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Could This Curriculum Make Special Education Advocacy Easier?

By Aziah Siid | Word In Black Photo by Pavel Danilyuk/Pexels (WIB) – Whether through words in her Brown Baby 321 series or from behind the desk at her nearby disabilities services chapter, Maryland resident Meeka Cadwell wears many hats when it comes to advocating for people with disabilities. While this may be true, the hat she […]
The post Could This Curriculum Make Special Education Advocacy Easier? first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 years ago

June 20, 2023

Sacramento Observer staff report

By Aziah Siid | Word In Black

(WIB) – Whether through words in her Brown Baby 321 series or from behind the desk at her nearby disabilities services chapter, Maryland resident Meeka Cadwell wears many hats when it comes to advocating for people with disabilities. While this may be true, the hat she wears as a mother advocating for her son may trump them all.

Cadwell, 46, has created an entire book series centered around her 9-year-old, Anian Cadwell, who was born with Down Syndrome. Through stories, families are given both the representation in media and tools they can use to navigate new things and experiences with their loved ones.

“He’s still a 9-year-old little boy, so that’s really what I want people to understand,” Cadwell says. “What we have to go through to get educated and figure these things out, it’s not to ‘fight,’ it’s just to arm ourselves with information to get the best possible outcome for our kids.”

As part of being a resource to other families, she continues to seek out information to learn more as well. The Arc@Schools, a nationwide network of chapters that provide resources for special education, developed an initiative to offer parents like Cadwell assistance, training, and resources — and it could be a model for special education advocacy nationally.

The school is part of The Arc, “the largest national community-based organization advocating for and with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and serving them and their families,” according to its website. There are about 600 state and local Arc chapters across the country, and the school’s resources are accessible online or directly through your local chapter.

We just want the best for our kids,”MEEKA CADWELL, MARYLAND RESDIENT

The school’s Advocacy Curriculum includes eight modules on topics like the anatomy of an individualized education plan, special education services, and more. With Black children being 17% of Black students identified as having intellectual or developmental disabilities, it’s a resource that could prove valuable to plenty of Black families.

Although this program is filled with the basics that members of this community need to know, a $99 fee for the curriculum might deter families from accessing the content. But, through a partnership with the Lids Foundation, this program is now offered free to Maryland families.

Cadwell happens to be one of the folks who accessed the program through the partnership.

“As our children are matriculating through school, and we’re trying to figure out all the things, there’s always a necessary need for more information,” Cadwell says. “This is something I wanted to take up because I’m always in a constant fight or battle just so my child could have the same rights as any other child in their school, and that sometimes comes with a lack of information.”

When we’re at the table when we’re talking to teachers, you know I just want someone to be a human to a human, and that’s sometimes not always happening,”MEEKA CADWELL, MARYLAND RESIDENT

Robyn Linscott, The Arc’s national director of education and family policy, says when you make information like this available, it helps move the needle in support of the families.

“The more that parents, and families, and caregivers, and students themselves know their rights and know what is really there to protect them, really that makes our job on the policy end easier,” Linscott says. “When parents, and students especially, are bringing to light disparities and things they see happening, that really helps us elevate the points we’ve been talking about.”

In addition, the pandemic led the public to see these disparities among students, particularly Black students with disabilities, more clearly than before. Therefore, changes had to be made.

“There are so many questions, and there’s not always honest, transparent communication coming from the other side. When we’re at the table when we’re talking to teachers, you know I just want someone to be a human to a human, and that’s sometimes not always happening,” Cadwell says.

In the end, parents like Cadwell simply want to be heard.

“We just want the best for our kids,” she says. “This is a great tool to arm yourselves and understand and keep learning about it all.”

The post Could This Curriculum Make Special Education Advocacy Easier? appeared first on The Sacramento Observer.

This article originally appeared in the Sacramento Observer.

The post Could This Curriculum Make Special Education Advocacy Easier? first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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Fighting to Keep Blackness

BlackPressUSA NEWSWIRE — Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 7, 2025

Oakland Post

By April Ryan

As this nation observes the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, the words of President Trump reverberate. “This country will be WOKE no longer”, an emboldened Trump offered during his speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. Since then, Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter this morning that “Elon Musk and his DOGE bros have ordered GSA to sell off the site of the historic Freedom Riders Museum in Montgomery.” Her post of little words went on to say, “This is outrageous and we will not let it stand! I am demanding an immediate reversal. Our civil rights history is not for sale!” DOGE trying to sell Freedom Rider Museum

Also, in the news today, the Associated Press is reporting they have a file of names and descriptions of more than 26,000 military images flagged for removal because of connections to women, minorities, culture, or DEI. In more attempts to downplay Blackness, a word that is interchanged with woke, Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C. Mayor Morial Bowser is allowing the name change to keep millions of federal dollars flowing there. Black Lives Matter Plaza was named in 2020 after a tense exchange between President Trump and George Floyd protesters in front of the White House. There are more reports about cuts to equity initiatives that impact HBCU students. Programs that recruited top HBCU students into the military and the pipeline for Department of Defense contracts have been canceled.

Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing back against this second-term Trump administration’s anti-DEI and Anti-woke message. In the wake of the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, several Congressional Black Caucus leaders are reintroducing the Voting Rights Act. South Carolina Democratic Congressman James Clyburn and Alabama Congresswoman Terry Sewell are sponsoring H.R. 14, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Six decades ago, Lewis was hit with a billy club by police as he marched for the right to vote for African Americans. The right for Black people to vote became law with the 1965 Voting Rights Act that has since been gutted, leaving the nation to vote without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. Reflecting on the late Congressman Lewis, March 1, 2020, a few months before his death, Lewis said, “We need more than ever in these times many more someones to make good trouble- to make their own dent in the wall of injustice.”

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Rep. Al Green is Censured by The U.S. House After Protesting Trump on Medicaid

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 6, 2025

Oakland Post

By Lauren Burke

In one of the quickest punishments of a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the modern era, Congressman Al Green (D-TX) was censured by a 224-198 vote today in the House. His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question. Of the last three censures of members of the U.S. House, two have been members of the Congressional Black Caucus under GOP control. In 2023, Rep. Jamal Bowman was censured.

On the night of March 4, as President Trump delivered a Joint Address to Congress, Rep. Green interrupted him twice. Rep. Green shouted, “You don’t have a mandate to cut Medicare, and you need to raise the cap on social security,” to President Trump. In another rare event, Rep. Green was escorted off the House floor by security shortly after yelling at the President by order of GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson. Over the last four years, members of Congress have yelled at President Biden during the State of the Union. Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor-Greene was joined by Republican Rep. Lauren Bobert (R-CO) in 2022 in yelling at President Biden. In 2023, Rep. Greene, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), and Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) yelled at Biden, interrupting his speech. In 2024, wearing a red MAGA hat, a violation of the rules of the U.S. House, Greene interrupted Biden again. She was never censured for her behavior. Rep. Green voted “present” on his censure and was joined by freshman Democrat Congressman Shomari Figures of Alabama who also voted “present”.

All other members of the Congressional Black Caucus voted against censuring Green. Republicans hold a four-seat advantage in the U.S. House after the death of Texas Democrat and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner yesterday. Ten Democrats voted along with Republicans to censure Rep. Green, including Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, who is in the leadership as the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “I respect them but, I would do it again,” and “it is a matter of conscience,” Rep. Green told Black Press USA’s April Ryan in an exclusive interview on March 5. After the vote, a group of Democrats sang “We Shall Overcome” in the well at the front of the House chamber. Several Republican members attempted to shout down the singing. House Speaker Mike Johnson gaveled the House out of session and into a recess. During the brief recess members moved back to their seats and out of the well of the House. Shortly after the vote to censor Rep. Green, Republican Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee quickly filed legislation to punish members who participated in the singing of “We Shall Overcome.” Earlier this year, Rep. Ogles filed legislation to allow President Donald Trump to serve a third term, which is currently unconstitutional. As the debate started, the stock market dove down over one-point hours from close. The jobs report will be made public tomorrow.

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Trump Moves to Dismantle Education Department

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The department oversees programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), serving 7.5 million students. Transferring IDEA oversight to another agency, as Trump’s plan suggests, could jeopardize services and protections for disabled students.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 6, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

The Trump administration is preparing to issue an executive order directing newly confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the Department of Education. While the president lacks the authority to unilaterally shut down the agency—requiring congressional approval—McMahon has been tasked with taking “all necessary steps” to reduce its role “to the maximum extent permitted by law.” The administration justifies the move by claiming the department has spent over $1 trillion since its 1979 founding without improving student achievement. However, data from The Nation’s Report Card shows math scores have improved significantly since the 1990s, though reading levels have remained stagnant. The pandemic further widened achievement gaps, leaving many students behind.

The Education Department provides about 10% of public-school funding, primarily targeting low-income students, rural districts, and children with disabilities. A recent Data for Progress poll found that 61% of voters oppose Trump’s efforts to abolish the agency, while just 34% support it. In Washington, D.C., where student proficiency rates remain low—22% in math and 34% in English—federal funding is crucial. Serenity Brooker, an elementary education major, warned that cutting the department would worsen conditions in underfunded schools.

“D.C. testing scores aren’t very high right now, so cutting the Department of Education isn’t going to help that at all,” she told Hilltop News. A report from the Education Trust found that low-income schools in D.C. receive $2,200 less per student than wealthier districts, leading to shortages in essential classroom materials. The department oversees programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), serving 7.5 million students. Transferring IDEA oversight to another agency, as Trump’s plan suggests, could jeopardize services and protections for disabled students.

The Office for Civil Rights also plays a key role in enforcing laws that protect students from discrimination. Moving it to the Department of Justice, as proposed in Project 2025, would make it harder for families to file complaints, leaving vulnerable students with fewer protections. Federal student aid programs, including Pell Grants and loan repayment plans, could face disruption if the department is dismantled. Experts warn this could worsen the student debt crisis, pushing more borrowers into default. “With funding cuts, they don’t have the materials they need, like books or things to help with math,” Brooker said. “It makes learning less fun for them.”