Friday catch-up notes—2026-02-27
What tidbits didn't show up as a full post this week?
Editor’s note: This post contains snippets about stories, resources, and observations that the SET authors didn’t quite have time to develop into full-blown posts over the past week. I’m hoping we can catch up with our in-boxes. We didn’t want you, Dear Readers, to miss them. Some of them may later appear as a part (or parcel) of a full-blown post.—JohnL
How Parents Can Support Teachers In and Out of the Classroom?—Over on Education Week, Olina Banerji posted a compilation of teachers’ comments about how parents could help educators promote growth in children. If the compiled comments are a representative survey of teachers’ opinions (hint: I [JWL] don’t think they are!), those comments shown provided a sad commentary on educators’ thinking about raising kids. TBH, though, when I think back on the things I said too parents of my students when we handed off the young ones at the schoolroom door, my requests and recommendations were probably just as (or even more) naïve, insensitive, and ill-informed as many of those that Ms. Banerji reported. Sigh.
JLD cover art submissions open for 2027—As SET has explained previously (25 August 2024 and 6 September 2025), the venerable Journal of Learning Disabilities has issued its annual call for submissions of art by individuals with disabilities. Stephanie Al Otaiba (editor of JLD), Peggy Kipping (Publications Director for the Hammill Institute), and Judy Voress (retired from the Hammill Institute, but responsible for helping develop the idea of using art on the JLD covers) are all among the Dear Readers of SET and they would welcome submissions for the kids of teachers and parents who are also Dear Readers of SET (and of folks who aren’t SET regulars, too, I bet).
Subtypes of ADHD study—A group of physicians from China and Australia studied variation in measurements of children’s brain features (mostly gray matter?) and identified subgroups. Maybe the subgroups could be used to predict effectiveness of interventions?
Pan N, Long Y, Qin K, et al. Mapping ADHD Heterogeneity and Biotypes by Topological Deviations in Morphometric Similarity Networks. JAMA Psychiatry. Published online February 25, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2026.0001Take Action Alerts from CEC—Kuna Tavelin, Senior Policy and Advocacy Advisor at the Council for Exceptional Children, regularly issues Take Action Alerts on the CEC Webpage under the Policy and Advocacy menu. From the Website, you put in your address, and an algorithm finds your two US senators and congressperson. You can then send a prewritten letter to your senators and congressperson. The letter available now is on preserving the U.S. Department of Education.
CEC conference—Council for Exceptional Children’s annual conference will be held in Salt Lake City from March 11 to March 14, 2026. The conference includes two keynote presentations. The opening keynote speaker is Jody Britten The Thursday keynote speaker is Kim Strobel. Numerous workshops and sessions are provided.