As a Mom of a Son With Multiple Disabilities, I Have the Receipts on Remote Instruction

Here at brightbeam, our North Star is “How Are The Children?” As parents look back over the last nine months of COVID-related school disruptions and…

I’m Glad To Be Back in the Classroom. My Students Need Me.

November 12th was our first day of school in-person since March of last year. On my drive to school, I was excited and grateful—thinking about…

We Need a Cooperative Approach to Improve Education for Students With Disabilities

Ten years ago last month, a team of advocacy organizations filed the New Orleans special education lawsuit (P.B. v. White) in federal court. The class-action…

I Thought Vouchers Were Wrong, But Now I Realize They Helped My Son

Recently I wrote that a residency hearing with two children, Kayla and Tasha, represented to me our deeply-embedded structural inequities in education that decades of initiatives,…

How I’m Helping My Child With Special Needs Navigate Remote Learning

My children always start school two weeks before everyone else. So after two weeks of e-learning—or what I am calling two-weeks “in the trenches”—I feel…

Our Students Have Strong Emotions Right Now, And That’s Not a Disability

When a local newspaper featured a picture of one of our students at a peaceful protest against police brutality, the staff at the small special…

My Son Cracked the Code in an Atypical Way With a Focus on Phonics

When my three older children learned to read, it seemed to us as natural a process as learning to talk. We read to them every…

Here’s What I Suggest Schools Do Now to Support Students Through This Pandemic

This Coronavirus pandemic is truly a life-changing event. It is hard to even compare what we are experiencing to any other time period in American…

Gavin’s Story Shines a Light on the Inequities Special Needs Students Face With Remote Learning

Ten-year-old Gavin Williams is a lively and affectionate youngster who loves to visit museums, experiment with computer-coding and plunge into ocean waves with his boogie-board. …

Here’s How the COVID-19 Stimulus Bill Will Affect Education

Late this morning the U.S. Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act. The total tab is $2 trillion…