehow made it through without tears and with as much mental fortitude as I could muster. The drive into school in the stinky car didn’t help, but my kid seemed OK. He looked at me and said he’d try his best today even if his best wasn’t what it looks like for other kids. I smiled knowing that he really is trying in world not set up for how his brain is wired.

I didn’t break down and cry until I got a text from a friend that simply said, “hugs.” At my last traffic light before home, I began to cry. I’ve been crying off and on now for a while. Mourning the the time I’ll need to spend defending the rights of my child, and the rights of others. The existential dread is an aura lingering about, while the real and horrifying facts live echoing in my brain. Its so loud and sad in my headspace and I’m not quite sure how to completely turn it off. Maybe turning it off completely isn’t going to happen so I need to use my strategies. Use your strategies might be the most used phrase in my house and I’m certain it will continue to be as time shuffles forward.

As my brain struggles to make sense of it all, I know the actions that work. I know how to do this again. First is inform. In real ways using our stories, we inform small circles and big circles of what’s going on in our world. We each do this differently and over time and space our circles connect. This builds a base of people who share an understanding of an issue and then are ready to work together to solve it. Next, we encourage each other to work in whatever ways they work best. It sounds simple enough, but inter personal relations are hard. We share joy most of the time, but sometimes its hard and jealousy, egos, and conflict are ever present. Still if we can remember that we have a common goal, take breaks, and that we’re all unique as we ground ourselves in the humanity of others, we will succeed. Finally understand that our greatest power doesn’t rest in government and elected positions. Our greatest power rests in our communities. Communities offer protections, power, and hope when everyone else fails us. This is where my hope resides.

I’m not quite ready to fight, rally, or march just yet. I need to regroup and heal. I’m just not going to feel defeated. I’m also going to be cognizant of the fear and dangers those I love face. The world gets darker earlier these days. However, I’m going to hold unto hope. See in 2016, I didn’t have what I have now. Now, I have a strong vibrant community of strong women. I am not alone. Today that is enough.

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Starting from Scratch

Posted on August 8, 2024 by admin

Starting a new school really feels like starting from scratch. While I have an IEP and years of knowledge, I don’t know this new school. I have no idea the culture of the school, teachers, staff and maybe most notably the administration. I feel like my son and I are stepping into a great unknown and it doesn’t feel good.

I’ve often begin my talks by saying, “I’ve seen the best of public school and I’ve seen the worst.” I only occasionally go into any detail let alone specifics about the worst. I can say it eroded trust. I can’t unknow what I know. I can’t turn back time on the phone calls, and the suspensions. The trauma is still there for my kid. It is still there for me.

So, we go into another transition. Will it be positive like our transition to middle school or will it be a nightmare like it was when we changed schools in elementary? I have no way of knowing. What I do know, scares the hell out of me.

My son told us recently, “I just want to be treated like a human being.” It isn’t much to ask, but I know that hasn’t always been the case. He’s been restrained and then told it was therapy. He’s been gaslighted about his sensory issues so many times he doesn’t trust a lot of teachers. He hasn’t always been safe at school. He hasn’t always been believed either.

The other problem is that I know the system well. I know that it is rare to have a fully staffed Special Education program. It is even rarer for them to be up to date on what it really means to be Autistic. For example, my son’s IEP states that he gets a 1 on on 1 to assist throughout his day. There is really little to no training these folks go through. Sometimes they’re absolute amazing individuals who fully support my son’s needs. Sometimes their ignorance is a hinderance to learning.

I’m also keenly aware of the underfunding issue and the low pay issue for our special education teachers, the instructional assistants and really the entire building. I can put together an amazing IEP document but it means very little if they can’t provide the staff. I can of course pull my kid out and refuse to send him to school until they provide the staffing, but that doesn’t make money appear. Let alone what underfunding does to morale and school culture over time.

We’re going to try our best and step into the unknown. I sent an email introduction to the Principal. I put too many links in it about myself that I wish I could take back. I also joined the PTSA. Of course I opened my mouth to volunteer as Advocacy Chair at the fist meeting. Not only that, I went on and on about advocacy being the heart of the PTA. The position wasn’t even listed on their web site, it wasn’t even listed as vacant, so I thought I was doing something good. Apparently,10 minutes after volunteering and being welcomed, I was told the position was already filled. I still have zero idea where it was listed, but I don’t doubt the person. I of course immediately apologized and felt very small and slightly humiliated. Not a best foot forward moment.

