Special Education Today newsletter 5(50)
Could there be something unusual in this issue?
Here begins the 50th issue of the 5th volume of Special Education Today. This issue marks the end of five years. From my view, that’s pretty cool. The SET community has been around for a while. It has history. I shall provide more about this in a subsequent section.
In this introduction, though, let me stick to the fundamental prefatory content. Not only is this the 50th newsletter of the 5th year of SET, but it is the last of the volume year. This issue covers the week that began 8 June 2026, and it is the 1712th publication for SET. As is usual with these newsletters, there are familiar parts for those who have seen a newsletter or two: a photo, some administrative notes, a list of recent posts, and a commentary. Although you, Dear Readers, are free to skip ahead or around, I hope that you will simply read on!
Photo
The photo for this week echoes some of those from previous issue across the years. There is a good bit of nature, including birds, and a drop of general knowledge, as in what I consider a fun cactus.
If you initially wondered what the heck the picture shows and then thought, “Oh, it’s tree bark,” well, you described that picture accurately. It is, indeed, a photo of the trunk of a tree.
But, what about that array of holes? Those holes were made by a woodpecker. The woodpeckers make them in lines like that! Isn’t evolution amazing?
They are the characteristic holes made for feeding by the Yellow-belied Sapsucker. The birds drill those little holes so that they can…wait for it…not suck, but lap up sap! Learn more about these birds from Cornell Lab’s All About Birds and Audubon. Here’s a link to a search on DuckDuckGo for images of sap wells. Pretty cool stuff to know, no?
Updates
The updates for this issue are a tad different than usual. Whereas I usually focus this section on recent activity (comments) and new subscribers (paying and free), this week I’m aiming a little higher as one might see as befitting an end-of-the-year post.
Although the rate has leveled off (out?) a bit recently, SET continues to gain subscribers. As of this writing, there are greater than 1220 subscribers. That is about 250 more subscribers than there were in June of 2025. Of course, because I hope that SET will become so enormous that it will turn into a resource that educators and the public will have to take into account when talking about our kids, I’d like to see those numbers doubled or tripled. Maybe it’ll happen.
When I started this endeavor, I thought five years was a sensible duration for me to ascertain whether SET would become viable. As of five years later, I think it is really close. By “viable” I meant in part that that there would be enough subscribers that it would have a broad base; I didn’t have an exact number of subscribers, but I vaguely was thinking that 1000 would be good. I also meant that the community would be actively engaged, commenting, discussing, questioning (both in the sense of inquiring and of doubting); although we have yet to see the kinds or levels of interaction—frequent comments and even quasi debates—that I hoped to see, we have seen an encouraging degree of commitment in the form of about 100 Dear Readers ponying up actual money to support the community. The star supporters—Anita A., Mike G., and Kathy M.—chip in at the patron level; we all should give them a polite shout, a gentle wave, and a shipload of thanks.
I also hoped that SET would be a resource that would feature other special educators’ posts of news and opinion. This marker of viability seems well nigh achieved. There are contributors—Ana Paula Martins, Betsy Talbott, David Bateman, John Romig, Li-Yu Hung, Mandy Rispoli, and Mitch Yell—and guests such as Pamela Seethaler (and, of course, the late Jim Kauffman). I am hopeful that they will be publishing more an more for the future SET as it grows from a viable to a self-sustaining community that is a valued resource for the 1000s-and-1000s (probably millions?) of educators and family members all around Earth who are concerned about our kids.
In short, I hope that the status of SET shows that it is a working entity. That is, I hope that we have proof of the concept, that these five years show that it can “work.” Now is the time for good special educators, families, and others to help build SET into a resource that can contribute to the betterment of education of students with disabilities for the next 50 years.
And, so, let’s say, “That’s a wrap” for Volume 5 of SET. Until 6 July 2026, when SET will publish the first issue of Volume 6, there will be no more issues of the newsletter. We. may post a few news items and notes in the days before the publication of the next newsletter, but SET will mostly be on vacation for the remainder of June 2026.
Spedlettes
These were the posts for the previous week.
Special Education Today Newsletter 5(49): What’s in this newsletter covering the week beginning 1 June 2026?
Media influencers who have autism: Do social media stars sell the right brand of autism?
More news on fraud in autism services: And...what are some mothers of children with disabilities saying about government supports?
MSLBD conference proposals call: Who wouldn’t want to contribute to this venerable assembly?
Friday catch-up notes—12 June 2026: What about some news that did not make it as a full post this week?
Proposed changes in US federal guidelines for funding: Will the guidelines proposed by the Trump administration affect special education and students with disabilities?
As usual, please remember that the Web site for Special Education Today provides a comprehensive portal for the community (and the general public). Go there and check, for example, the “clumps” link, which will lead one to a loose index of the contents for the past five years, or the “archive” link which provides a complete list of each and every issue of the newsletter and all the intermittent posts.
Commentary
Some Dear Readers may recall a writing exercise that some teachers (at least one or two of whom I had as a K-12 student) used early in the fall term of a school year. “Tell me what you did for your summer vacation.” I remember hearing fellow teachers and others jokingly (even derisively) refer to the assignment later.
In a variation on that theme, let me tell you what I plan to do for my summer vacation during SET’s hiatus. By the time many of you will be reading this edition of the newsletter on morning (US eastern time) 15 June, I shall be sedated and undergoing or recovering from hip-replacement surgery. I expect all to go well and to be taking it easy for the week of 15 and 22 June.
I also hope to be monitoring what’s happening in special education and for kids with disabilities, so don’t be surprised if you see a post of two from me. Maybe some of the other contributors will have posts, too. Stay tuned.
And I also plan to be preparing content, new features, and some other updates (new art!) for SET during those weeks. You, Dear Readers, can spend some of the time contemplating what those contents, features, and looks will be…or maybe not.
Anyway, please remember to take care of yourselves, your families, your friends, and others. Stay safe, healthy, and happy. And, please, remember how important it is to teach our children well.
JohnL
John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D.
UVA Professor Emeritus
Founder & Editor, Special Education Today
SET should not be confused with a product that uses essentially the same name and is published by the Council for Exceptional Children. SET predated CEC’s publication by decades; I wonder if CEC put “today” in all capitals to distinguish its product from SET. 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. A membership in CEC does not get one a subscription to SET and vice versa!