“Stop Listening to People Who Don’t Know What They’re Talking About!!”
Jean Murrell Adams, Esq.
This hectic holiday season may be the calm before the storm. Proposed rules and laws regarding education and health will likely impact children with disabilities for decades. It’s crucial that parents make decisions based on solid information from reliable sources–not from AI hallucinations, TikTok influencers or “Dr. Google”. Where can parents find reliable information regarding potential changes that impact their children with disabilities? Start IRL by speaking with your child’s trusted care providers, teachers and elders.
Concerned about fluoride in drinking water? Don’t place your child’s dental health in the hands of some hack on the internet who never practiced dentistry. Instead, talk to your child’s pediatric dentist who sees hundreds of patients each year. Not only is she an expert in her field, but she’s also invested in your child’s long-term dental health. She can explain her own patient observations and break down the American Dental Association’s decades of research and findings regarding fluoridation safety. More importantly, she can speak specifically on how fluoride in drinking water can impact your child. For example, some neurodivergent children may have sensory aversion to gloppy toothpaste and may need fluoridated water or other dental hygiene interventions. Dentists must keep up with current best practices in order to keep their license (for example, California requires dentists to complete 50 hours of continuing education to renew their license). There’s no need to rely on internet or cable TV pundits when you can get advice from your own expert who knows your child.
Vaccine curious? Regarding vaccine safety, we wish parents would stop listening to anti-expert podcasters and zillionaires who almost certainly have had their own children vaccinated. Instead of relying on random rants, consult your child’s own pediatrician regarding the benefits and any side-effects of childhood vaccines. Then follow their guidance when evaluating proposed changes to the law. Unlike folks in your Facebook group, real pediatricians undergo years of training—including undergrad, medical school, pediatric residency and (medical) board certification. They also must complete continuing education to remain in practice. Most importantly, they have real-world experience caring for hundreds of children like yours.
Abolish the United States Department of Education? Senator Rounds of South Dakota recently introduced S.5384, a bill to kill the Department of Education. If passed, this act would effectively eliminate the federal agency responsible for enforcing special education laws. Think this is a good idea? Instead of relying on random blogs and cookie-cutter opinion pieces disguised as real news, ask your child’s special education teacher or IEP coordinator what they think? They will probably share their concerns and explain that, despite some problems with our current special education procedures, it’s much better than a haphazard patchwork of different state laws and standards.
Older (ahem, more mature) teachers may explain that, before the Department of Education existed, at least one state criminalized parents who tried to enroll their child with a disability into public school; other school districts randomly excluded or expelled children with ADHD and other disabilities leaving them with no education at all. Teachers will also explain that special education laws don’t apply to private, parochial or home schools, so redirecting IDEA funds to these programs are unlikely to help children with disabilities.
Move special education oversight to the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”)? If passed, S.5384 would move federal oversight of the IDEA and other federal programs protecting children with special education needs, to HHS. Instead of relying on Insta pics or FB reels, ask your grandparents what it was like for children with developmental disabilities the last time HHS had responsibility for educating them. If your elders attended elementary school in the 1960’s or 70’s, they will probably tell you that they never saw children with disabilities in their classrooms. That’s because many were either in segregated classrooms (if they were allowed to attend school at all) or institutionalized in state-run facilities where they were entirely excluded from education. Call us biased (and as lawyers for children with disabilities, we certainly are) but we believe children with disabilities should be in school—not warehoused in institutions.
Parents of children with disabilities and active members of the disability community must remain informed and involved. It is our very special Christmas wish that we all will “tune-out” ignorance and instead seek answers from educators, care providers, and trusted experts who know our children and their needs.
