Special Education Today newsletter 4(31)
What happened with SET during the week ending 26 January 2025?
Yes indeed, this is yet another issue of the newsletter for Special Education Today. This one covers the penultimate week of January 2025. It is the 1180th post in the published on SET. And, I hope it brings value and benefit to you readers, whether you’ve seen a 1000 SET posts before or this is your very first.
I think you’ll find that this issue of the newsletter has familiar contents. There is a photo, status notes, a listing of posts from the previous few days, and an informative and compelling (I hope) editorial observation.
Away we go!
Photo
Some readers will remember that in a post on 6 January 2025 I wrote about a snow event here in central Virginia. The snow from that storm wasn’t especially deep, but the freeze-and-thaw period that followed it turn our driveway into a sloping skating rink. One bit of good news was that the shovel-width-wide path I created before the freezing days following the storm stayed clear. One bit of bad news was that I couldn’t clear the remainder of the driveway. It was so difficult that I hired a young man1 to help.
Here are photos of the clear driveway from 14 January and my old pickup truck2 on the street 18 January. Check closely on the size of those snow boulders behind the truck! As of this writing (26 January) they still haven’t melted, but we’re promised overnight lows that will hover around freezing (0℃ or 32℉) in the morning and then go up past 10℃ or 50℉ during the day! I wonder how long those clumps will take to melt.

Those blocks on the street are solid ice! A person (even a heavy guy such as I am) could stand atop them (if a person of my age and stage had good balance to stand on such a surface) and they wouldn’t break. I tried to bust one up by kicking it…thought I’d broken a toe!
SET status
In this week’s DoT (Department of Thanks), there are opportunities for me to express gratitude to people who are new subscribers, commenters, and restackers3 and .
Welcomes: Galia S., . Laura L., Time R., Denisa X., Amy J., Urth2Leesha, Erin P., and Joe G. joined. Y’all helped move the needle close to 800 subscribers. Yay!
Comments: Tom Z., Hannah C., Jane B., and Michele S. contribute. Comments make my day; I greatly appreciate your interactions with the content.
Restacks: Sandra D. shared (multiple times!). Thanks for tacking up the broadsheets!
Patrons: As always, we should say “thanks” to Kathy M., Mike G., and Li-Yu H. for their super support of SET. I’m serious: If you’re out and about and you encounter one of these folks, please tell her or him, “Thanks.”
There were 3900 reads of posts on SET last week. As I’ve noted previously, I don’t know how many visitors made those reads. Anyway, for everyone who visited and read something, thanks. And please invite folks to join in the fun. Please share SET!
Last week’s posts
The previous week I published these posts on SET:
Special Education Today newsletter 4(30): What transpired during the week ending 19 January 2024?
Prevalence of ADHD in Japan: How many children, youth, and adults have ADHD and related disorders?
Talk telepathy to me: Make way for the newest communication medium for autism?
IRIS Center updates: What's new and revised from the venerable resource? ✓
Applications available for fellowships recognizing literacy teachers: What is Goyen Foundation doing to support teachers' dissemination of effective instruction?
If you ever think you might have missed a post, you can simply go to the Web site at https://www.SpecialEducationToday.com/ and see a catalog of all the posts—and, if you’re paid subscriber, you can read the entire archive, each and every one of the 1180 of them (including this one).
Comments
Readers of SET who are in the US and who follow the. news are almost certainly aware that “diversity, equity, and inclusion” has been a hot topic of late. Even before the official beginning of the presidency of Donald J. Trump, major media sources have published stories concerning “DEI.” To illustrate, here are headlines (and links) to five stories published in the week covered by this newsletter:
“Trump administration puts federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff on leave” (NPR News);
“Trump orders reflect his promises to roll back transgender protections and end DEI programs” (AP News);
“Trump signs orders ending diversity programs; federal DEI staffers being placed on leave” (CBS News)
“White House orders government DEI employees to be placed on leave” (CNN)
“Trump administration orders federal DEI employees be placed on leave. What happens next?” (USA Today);
Some US citizens concur with the new administration’s actions described in these stories. They might argue that efforts to promote participation by members of minority groups in US political and business governance have gone too far, have even infringed on the rights of members of the majority. Other US citizens argue that these efforts to reduce the emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion have, themselves, gone too far. They say that historical and current discrimination against protected classes4 of citizens must be reduced or even eliminated.
I don’t mean to drag readers of SET into the political discussion. I shall not go into the pros and cons of various positions on this matter. I want to note, however, that much (not all, but much) of the discussion about DEI revolves around two protected classes: Those defined by race and sex. I think that a reasonable reader will find that the issues people shout about are, for example, members of minority racial groups receiving preferential treatment or transgender individuals using public restrooms designated for use by individuals of a different cis gender (or playing sports as women).
People may differ on those and similar matters. However, parents have endured extended and strong resistance in procuring educational, psychological, medical, and legal redress for the wrongs that have happened to their kids. Educators have had to plead for resources just so their students can get an appropriate education. Individuals with disabilities have had to endure degrading and disrespectful—even dehumanizing—treatment just to be able to attend events and join activities. Those who seek to dismiss DEI must know—or be clearly told—that rejecting protections for people with disabilities will earn them a lot of pushback.
When policy advocates propose discarding DEI initiatives, I hope they will pause and consider that disability is a protected class, too. The kids about whom we are concerned are legally protected. Those of us who care about special education care about members of a protected class. Historically, our kids have been the targets of discrimination. People mock our kids. People use the “R word.” People make light of dyslexia by chirping about reversing the order of letters and numbers. People shame and blame adults for their children’s behavior problems.
Disability is an aspect of diversity. Whether one thinks about people with autism as possessing a superpower or as having communication, social, and behavior problems, those people with autism are a part of the diverse human range. Whether one thinks about dyslexia as a gift or as a reflection of a language disorder needing evidence-based education, kids with dyslexia are a representation of human diversity.
If there’s an assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion that includes dismissing, dinging, or damning people with disabilities, please expect resistance. People with disabilities may need chairs with wheels, elevators, and other accommodations when they visit your office, but they will show up to advocate for themselves. And, it’s not just they who will be visiting. There is large cadre of determined parents and other family members, educators, social services providers, and many allies who will be right there with them to press the case.
Okay, readers, let me get off the soapbox here. Thanks for reading SET. I hope that you agree that protecting the rights of people with disabilities is worthwhile and securing a better future for them merits support.
I hope also that you are continuing to take care of yourselves and those close to you and that you are staying healthy and happy. And I hope that you teach your children well.
JohnL
John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D.
UVA Professor Emeritus
Founder & Editor, Special Education Today5
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
The young man is Peggy W.’s son, Max. Some readers may actually know him IRL!
Probably should have obscured the license plate on the truck…anonymity, you know. But, the truck is for sale, so maybe anonymity doesn't really matter?
I’m not listing the Likers this week. There were lots of them and I’d be sifting and typing until after time for me to post this newsletter! Well… the time requirement is an exaggeration, but there were lots of likes; you can look back and see them.
There’s a lot of legal scholarship on the meaning of “protected class,” but it essentially refers to groups of people who are protected (shielded) against discrimination according to federal, state, or local laws.
Yes, and I’m also the chief and only proofreader, so blame it on me. (But send me a note with corrections, please.)