Disabilities Competency: Lessons of a Parent Advocate
Over the past year, I have been privileged to meet many people operating at various levels of disabilities advocacy in Washington, DC. Ranging from elected officials to accomplished advocates to parents/caretakers to self-advocates, it has been a heartwarming exposure to people who are also passionate around improving our community through personal and political measures to […]
The Role of Parents in the Movement for Social Emotional Learning (SEL)
SEL offers a clear methodology of how District of Columbia classrooms can become inclusive environments, thus it is a very exciting journey to learn more about evidence-based tools and assessments that include parents as active members of a school’s community of learning.
Intersectionality and Disability Rights
We are living in a tense political climate both locally and nationally where lawmakers seem out of sync with the needs and desires of everyday people. When local tax cuts are proposed in the midst of one of the most unstable national climates, also proposing tax cuts, it begs the question: where do our leaders think […]
Public Safety Awareness Campaign – Summer 2017
In the process of actively advocating with DC law makers and connecting with dedicated individuals and organizations working diligently for children and youth with disabilities and the families responsible for their care, the most important lesson is the power of coordination and organization. There’s a lot of housekeeping to be done within our coalition, of […]
Defining Planning in the Monitoring and Evaluation Process
A successful evaluation method should clarify internal or external definitions of what constitutes “good performance” and the knowledge of when one hits or misses this defined standard…
Dear Parents, Your Advocacy Matters.
For many families, taking on the educational system can be very intimidating and/or disillusioning. The District of Columbia has a long and sordid history of maltreating people with developmental disabilities. And while many things have improved since the prolonged fight for the rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Evans v. Washington, there is still […]
The Balkanization of Special Education in Washington, DC
In a recent comparative study of the Child Find process in three counties Maryland and three counties in Virginia to compare with the Child Find process in Washington, we found that of these six counties the District of Columbia is the only place that has a decentralized Child Find process for the age group 3 to 5 years […]
#InclusionDC Campaign
Between April 20 and April 27, use the hashtag #InclusionDC on your social media handlers and share the shortened link to our site: http://bit.ly/2opBuJP. This will help generate a buzz for the getting real bodies at DC Council on Thursday April 27, 2017 at 10am and again at 5pm. That’s right, there’ll be two DC Council […]
Dear Parents, Your Advocacy Matters.
To blog with us and share your story, please email motheringhands@mail.com with subject line “Inclusive Prosperity Blog Post”. For many families, taking on the educational system can be very intimidating and/or disillusioning. The District of Columbia has a long and sordid history of maltreating people with developmental disabilities. And while many things have improved since the prolonged […]
The Lessons of the Evans Case and Advocacy for Children with Disabilities in DC
A little over 40 years ago, on February 23, 1976, Evans v. Washington brought claims of mistreatment against Forest Haven, the city’s premiere institution for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This historic class action case not only highlighted the unconscious biases that led to low and high levels of government failure that stripped people with intellectual and developmental disabilities of basic protections of human rights, it also exposed the extent to which unchecked discrimination will go…