Special Education Today newsletter 4(27)

What happened with SET during the week ending 29 December 2024?

Hello and welcome to this issue of the newsletter for Special Education Today, which covers the last week of December 2024 in my western calendar. Not only is this the last—or dang near last—post of 2024, but it’s also the 27th of this volume year and the 1158 post in the history of SET.

I hope you find this issue of the newsletter. It has the usual photos, status notes, a listing of posts from the previous few days, and (if I can write it) an editorial observation or two. On with the show!

Photo

Here’s a view from SET central. The window is just past the top of the monitors for my office desk. The view is to the east at about 7:30 AM on 24 December 2024.At this time, there were no deer eating Pat’s plants, no fox trotting by beneath the window (but there was about 30-40 min later!), no large birds roosting in the trees, and no celestial objects in view.

SET status report

In this week’s Department of Thanks, there can only be a few because there were only a few posts (see next section) and…well, lots of us were busy with other stuff.

• Comments by Tom Z., and Jane B. You are folks who make my day; I greatly appreciate your interactions with the content.

• Restack by Sandra D.

• Likes by Cheryl Z, Jason R., Janet, Joel M., Dan H., Tom Z., Jane B., Clay K., LuAnn D., Louise D., and Sandra D.

• Welcomes to Leafy Sea D., Emily K., Jason R., Liz K., and Jeffrey McK., and follows from Ralph, Janet, Micaela B., Lori A., and Dpack TV.

There were 2800 reads of posts of SET last week. As I’ve noted before, because one person might read multiple posts, I don’t know how many visitors made those reads. Anyway, for all y’all who visited and read something, thanks. And please tell folks to join in the fun and frivolity. Share SET!

Last week’s posts

The previous week these posts appeared on SET:

1. Special Education Today newsletter 4(26): The week’s news and info for the week of 25 November 2024

2. NYT on Autism diagnoses: Why are rates of autism diagnoses increasing?

3. PAID Subscribers—Holiday wish list: What do I hope the winter holiday and new year bring y'all?

4. US National Public Radio to air report about IDEA—Updated: What does Cory Turner report about the anniversary of the landmark law?

5. NCLD recognizes three practitioners

If you ever think you might have missed a post, you can always simply go to the Web site at https://www.SpecialEducationToday.com/ and see a catalog of all the posts—and, if you’re paid subscriber, you can read the entire archive, each and every one of the 1158 of them.

Comments

There are a couple of things that happen at the ends of years in western cultures that you, dear readers, will have to live without. I am not about to

• Assault you with a thinly veiled request that you reread posts from the past year; you probably already seen instances of the genre on other publications under headlines like, “Top SET 10 Stories from 2024,” “People we lost this past year,” or “2024’s Funniest photos.”

• Predict some events for the coming year. I’m willing to make micro-level predictions about, say, student behavior based on CBM data, but I don’t have the sort of data that will allow me to predict the future on higher level events. I’m not sure whether that indicates that the crystal ball is opaque, cloudy, or completely transparent. And, for you, dear readers, it would probably be more fruitful to watch the flakes in a snow globe settle.

No, none of those things for this end-of-the-year commentary. Instead, please settle for a serious “thank you.” Thanks for all that you do for kids with disabilities. Thanks for feeding them, housing them, laughing and crying with them, watching them open presents and tearing through the wrapping paper…. Thanks for greeting them with a smile, asking how they’re doing, showing them how to do hard things, coaching them through tough spots, putting a hand on their shoulders, telling them when they did well, cleaning up their mistakes…. Thanks for making sure they get their share, for going to the authorities and plaining explaining what they need to succeed, for standing up and publicly saying, “don’t disrespect these kids….” Thanks for caring.

And, thanks for reading SET. I hope in the coming year that you’ll take care of yourselves and those close to you, stay healthy and happy, and teach your children well.

JohnL

John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D.

UVA Professor Emeritus

Founder & Editor, Special Education Today

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SET should not be confused with a product that uses the same name and is published by the Council for Exceptional Children. SET predated CEC’s publication by decades. Despite my appreciation for CEC, this product is not designed to promote that organization nor should the views expressed here be considered to represent the views or policies of that organization.