Hey, hey! It’s the weekly newsletter for Special Education Today for 29 September 2025. Nearly all of you know what to expect from this newsletter, so I shall get right to the usual contents (a photo, some updates, a catalog of recent contents, and a commentary).
Photo
I didn’t see many hawks on this trip to the counting site on Afton Mtn. last week. The view from that spot usually goes on for dozens or even scores of miles. Sigh. That’s an unmodified image (other than cropping). I didn’t inset the gray backdrop. You can tell that the guy at the right doesn’t even have his spotting scope set onto its tripod.
In truth, a couple of hours later, the fog had dissipated and we saw some birds. But, generally, they were few moving on that day.
Updates about SET
Thanks to Callie O., Jenni R., Bear A., Angelique W., Anna O., Pam S., Jane N., Amanda H., Nancy S., Riley M., Meg D., Candace S., Jean S., Nancy M., Ann R., Paige P., Luann D., Tom Z., Keith L., Judy V., Kristen A., Kristin S., Christy A., George S., Melody T., Kimmy L., Kaa S., Pam S. (also), Dimitris A., Paula C., John U., Kisten M., Jean C., Michele M., Carol W., Mike N., and many others. Y’all’s subscriptions are amplifying the much appreciated founding level support from Mike G., Anita A., Li-Yu H., and Kathy M.
I’ve mentioned this previously, so skip it if you know what’s in the paragraph: Thanks also to everyone who has renewed her or his subscription lately. Renewals happen essentially automatically, but sometimes things go awry and the fintech company (Stripe.com) that handles SET payments will communicate with readers. Usually it is something like a change in a credit card (new CVC, expiration date, or card number). There’s no need to be alarmed if you get such a notice. Just work with Stripe to fix things.1 Let me know directly if you have trouble, as I can possibly do something. from my end.
There was a little surge in free subscriptions this past week. So, SET is now hovering at just fewer than 1000 subscribers. We could break that barrier this week, especially if you Dear Readers convince 8-10 of your colleagues and friends to come to the party.
As noted previously, there are also folks who “follow” SET. They get notes when I post them on the social-media arm of Substack, I’m not as careful about alerting readers using that mechanism as I am alerting you, Dear Readers, but that doesn’t mean that I dislike the followers. Adding in those Dear Followers, SET has >1200-1300 readers.
Shout out to Kristin S., Mike N. (thrice?), Mike G., Jane B., and Dan H. for commenting on posts this week. I am still sustaining hope that SET subscribers will comment on each other’s comments…like, having a discussion, you know?
If we keep building it, Special Education Today LLC, may be able to stand on its own and can continue as an entity serving people with special education interests around Earth.
Table of spedlets
Here are the headlines (with links) for the posts published during the week beginning 22 September 2025. (All are by JWL.)
Special Education Today newsletter 5(12): Are you curious about what’s happening in SET land?
It’s Marty’s birthday!: Shouldn’t we celebrate Marty Kaufman’s contributions again?
Research on acetaminophen as a cause of autism—updated: What evidence do we have about a causal relationship between “Tylenol” and autism?
Advocates for effectiveness talk learning, literacy, and instruction: Is there anyone who cannot learn something valuable from a conversation with Linda Diamond and Paige Pullen?
Autism among Amish communities: What was in a post from 2008 on EBD Blog?
Leucovorin as therapy for autism: What is it, what does it do, and does it work?
Sold a Story discussion guides for free: Wouldn’t it be helpful to have thoughtfully aligned questions and resources for conversations about the widely known series of examinations of reading?
Important aspects of instructional design: What can we learn from a psychologist about teaching?
What is up with US research plans? Should we write quasi-political campaign letters today?
A father’s observations about autism in historical context: What does an eminent anthropologist have to share about current events?
Reminding myself of the context for special educatio: Aren’t things like food, health, and such important, too?
The B-E preschool study: Anyone remember the 60s?
Some of you Dear Readers may feel as though I overwhelmed you this week, and I certainly don’t blame you. I get it. Thirteen posts in one week may be a record!