The other hard part that is hard is explaining to friends and neighbors about where we’re going to high school. They ask. I answer. Immediately I get asked why there. It isn’t near our house. It isn’t a magnet school either. So, I have to explain that my son was assigned there because he’s in a regional program (special education). Of course I get asked again why because of course many Autistics go to their schools. Its exhausting trying to explain why my kid is in a regional program that only exists in two high schools in the county. I can’t even tell them why that program is special or why my kid is in it. I honestly have yet to understand regional programs in our county. I honestly have no idea if it is the right fit either. Its where his teacher from last year said he should go and I’m taking a giant leap of faith trusting her. She is one of those few I trust.

I’m haunted by our past experience in our school system. I know the nightmares well. My son still has them, as do I. I also know that there aren’t any other real options either. Homeschool isn’t for us. I absolutely care about quality education. There aren’t private schools who will take my kid either. I’ve been down that road and its even scarier. My son needs every bit of federal protection we can get him. In so many ways, he is why IDEA is important.

Thus we start from scratch. We ask questions. We try and make the transition as positive as we can. It still scares the hell out of me.

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Eloping

Posted on April 28, 2024 by admin

There are lots of specific words we use in the Autism world. They include things like stimming, echolalia, and scripting. I love that we have our own culture. However, there is one word used by schools I dislike intensely, Eloping.

The first time I heard a teacher tell me that my son eloped from the classroom, I laughed out loud. I kept picturing my six year old taking a ladder to a second story window and escaping intentionally with his forbidden one true love. Of course this isn’t what they meant.

I decided this wasn’t a term I wanted used and purged it from our IEP and BIP. It has always bothered me and I’m starting to understand why it bothers me. It initially bothered because its just not everyday language. No one says my kid eloped from home. We say my kid ran away from home. Eloping also seemed to me as intentional or even premediated which isn’t what was happening in the classroom.

However, there is something deeper for me. I tried to hold a breakout session this weekend at a summit for family engagement on the basics of Disability Rights. The theme was simply that Disability is a normal part of the human experience. Normalizing the disability experience just makes sense to me. While my Autism diagnosis is new and I’m still processing, my strabismus is something I’ve had my whole life. I see the world differently to the greater world. To me its just how I see. My body is normal to me. My mind and how I think is normal to me, I just have a name for it now.

So, I don’t like that we have some special word for something that isn’t special. It feels othering. We know that flight or fight is a very real response to danger whether it is real or perceived. My kid didn’t just run for no reason, he ran because he felt in danger. That to me changes the conversation. It leads to me ask why did he run. It changes the focus on not just my son’s behavior, but on the environment that lead up to the action.

I’ve changed the way I parent. I’ve changed the way I talk about myself and disability in general. I’m still trying to figure out how to be part of the change. Sometimes its as small as changing our words and language.

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Tis the Season

Posted on December 8, 2023 by admin
A mirrored room full of dangling lit ornaments with colors pink, blue, green and purple.

Tis the season for dysregulation and meltdowns. Starting from Thanksgiving onward, schools, home life, work, everything gets turned a little off its axle. For our neuro-diverse kids this can feel anywhere from exciting to dysregulating, to downright overwhelming. Its like a season for meltdowns.

Family meals for many kids is all the bad smells, tastes and textures. It can feel dysregulating for some kids to have strange folks in their space as relatives sleep over, and travel is like whole other blog post. Routines are disrupted, even for good things, and can throw one off their game and cause forgetfulness and stumbling over perfectly normal things in ones day. Sometimes its just that feeling of anticipation for good things and Winter Break nearly here.

By far the toughest for our family is the environment I can’t control much. That is school. There are performances, ‘fun days’, school dances, and even movie days. My son once told his teacher, sometimes things that other people view as fun; I don’t think are fun. Other times things like build a gingerbread house seems like the best thing in the world.

