Special Education Today newsletter 5(35)
Does anyone want to know what transpired in special education last week?
Here is the regular weekly update on Special Education Today for 2 March 2026. This issue of the newsletter covers posts over the week that began with Monday 23 February 2026, and (by reference here) all those posts to which I’ve referred in the foregoing > 200 issues of the newsletter.
As in most of the previous issues of the newsletter, this one has pretty basis content. You’ll find the usual photo, status update, catalog of spedlets, and commentary. Read on!
Photo
Here is a photo of a silhouette of John Wills, my great-great-great-great grandfather. According to lore, the silhouette shows this John Wills in the year 1790, approximately. He was a doctor, whatever that meant at that time, and his son and grandson were known a doctors in the 1800s. too.
I have two copies of the silhouette, one that came to me directly through my mother’s family and other that someone found sometime somewhere that came to that person (whom I’ve never met; long deceased) via his family. There are annotations on the backs of both that bear overlapping data (e.g., circa 1790, location).
Of course, given the ancestral connection, this image is pretty intriguing to me. I am not sure that I bear a physical resemblance to Dr. John Wills of Chatham Plantation in the 1790s. I don’t (yet) have as many chins, but maybe the image actually shows clothing around his neck? He had more hair at age 25, which he would have been in 1790, than I did at a comparable age.
But, something that really intrigues me: I wonder about the world he experienced at that time. What was it like to have been a doctor in the late 1700s? What if a neighbor had a child who had anoxia or hypoxia during birth? What about the kids who were had trisomies? Did parents ask him about children who were “slow?” Did he have requests of advice about children who just couldn’t stay still?
What could Dr. Wills (and his progeny) recommend for children with disabilities? Presumably, they wouldn’t promoted trepanning or leaches as treatments. But, what might they have considered appropriate ministrations?
Sometimes when I read about contemporary concerns about kids with disabilities, their families, and their teachers, I can be knocked back into periods of musing about such matters. Shoot, it wasn’t until the 1860s that John Landon Down described the cluster of symptoms for the syndrome that bears his name. I think people attributed disability to imbalances of the “humors,” mothers’ experiences (vice?) during pregnancy, and divine retribution.
In a way, I guess we have come a long way in last couple of centuries. But, then again, maybe we haven’t?
Status
SET continues to grow. It now numbers >1600 followers and is read 10s of 1000s of time every month by people in dozens of countries on Earth1 and states in the US.
The growth—and, indeed, the very existence of SET—has been made possible by scores of supporters. Among them are these people who have been hanging about here in SETland for pretty much the entire dang lifetime of this rag: Anita A., Kathy M., Mike G., Ed P., Clay K., Joel M., Dan H., Christine T., Mike N., Linda L., Larry M., Ed M., Hill W., Michele M., Kristin S., Maryanne L., Pat S., and many others.
Those readers who have recently begun reading SET, such as Kelvin L., Mitch W., Kate M., Martina C., Sarah D., Piliouras P., Dinesh T., Katarina K., and Marina P. You are now officially among the minions! Y’all are not the only newbies, but you are quite welcome here in SETland. Please wade into the coming posts, drop “likes” on those that you (ahem) like, peruse the archives, send me notes, and tell all your friends and family to join us!
Spedlets
You know, one day soon, we are going to have to convince Joel M. to give us the first-person account of the name for this section of the newsletter. He’s the one who, after I’d used inconsistent designations for it for months-years suggested the name. And every week I think, “Oh, [scatalogical term redacted] , I can’t remember if this the right word or if I’m just riffing on Joel’s.”
Anyway, here are the posts that your SET authors contributed over the past week. You’ll only see one clump of posts this week, as all of them went to everyone (none were reserved for paid supporters).2 Initials for the authors are in the brackets for each one (see full names by following the links).
Special Education Today newsletter 5(34): Did any of the past week’s activity slipped past you? [JL]
CEC-DR award named for Lynn Fuchs: Isn’t this wonderful recognition for our late leader and friend? [JL]
Some concerns about research on methods’ effectiveness: What might a horse race require—and cost? [JL]
When success seems like failure: Flashback: TE post from 2006 on Engelmann book [JL]
PD about disabilities for law enforcement personnel: Isn’t it a great idea...but, wait...Is it? [JL]
IARLD May 2026: Who might be going to New Hampshire for the meeting?