Just in case SET publishes something fantastic in the coming days and weeks,2 I encourage you subscribe. You never know! Lots could happen. If you have a subscription, you’ll get whatever happens right away.
Commentary
Instead of the usual pontification you Dear Readers are accustomed to reading here, I’m writing three quick hits for this week’s notes and comments section. That is to say that instead of working myself up into a good rant, I’m just going to list a few irks.
Who called the language police? The continuing focus on “science” is bugging me. I like the efforts to draw on scientific evidence in making decisions about practices, programs, procedures, etc. in teaching our kids. I’m standing on my tippy toes and applauding that effort. So long as people mean “informing practice by using the evidence of empirical research on X” when they say “science of X,” I’m okay with that usage. But, “science” to me is more like a verb. It’s a way of knowing. It’s a set of methods to examine questions. It’s not a list of facts. If science is a list of principles, then it’s principles like objective measurement, logical comparisons, replication, etc. It’s not a collection of truths. So, let me own up to my role here in encouraging us to police our language.
Does hyperbole make ad hominem? Goddess forbid that I should be seen as defending the current US Secretary of Health and Human Services, but I’m about to do so right here. I firmly condemn his misrepresentation of research evidence. I think he’s proposed policies that are not in the best interests of our kids and their families and our colleagues. But, dang it, I can’t say that I disagree with him 100% (nor 110% or 1000%, as pop phrasing goes). I would, for example, be happy to see vastly reduced use of artificial colorings and flavorings in our food supply. I don’t think we need to go full-on Cunchy-Granola-With-Unpasteurized milk (eaten in earth shoes while doing Ashtanga yoga poses), but our policies ought to promote eating healthily and exercising. Put another way: I don’t want to yield to the hard-line polarization that seems rampant these days, and reject any and all proposals an advocate makes regardless of the merits of the proposals.
Geography isn’t trumps in our business. It bugs me when schools seem to cling to rigid characterizations of alternative placements. “A private special day school is a restrictive placement.” “A special class in a public school is less restrictive.” “The general education classroom is the least restrictive environment.”3 It is as if the restrictiveness of those alternatives along the continuum of alternative placements has been set, established, chiseled in stone. But, folks, we all know how we can make a regular education classroom more of less restrictive. We don’t have to change the geographic location. We can just change what we do in the location. It has a lot to do with the instruction (including how we teach behavior) that makes a place more or less restrictive. To be sure, smaller sized classroom, fewer students in a room, locks on doors, higher ratios of staff members to students…these can make a location more restrictive, but that restrictiveness doesn’t have to do with the location of the classroom. We could create a smaller classroom with lower enrollment and extra staff etc. in your neighborhood public school—and running it might even be less expensive than shelling out $60-$80K per student to send three-four-five students to a private day school. A lot of restrictivity of an environment has to do with what happens in the environment, not its location. When thinking about restrictive placements, I wish we would spend more time figuring out how to build environments where kids can succeed instead of thinking about finding ones that can handle our kids’ needs.
Okay, I quit. That’s enough for one newsletter’s commentary.
Ooops…one more thing. Please ensure that you, Dear Readers, take care of yourselves, your loved ones, and your colleagues. Our kids need people who are healthy and happy. And we all need people who will do their part in teaching our kids well.
Take care,
JohnL
John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D., UVA Professor Emeritus,
Founder & Editor, Special Education Today
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.
Footnotes
Note, however, that Stripe has robust fraud prevention features. If someone reports that his card has been lost, stolen, or misused, Stripe will not allow charges to it. Extra note: If you see a charge from Stripe for SET on your credit card, please do not report it was fraudulent when it isn’t; if you no longer want to receive SET, just go to Substack (or Stipe) and unsubscribe. When someone reports an SET charge as fraudulent, I get stuck with hours of work (grief) and dollars (and dollars) of penalty charges.
And, in fact, I fully expect to have multiple posts in the next couple of weeks that will be valuable to those Dear Readers who regularly read just about anything here!
You, Dear Readers are welcome to fill in other examples of more and less restrictive environments.