Special Education Today newsletter 5(5)
Do you want to look away from a review of last week's SET notes?
Here we go again. It’s this week’s edition of the weekly newsletter for Special Education Today (and the 1372nd post in the history of SET). This issue covers the week that began 28 July 2025. Those (Dear) readers who are familiar with the newsletters, will anticipate seeing a photo, some updates about subscribers, a list of recent posts, and an editorial. Those regulars are so savvy...and we’re off!1
Photo
Readers, even those who have only been reading since November 2024, may recognize this photo. From left to right: Jim Waive, Pat Pullen, Jim Kauffman, and Pat Lloyd. Pat Lloyd is the only person in the photo who is still with us. Readers will know of the passing of Patty Pullen and Jimmy the K (see birthday wishes for 2024). James Andrew Waive passed away 2 July 2025.
Jim Waive was marvelous musician and, I’m flattered to say, he knew my name and would visit with me just like he did with many-a-many other humans. He had a knack for just hanging with folks.
Here’s a picture of Jim W. where you can see his face more clearly than the Blue Moon image.
For those who have spent time in C’ville, I hope you had a chance to see (and get to know Jim W.). For those who visited and allowed me to drag them to the Diner on a Wednesday night, this is a chance to wave bye-bye.
Status
As of this past week, Substack indicated that there are > 970 subscribers and 1280 followers for SET. Welcome to those who have joined the community this past week. Thanks for joining all of us, Hillary H., Andrew B., Alice W., Simone M., Parallel L., GEC, and K. G. Bye to those who bailed. All y’all, please see the comments in the following notes section.
Subscriptions: About 80 people provide financial support for SET via paid subscriptions. In addition to three sustaining subscribers (Li-Yu H., Mike G., and Kathy M.), I want to acknowledge contributions for others who are helping to sustain the operation. Here’re thanks to some of these very Dear Readers: Angelique W., Ann R., Anna O., Bob P., Callie O., Jean S., Jenni R., Joel M., Kimberly B., Kimmy L., Kristen McM., Kristin S., Larry M., Linda L., Luann D., Luann J., Manryann L., Melody T., Nancy C.-W., Paige P., Roberta B., and Susan O. Thank you!
Interactions: Also, DRs, I want to express thanks to folks who interacted with the content this past week. There were an entire host of y’all who dropped “likes” on posts. Thank you! Please keep it going. Sandra D. restacked a post. Yay! And these folks posted comments, which I consider especially valuable: Jessica C., Jane B., Ellie W., and Sally B.
And, DRs, please keep on sharing SET in whatever ways you can. Copy the URL, forward messages, talk about it around around the water cooler, or just click the share button.
Erstwhile t. of c.
As subscribers, you received new posts on SET durning the just-passed week.2 I didn’t publish as many posts as some DRs may have hoped to receive and too many for some other DRs. Still the number (7)3 is within the range y’all said was OK in the poll a few months ago. Here is the catalog of the four of them, beginning with newsletter for the previous week:
Special Education Today newsletter 5(4): Anyone ready for a look at the previous week's SET? [JWL}
Minor physical anomalies among people with disabilities: What is this tree that has hounds barking at the base of it? [JWL}
Analysis of suspensions for students with disabilities: Are you going to be surprised that they're more common for our kids than among students without disabilities? [JWL}
Protecting SEND In Britain: Is it all settled yet? [JWL}
We can learn from each other: What's to be gained by understanding the wrenching choices that parents of kids with disabilities must make? [JWL}
My mugs shots: 3: It's still the summer, right, so how about another image of a mug from which I've been drinking? [JWL}
Free professional development for administrators: Why wouldn't principals and other school leaders want to learn how to do special education legally and beneficially? [DB & JWL}
Each of these posts was read at least 600-800 or more times. There are more to come.
Notes
As I’ve mentioned previously, SET is morphing. Yes, indeed, the times are changing. The changes are evident in these ways:
This week there was yet another article from a contributor who is not me. David Bateman co-authored a piece about a free professional development opportunity available from a group with which he is affiliated. (Mayhaps one day David and I will post a video conversation about our collaborative history, but suffice it to say that it goes back to Lloyd et al., 1988).
Last week SET published an article co-authored by Li-Yu Hung, eminent special educator from Taiwan, about a conference she was organizing. I look forward to publishing other articles that feature special education and disabilities in Asia. (Maybe Li-Yu and I should publish a video of the two of us talking about our long-standing collaborations such as Kauffman et al., 1991!)
In the future SET will publish papers by other well-known and -regarded scholars. SET is not going to be the John-Pa show in the long run, and it’s time to begin moving toward the future.
I want this community to become self-sustaining. I hope that Special Education Today will become an international collaboration that is devoted to securing effective education for students with disabilities and their families. For people who give a damn about kids with disabilities, I want SET to be a nexus for us to communicate about what’s happening.
In accord with these developments, I have moved SET toward a formal foundation. I created a “company” in Virginia called “Special Education Today LLC.” This will permit us to control that destiny.
I think it is important to explain that I anticipate no one associated with SET is here to get rich. Yes, I’m the “owner,” but I hope that that’s temporary. Right now, I’m hoping to act as a benevolent dictator…a philosopher king. I anticipate distributing the riches that SET generates (such as they are—haha) to those who provide benefits to the community. Yes, this a little like an ouroborosian vision. But the idea is that those of us who can contribute to SET will do so, because their contributions with help SET to persue greater contributions…oh, hey!
It’s a Ponzi scheme! SET investors are lured to contribute to better education for kids with disabilities and it pays its profits back into the original endeavor. Those investors lured to invest get…well, the newsletter. They don’t get a cut of the riches…sigh.
Anyway, I am investing pretty heavily in Special Education Today LLC. I am hoping that that SET will take off…”go viral.” I hope you will join me in sharing understanding and effective education for our kids.
Throughout the current and future times, please take care of yourselves; we need to be in good shape to help our kids (and of the others in your lives). Prevent colleagues from making silly mistakes like buying into to pop education and psychology poop, and from playing on the high-speed roads. Eat healthily. Drive carefully. Make sure that folks buckle up. And, of course, teach your students well.
Peace & love,
JohnL
John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D.
Founder and Editor, Special Education Today
Reference
Kauffman, J. M., Wong, K. L. H., Lloyd, J. W., Hung, L., & Pullen, P. L. (1991). What puts pupils at risk? An analysis of teachers' judgments of pupils' behavior. Remedial and Special Education, 12(5), 7-16.
Lloyd, J. W., Bateman, D. F., Landrum, T. J., & Hallahan, D. P. (1989). Self‐recording of attention versus productivity. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 22(3), 315-323.
Footnotes
Please watch out for typos. I hope I can become a good proof readers…sigh. I guess I should put a disclaimer early on in everything I publish.
As usual, I’m only counting posts to the main source, those that were published on the Web page at SpecialEducationToday.com. I dropped “notes,” which one sees when she logs into the Web site and clicks on “Notes.” I can find it in the second line at the top of the SET home page.
Right, a few of you may be saying, “Wait a minute, John. Can’t you count? I got eight!” Those of you who are saying (or thinking) that, please be assured. I can count. However, one of the messages that you received was a post only sent t a few of you. It provided you a brief free paid subscription to David Didau’s The Learning Spy. Remember? If not, please find it and reread it. tention versus productivity. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 22(3), 315-323.
Disclaminer
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.