Thus in elementary school, when my son didn’t do a writing assignment and struggled with his academic work, one teacher thought it appropriate to dangle the gingerbread house as ‘motivation’. What happened was a complete imploding of emotions. Unable to concentrate and then unable to get the prize, my son melted down and not in a small way. Emotions were way to high. It broke the trust and bond with the teacher too. There are really too many instances to name where rigidity with a school and the high intensity of the holidays met with a bang and my kid in the principal’s office in tears.

So if I’m to give advice: parents, teachers, just breathe. Do the best you can do. Stop with the rewards and the taking stuff. Its not going to improve behavior. Its only going throw more fuel to an already burning fire. Let kids opt out. Maybe having everyone eat together isn’t a happy occasion for everyone.

Yes, teachers be more flexible. Its not going to cause the massive behavior uprising you foresee. It might just calm the waters. Our kids are going to mess up. This is not a time to punish the whole class or call out publicly a kid messing up. As they say, let it go. I know it feels like it, but I swear to you my child was never sitting there plotting your downfall as a teacher. Most of the time, he was petrified and just trying to feel safe at school. Other times he was just too excited and dysregulated and too young or even too overwhelmed to self regulated on his own.

Parents take it easy. Overexcitement can lead to meltdowns just like negative triggers. Listen to your kid and watch for those non verbal cues. They’re communicating with us in so many ways that isn’t speech. Find out if you can, something your kid likes to do. Maybe it isn’t even holiday related. Oh well. What routines you can keep going, just keep going, and be forgiving when things fall apart. They will. We’re human.

Right now our autistic kids just need to feel safe and regulated. It will be different for every kid and every family. In a season of meltdowns be a provider of accommodations, calm, and most importantly love.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Sign has a photo of ear phones around a heart. Says Quiet Area
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Crossover

Posted on May 7, 2023 by admin

May 4th was crossover. A deadline date that bills must pass one house of the general assembly in order to be heard in the next. Bills can be considered dead if they don’t go through at least one chamber by crossover. As someone who monitors the NC General Assembly its a date I’ve had on my calendar for a long time. With the new super majority of the NCGA, the barrage of bills and legislation went quickly through committees and onto the floors of our legislature. I listened in when I could. I followed threads and reporters. I also had real life obligations going on throughout the week. I ended up on Friday just tired and angry.

The thing that burns me the most really this week, isn’t what you’d expect. See, I’ve been expecting so much of this bad legislation. It felt this year it was only a matter of time and Tricia Cothman was the spark of an already building fire. I’m not so desensitized yet that the fall of reproductive rights doesn’t bother me, but it is always easier to process the expected. The education committee was also busy taking up harmful bill after harmful bill. There were even bills that I’m just learning about that passed.

What broke me this week was the 15.8 million in local funding shortfall from the Wake County Commissioners draft budget. I didn’t expect the gap to be that wide between the Wake County School Board’s budget request of 55.8 million and the offering of only 40 million from the county manager’s budget draft.

Basically on a statewide level I’m watching the dismantling of human rights and the destruction of public education. The last thing I need right now is to have to go on the local level and fight even more battles. We had an election. Most, if not all of the current county commission talked about their commitment to public education. I helped many campaigns with lit drops, a meet and greet in my area, signs and poll greeting. I’ve done my advocating, I showed up. I expected them to keep to their word.

I shouldn’t have to beg for my supper. I shouldn’t have to show up on a random Tuesday when I’m tripled booked with everything else that is happening in our broken state. I shouldn’t have to write talking points and help with a campaign to fund our schools. Yet here I am. The public spoke in November with their votes for people they believed would fund our schools.

On May 1st, I went to the Wake County Commissioners meeting. On a whim, I gave a short public comment. I honestly don’t usually go without preparation into public comment, but I was feeling brave that day. I told the commissioners I was tired of writing the same speech every year. I was tired of asking them to fully fund the request from the Wake Public Schools.

I love and most notably need our public schools. So, it looks like I’ll be at a budget hearing sometime soon. At least I have speeches already prepared. Maybe I’ll use the one from 2017? I don’t even need to rewrite the entire speech. I just need to change the dollar amount. Wake County deserves better than this.

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Wright School Part VI

Posted on January 12, 2023 by admin

The hardest part about Wright School is leaving Wright School. For six months your kid has been nourished by school, possibly for the first time. They have been taught and you’ve seen academic progress. You’ve seen mind and attitude changes too. What happens when my kiddo graduates? The hope is that new strategies and structures will be there as well as support from the school informed by the time spent at Wright School.

