Special Education Today newsletter 4(45)
What happened on SET last week?
Welcome! Welcome to the newsletter for Special Education Today for the week that began 21 April 2025. This is 4(45), and it is the 1277th post in the history of SET.
Image of the week
In a couple of posts over the last few months, I promoted the opening of an accessible play space in my neighborhood. If you’re one of the ~250 people who read Substack’s notes for SET, this is old news: I attended the Part in the Park for Bennett’s Village and posted a couple of notes (with photos) on 27 April 2025. This week’s photo shows a view of that event.
It was some fun to wander about the park, talk with neighbors, and watch kids playing with each other on the lovely day. I shall post an account with additional images from the Party in the Park. Stay tuned.
Status notes
Well, SET is approaching one of those round-number marks that feels pretty significant. There are well over 900 subscribers (plus that ~250 “followers”); soon there ought to be 1000 subscribers. Cool, hunh? Props to those who not only subscribe but provide financial support for SET, especially Kathy M., Mike G., and Li-Yu H.
There wasn’t a lot of activity on the sight the past week. I want to welcome new subscribers, however, including Leslie H., Lori, Woman of No Importance (!), Michael R., Alessandro, Sue B., Katharina, Sedum, and a couple whom I won’t acknowledge.1 Thanks, too, to folks who replied or commented: Laura L.-D., Shari M., Tina C., and Tom Z.
The ToC
Here is a catalog of the posts from the previous week. As usual, the list begins with the newsletter that we published on Monday.
Special Education Today newsletter 4(44): What transpired with SET during the week beginning 14 April 2025?
Reliving the past: Special ed's effects on academics among students with LD:
What did readers of Special Education Today read in the great long ago?
Diet and disabilities—1: Should we be asserting that dyes are linked to behavior problems?
Party at accessible play spaces!: Will you attend this free event on 27 April 2025?
DADD's statement garners support: Will solidarity among disabilities groups slow misunderstanding of causes of autism?
A § 504 case at the US Supreme Court: Will a decision in AJT v Osseo Area Schools guarantee or gut disability rights in the US?
If you think you might have missed a mailing, you’re wondering whether I posted something but did’t send a mailing (it does happen), wondering what’s in the archives, wondering about how far above Earth’s surface the sky starts, or you just want to review something, you can go directly to SpecialEducationToday.com.
Commentary
It feels to me as though I have been reporting repeatedly about public policy regarding disabilities and special education. Of course, I should expect to do so, as that’s one of the foci for SET. And, it’s understandable given all the news predicated on political activities in the US (read: Washington, DC). I know I could analyze the frequency of posts (words, column inches, or whatever) and provide an objective report on this impression—but, trust me, it subjectively feels like I’ve been on that part of my beat a lot since the end of January 2025. And, it feels like the time on policy has come with a corresponding decrease in covering topics such as research, teaching, and similar matters.
The thing that really feels unpleasant about this feeling is that so much-many of the stories and issues I’ve been covering seem(s) to ignore something I consider a fundamental, foundational principle: Our kids—and individuals with disabilities, in general, by extension—are human beings. They deserve normal, everyday respect. They don’t deserve to be reduced to sub-human beings who drain resources from society.
Sure, I am probably exaggerating and I’m certainly putting a negative spin on a straw-dog representing some others’ views, but individuals with disabilities have been have been the subjects of unfeeling, uncaring treatment in much of the public discussion about disability. They’ve been treated as “they” or “them,” as “defective,” as “scary,” as deserving of pity.
Maybe I am not understanding things? Maybe I’m just overly sensitive? I don’t think so, but please correct me if I am mistaken here.
I don’t have a passel of sure-fire solutions. Methods of changing attitudes have yet to be demonstrated, at least in the research I’ve seen. I know that some of us argue that assembly skits, simulations, puppet shows, and inclusion will do so…no one’s shown me convincing data that they cause beneficial and lasting change in behavior toward individuals with disabilities. As a research matter, we need to find ways that do so.
In the meantime, we can interact with people with disabilities in humane ways. And everyone can remember to remind people that effective education is a humane undertaking, so we have to take care of ourselves, our family members, and friends—eat well, exercise, practice patience, drive carefully (with seatbelts affixed). And, of course, remember to teach our children well.
Peace and love,
JohnL
John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D., UVA Professor Emeritus
Founder & Editor, https://www.SpecialEducationToday.com/
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
Every now and again I get a notice of a new subscriber about whom I’m suspicious. Over on those popular social media, I was accustomed to seeing requests that I “follow back” someone who had followed me…but appeared to be selling something. There one or two of those this past week.