I have a 14 year old who has had an IEP since kindergarten. By now, special education is not something new or dramatic in our house. It is part of the background of our lives. Meetings. Plans. Accommodations that are supposed to smooth the rough edges of school so she can actually show what she knows. Lately, though, something has shifted. At the beginning of this school year, I asked for an IEP meeting. My daughter was starting an AP class, and I could feel the stakes rising before the first...

I've said it before - I'm tired.   But not just from the meetings, the paperwork, the emails. I'm tired of walking into rooms where I am expected to trust a process I am not allowed to verify. The Meeting That Broke Something in Me It was a routine IEP review. Fifteen minutes in, the case manager said my daughter was "making great progress" on her reading goals. I asked what that meant. What was her baseline? What is she at now? Silence. Then: "Well, she's engaging more with the material." I...

A mother in Ohio told me she waited months for her son’s evaluation results, even though the law says it should take far less time. A father in Maryland shared that his district kept asking for "more time" because they were behind on paperwork. A family in Texas said they had to follow up six times before anyone confirmed their child’s services would start. In the past year, I have spoken with families across the country who describe the same troubling pattern: not confusion or lack of...