The goodbye at Wright School is perhaps the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. It is deliberate. Each child and teacher offers their reflections of the graduate. They write it down too so that Emerson has a copy. Then Emerson gives his reflections to each classmate and teacher too. Just in case you were wondering, teachers who leave the program also go through this graduation ceremony too. It felt like a warm blanket being wrapped around my family.

We came home with not just the projects and work completed, but posters and things to remind Emerson of the strategies learned. Sending him back to Wake County Schools seemed so frightening in comparison to a school that was all kind words, affirmations, movement, and positivity.

Wright School was right there in the meeting to transition Emerson back to our regular public school. We also had such a wonderful educator in Emerson’s 6th grade teacher Ms. Laurie Bauchman. She was leaving WCPSS, but she made sure that Emerson got the one-on-one aid that we so desperately needed. I saw a partnership in that meeting unlike I’ve ever witnessed.

We’ve done OK since Emerson left. He has struggled in school a bit, but shows us everyday sparks of progress. I don’t worry about his morning routine or his evening routine. He takes a daily shower basically at the same time every night. That is Wright School. I need to remind him about mindfulness, but he knows how to reset his system.

So, there is a part of me that never wanted my kiddo to leave the sanctuary that Wright School created especially for our neuro-diverse students. Yet, that is the purpose. The purpose of the Wright School is to for students to leave and restart their lives with better strategies for the entire family. Now we need to work on our community. Center our schools, our towns, our greater world to put kids and their entire selves first.

I hope everyone who reads this gets to know about a little gem of program here in North Carolina. I hope everyone gets to understand that when we fund these programs we all get to benefit. That indeed a public school can do great things. I also hope we build on that model, expand that model. Finally, our kids aren’t broken, don’t need a cure, but with a little love, mindfulness, resources and support they can get the restart they need to thrive.

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Wright School Part V

Posted on January 11, 2023 by admin

What makes the Wright School experience so unique to me is that my child was accepted. Now I’m sure that doesn’t sound like much, but it really ended up being the difference maker. The school even took his sensory issues seriously and accommodated all his issues, even though I questioned them myself sometimes.

The philosophy of the Wright School can be read on their web site. https://www.ncdhhs.gov/divisions/state-operated-healthcare-facilities/wright-school/history-and-philosophy The idea that we aren’t curing anything, but instead creating a home and community support system doesn’t sound that innovative. However, I assure you it is. It is the approach to mental health and disability that gets overlooked.

Friday at noon is pickup at Wright School. Generally music played loudly and not a lot was said. Except on day when we were nearly home, Emerson just asked, “Do you believe in the medical or social model?” Out of context, I had zero idea what in the world he was talking about at the moment. However, he went on push and asked if I believed in the medical model of disability.

So, thanks to the Wright School and their deep discussion of Flowers for Algernon, my child was schooling me on disability justice. I admit if Emerson had read that short story in his old school, I probably would have flipped out. However, my kiddo came away from the group discussion and the story with a new found pride in his own disability and some righteous indignation about how we treat disability in America. I had tears in my eyes after the discussion.

The supports for Emerson’s mental health were all there on site. He was monitored, evaluated, and our liaison teacher counselor met with both my husband and I regularly. He even texted us fun stories about Emerson. He became a part of our family unit for the time. He became a friend to Emerson through music class.

This school is a public school, but operates under the Department of Health and Human Services and not DPI. We didn’t have to even worry about EOGs at the school. It is supported with public money and the state has the knowledge and success numbers to recreate this environment if it chooses.

Wright School does things right, and with some resources and well money, we could find ways to replicate so much of what they do right. I’d love to see liaison teacher counselors in every public school. I’d love to see the philosophy really adapted. If feel like right now as long as a child doesn’t act too disabled then they earn the right to be in general education.

When alternative learning environments are mentioned by folks at the North Carolina General Assembly I give pause. There aren’t spaces like Wright School in most places in North Carolina. We risk segregating kids and putting them in a holding cell. The Wright School is a wonderful example of a restart school doing things well and intently keeping the mental health of students a priority. Not every child needs a partially residential restart school. When they do, it should be like the Wright School.

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