Autism billing fraud in the news again: What is the situation to which political figures are referring? [JL]
Equal protection for the handicapped: Bateman’s legal corner: What was Barbara Bateman saying about parents recovering damages in the original SET of 1985? [MY, DB, & JL]
Friday catch-up notes—2026-02-27: What tidbits didn’t show up as a full post this week? [JWL & MY]
As always, Dear Readers can peruse the Special Education Today Web site to review these posts. And, please remember that one can review the entire list of posts for SET in the archive as well as looks for posts organized by topic in clumps.
Comments
This week I’m not going to subject you, Dear Readers, to paragraphs of personal opinion. I am skipping re-iterating how sad (and even angry) I am that some of our kids (and any kids and people) are subjected to violence and terror wherever they live because of political actions. It seems to me that our kids—the ones who can’t flee, who don’t know how to protect themselves, who make wrong “choices,” who can’t sssshhhhhh—are especially vulnerable right now. As I think about these kids, my eyes feel hot-hard-wet.
It’s not that I don’t have opinions about which I hope to write. It’s just that I’m not going to dump those opinions on you. I have plenty of others opinions (how about the importance of “learner enabling instruction?). I just weary.
Instead, I’m going to do a bit of semi-shameless self-promotion. I’m going to tell you what I’ve been doing outside of SET. Here are some current activities:
I was interrogated (teehee) 10 February 2026 by Jamie Nelson of William Penn for a podcast for CEC Teacher Education Division. The product is available on Spotify. The description says, “Dr. John Willis [sic] Lloyd, Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia School of Education at UVA and founder/editor of Special Education Today, joins us to discuss the past and current states of teacher education.” You, Dear Readers, can hear me say “uhm” way too frequently.
I have begun drafting a talk that I shall deliver at this year’s conference of the International Association for Research in Learning Disabilities (thanks to an invitation from Vince Connelly, regular reader of SET). Having the opportunity to deliver this address is, to me, a huge honor; if you know who has delivered these talks over the previous ~50 years, you’ll know that I’m getting to play with the big kids. I have already heard that a few of you Dear Readers will attend, and I hope that I don’t embarrass you. I’ll deliver that talk in May 2026 (the goddesses and my hip willing).
I have contributed to an invited article for a special issue of the Journal of
Special Education Preparation (an open-access publication, meaning that anyone can read it for free.) Now, I’m just a contributor. I’m the junior author. The invitation for the article went to Margaret P. Weiss (most of us know her as “Peggy”). In the draft, Peggy and I discuss the critical importance of instruction in the provision of “free and appropriate public education.” It should be published some time in the next 12 months.
I have been contributing to actual, no-joke, research projects about meta-science. Sounds high-falutin’ doesn’t it? Well, it sorta-kinda is. I am a co-author on two papers that will appear in the Nature family of scientific journals. The reports of these studies is the culmination of nearly 10 years of work, so I’m really happy to see them appearing. I hasten to note that I am one of (literally) 100s of co-authors on these papers—if you look for my name in the printed version, be sure to have a magnifying glass at hand. The articles will be published by Nature in the coming couple of months.
In addition to these three activities, I’ve been busy with some other jobs in- and outside of SET. I’ll let y’all know about news about the three items listed “above.” But, stay tuned as we bring you more of the familiar posts as well as new special SET content (e.g., videos about effective practices).
Meanwhile, Dear Readers, please take care of yourselves (eat healthily, exercise) and your family, co-workers, friends, neighbors, and other humans. Help folks to remember to do good for others and for themselves. And, when you’re feeling a little down (or even when you’re not), recall that what you’re doing is actually pretty damn important. Thanks for all that you are doing for students with disabilities…and thanks for keeping on teaching our kids well.
Peace and love,
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!
Footnotes
So far I have received no notices about extra-terrestial readers. If you know of any, Dear Reader, please pass along their contact info. Also, on the subject of readers-subscribers, if you know of anyone in the US states of Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, or South Dakota, please let those folks know about SET. Shoot, for that matter, if you know of anyone anywhere who has interests in disability and special education, please encourage those people to join you in reading SET.
Sorry, paying peeps. I anticipate publishing content reserved for y’all in March. Honest. Please don’t quit SET in a huff (haha). We love you.