I have two children in the public school system who are both protected under The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It was designed to ensure that children with disabilities are granted a free appropriate public education.This year the IDEA is celebrating 40 years of helping students to achieve.We are a family full of Specific Learning Disabilities,we are also much more than that, but it is an important part of our everyday lives and we choose to embrace it and work with it. Both of my children have IEPs: Payne, 17 yrs. old is dyslexic and dysgraphic which for him, means he has trouble reading, writing and spelling and Kaitlin 15 yrs. old is dyscalculic, which means she has trouble with math. We view their IEPs as shields that protect them from those that don’t or won’t understand their specific learning disabilities. Though it’s far from a perfect shield which sometimes fails and causes my children to take some unnecessary blows of ignorance or unwillingness, it is a shield nonetheless, and it protects them and helps them to flourish under that protection.
Working and sometimes fighting for our children's fair and appropriate education hasn’t been an easy road and I guess that’s OK because it has made my children view the world from a different perspective than many their age and it has made them strong and resilient people in the process. It’s also led us to connect with others who are working toward the same goal that we have which is awareness, educating and advocating toward better understanding of what our children need so that children after them, won’t experience the same.
I’m going to share a couple of recent stories from a few of the people that we’ve connected with since we started this journey. My family has had the pleasure of meeting Kristin Kane and Joan Moore Rizek from Virginia.
Kristin Kane...
Kristin Kane’s journey to make sure that her children receive a fair and appropriate education has lead her straight to The White House. Yes, The White House! She and her son, Noah, have been invited to speak during the IDEA’s 40th Celebration. Now, I could spend a little more time writing about Kristin's exciting journey to The White House, but she already did in the blog post, “I Told Them Yes!” If you’d like to watch Kristin and Noah live at the The White House on Tuesday, November 17, 2015, at 9:30am click on this link: https://www.whitehouse.gov/live. Kristin is also a founding member of Decoding Dyslexia Virginia and a Parent Information Specialist for The Parent Education Advocacy Training Center in Virginia.
Joan Moore Rizek...
Joan Moore Rizek is a Virginia Mom, I met in 2013 at a screening of “THE BIG PICTURE: Rethinking Dyslexia” a film the helps raise awareness about dyslexia from James Redford. We were just Moms looking for answers for our children and met each other in the process. I’m so grateful that I met Joan and have been able to keep in communication. Joan is a founding member of Decoding Dyslexia Virginia and along with her son, Calvin has recently started a new Face Book Group named: 4o Faces of Dyslexia. The group was created to, “Celebrate the 40 Years of IDEA and kids with IEPs.” Pictures from the group have been turned into a video via Animoto to celebrate, "40 Faces of Dyslexia." Parents in the group have now decided to share their children’s pictures for The White House 40th Celebration of The IDEA on Twitter, NOVEMBER 16TH AND 17TH using the hashtags #IDEA40 and #SayDyslexia.
These are just a few of the people my family and I have had the opportunity to connect with and we're better and more knowledgeable for having done so.
Happy 40th Anniversary IDEA!
Working and sometimes fighting for our children's fair and appropriate education hasn’t been an easy road and I guess that’s OK because it has made my children view the world from a different perspective than many their age and it has made them strong and resilient people in the process. It’s also led us to connect with others who are working toward the same goal that we have which is awareness, educating and advocating toward better understanding of what our children need so that children after them, won’t experience the same.
I’m going to share a couple of recent stories from a few of the people that we’ve connected with since we started this journey. My family has had the pleasure of meeting Kristin Kane and Joan Moore Rizek from Virginia.
Kristin Kane...
Kristin Kane’s journey to make sure that her children receive a fair and appropriate education has lead her straight to The White House. Yes, The White House! She and her son, Noah, have been invited to speak during the IDEA’s 40th Celebration. Now, I could spend a little more time writing about Kristin's exciting journey to The White House, but she already did in the blog post, “I Told Them Yes!” If you’d like to watch Kristin and Noah live at the The White House on Tuesday, November 17, 2015, at 9:30am click on this link: https://www.whitehouse.gov/live. Kristin is also a founding member of Decoding Dyslexia Virginia and a Parent Information Specialist for The Parent Education Advocacy Training Center in Virginia.
Joan Moore Rizek...
Joan Moore Rizek is a Virginia Mom, I met in 2013 at a screening of “THE BIG PICTURE: Rethinking Dyslexia” a film the helps raise awareness about dyslexia from James Redford. We were just Moms looking for answers for our children and met each other in the process. I’m so grateful that I met Joan and have been able to keep in communication. Joan is a founding member of Decoding Dyslexia Virginia and along with her son, Calvin has recently started a new Face Book Group named: 4o Faces of Dyslexia. The group was created to, “Celebrate the 40 Years of IDEA and kids with IEPs.” Pictures from the group have been turned into a video via Animoto to celebrate, "40 Faces of Dyslexia." Parents in the group have now decided to share their children’s pictures for The White House 40th Celebration of The IDEA on Twitter, NOVEMBER 16TH AND 17TH using the hashtags #IDEA40 and #SayDyslexia.
These are just a few of the people my family and I have had the opportunity to connect with and we're better and more knowledgeable for having done so.
Happy 40th Anniversary IDEA!
Here are a few pictures of my goofy family who embrace their specific learning disabilities, sometimes with smiles, sometimes with frustration and sometimes with tears. SLD doesn't lead their lives but it is certainly part of it. The IDEA isn't perfect and when we see places where our SLD children lack some protection, we need to work toward changing them. My family is lucky and happy to have The IDEA as a shield.