Special Education Today newsletter 4(43)

What about the week that began 7 April 2025?

You are reading the 43rd issue for the fourth year of the Special Education Today newsletter. Thank you!

This issue recaps the week beginning 7 April 2025. There are probably too many to review all of them, but I encourage readers to review the > 1200 posts in the archives. If you find scrolling through all of them to search for the gems (all 3 of those jewels I’ve ever posted), you can take a shortcut and click on “clumps” (which you can routinely find in the bar across the top of the home page) and see links to specific posts about specific topics.¹

This issue of the newsletter has the usual sections, so the structure should be familiar, even if you are a relatively recent subscriber.² You’ll find a photo, status notes, a listing of posts from the previous week, and an observation or two. Oh, wait! There’s a twist: The quasi-ToC has a poll. Please respond.

I hope this week’s trip down memory lane is valuable to you, my readers. Thanks very much for subscribing.

Photo

This week I took a drive around my neighborhood with my beloved daughter, Corey Jo. Without a plan, she (the driver) aimed for a tour of the southern part of the Beautyville area. Following an unplanned and circuitous route, we remembered how to find places where some relatives had residences.

Perhaps pre-ordained…probably not…the driver—Corey Jo—went south. We wandered and reversed paths, and stopped at an old church between Charlottesville and Scottsville. It is the place where my uncle and aunt—wonderful people—rest in eternity.

Glensower Church near Keene, VA. Photo © 202x by John Wills Lloyd, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

It is a beautiful and historic spot. Corey and I shared memories of being at that place. We compared our remembrances of, for example, the pall-bearers’ task when Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Bob were buried there and that my brother flew across north America to attend the ceremonies. Sad, but celebratory.

But, I have to remember that my parochial version of the world is just that: My view. I’ll return to this topic in a later section of this newsletter. I have wonderful memories of my family, and I want to celebrate my larger family, too.

Status report

In addition to the data in the previous section, I should explain that there were plenty of reads during the previous week. Although there are anywhere from 900-1200 people who are notified about posts on SET, each post is only read 500-800 times³ This is probably because we, Dear Readers, have diverse interests. Some of us are especially concerned about some topics (e.g., autism; effective instruction; policy; reading; adolescents and adults; etc.), so we skip the posts that don’t fit our interests. I get that…perfectly sensible—but please read the following editorial.

This section, however, is essentially a stage for me to say, “Thank you, DRs.” You keep my blood, juices, sweat, and keyboarding flowing. I greatly appreciate you reading these missives—for serious, thank you for reading.

As an author, any time I log into Substack, I have access to data about who has read what and taken what actions. So for this past week I know that certain people dropped “likes” on posts (thanks very much…and there are too many of you to list, but keep those smiley faces coming, as they serve as rewards—maybe reinforcers?—for me. But I want to provide special acknowledgement for DRs who engaged with the content by commenting and reStacking.

ReStacks

Cheryl Z, was the only DR who re-Stacked SET, as best I can tell.⁴ Who gives a [deleted word]? I’m really happy that Cheryl passed along the post to her readers.

Comments

Special thanks to Dan H., Jen W, Tom Z., and others (whom I may have missed—sorry). You DRs, are the point of the proverbial spear for all of us. Comments are one of the foods that make SET grow…and we are growing,. Yes, DRs, in part because people like Jen, Tom, and Dan, and other wonderful members of the SET community, we are on the path to support our kids.

Yes, SET is pushing toward the magic number of 1000 subscribers. I strongly suspect that the growth in follow-subscribe numbers is a consequence of you, DRs. You are sharing, restacking, and discussing what you read on SET. I thank you for that support. Thank you.

Last week’s kinda ToC

So, OK (okay?), here’s a catalog of the posts from the previous seven days. Note that with this week’s list of posts I’ve added to the link for each item, in brackets, data about the number of comments and who made them; I hope this will help folks who didn’t take the chance to comment initially to go back and engage with other readers of SET. .

1. Special Education Today newsletter 4(42): Are you ready to ready to review the last week's traffic and read some other notes with the recap? [With 0 comments]

2. The US is cutting funds for what?; What special education is funded? [With 0 comments]

3. Psycho-history: What can we learn from our past? [With 2 comments, including one from Mike N.]

4. Autism: The employment beat: How are major media sources covering employment for individuals with autism? [With 0 comments]

5. E. Lindström's Cooper lecture 2025: What did Professor Lindström discuss in her presentation? [With 0 comments]

6. Identifying the cause—or causes?—of autism: What can we learn from recent events on this topic? [With 5 comments, including those of Tom Z. and Jen W.]

7. Coverage of RFK jr.'s autism research program: What is being reported in the press about finding a cause for autism by September 2025? [With 0 comments]

Hey, now! That’s seven posts over seven days. Do you think that the number of posts per week is about right? Tell me by responding to this poll, please.

Comments

So, here is the thing, DRs: Advocacy matters…big time.

Those of us who care about special education and individuals with disabilities are in a challenging spot. There are swirling currents in the confluence of current times.

Some of us may place greater emphasis on certain aspects of special education and disability than on other aspects. We might see inclusion as top of the line. We might consider effective services as most important. We might have all manner of priorities. But we are in this together.

The critical idea is that kids with disabilities (and their families) deserve support, Our kids matter. As advocates we must stand ups for children with disabilities, adults with disabilities., neighbors with disabilities. Though we, of course, want them to stand up for themselves, we have to ensure that they are not unprotected. They are our kids! We must not only go to our government, but also go to our neighbors. Sign up for local organizations. Speak clearly in our neighborhoods.

We who advocate for individuals with disabilities must be remarkably vigilant in these times. It is clear that our kids who have a disability—whether it is a behavior problem, mobility issues, or learning disabilities—need to have their civil rights protected.

The essence of advocacy in my view is that we give a damn about advocating for a group (our kids). You stand up.

You can just say oh I believe they need help, but instead we have to go onto the street corners, go to legislators, talk with our neighbors about concerns for individuals with disabilities, talk aboutour concern about providing special education service. It is on us. We are together regardless of whether we champion the rights of individuals with cerebral palsy, those with intellectual disabilities, or those who have Tourette's, we need to work together.

Please keep on reading SET. I may miss a day or two here or there.

Comments

What do you expect from SET? Please tell me (and the community) what you want from SET. How frequently should you get posts? How long should the usual posts be? What topics should be the focus?⁵

In the meantime, I hope you will share and sustain my concern that we take care of (a) ourselves (eat right, get exercise, etc.); (b) each other (we are in this together); and (c) our students (teach them well!).

JohnL

John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D.

UVA Professor Emeritus

Founder & Editor, Special Education Today

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Please do not confuse SET 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.

Footnote

1. Some of the posts in the archive (e.g., the weekly newsletter) and linked from the “clumps” are available for free, but some are available only to readers with paid subscriptions.

2. And welcome to all 20-some readers for whom this is the first newsletter. Thanks for coming to the party!

3. There is a distribution. I should calculate it and pass along a graph about it. Readers would learn, for example, that posts about the passing of famous special educators (e.g., Jim Kauffman, Rud Turnbull) are read 1000s of times. You, Dear Readers, get them, first.

4. You know that some people think I’m demented, that I have CRS, and shouldn’t be trusted. They may be right, but I’m only giving you the data I have.

5. Should SET go for one more year—June of 2026—and then just disappear? If SET is just me, that’s probably a good the end: a little time capsule of trash. If SET can generate sufficient resources (from paid and super-pals) so that it can have an actual staff (assistants, researchers, proof-readers, and etc. ), maybe it can continue.