What happens when the people responsible for carrying out your child's IEP were never trained, supported, or backed up to do it right?
This week, Karen Mayer Cunningham sits down with Michelle Williams, a 26-year veteran classroom teacher who has taught elementary and mathematics in rural, urban, and suburban schools. Michelle has watched teacher support erode from the inside, and she is not staying quiet about it.
This is a conversation every parent, advocate, and educator needs to hear. Michelle pulls back the curtain on what is really happening in schools, and Karen connects it straight to your rights and your child's education.
Here is some of what we get into:
- Why sit-and-get professional development fails teachers and the students who count on them
- The greening of education, and what happens when new teachers are left to train new teachers
- What the law actually expects when a child is suspected of having a disability, before an IEP is even in place
- Why signing an IEP is a legally binding commitment, not a formality
- How IDEA works as a federal grant program, and the assurances your state signs every single year
- What least restrictive environment means, and why quietly relaxed standards should concern every family
- How to find out what your district actually spends on special education using open records
- What Michelle learned filing two state complaints that were both substantiated
Then we do the thing most people only talk about doing. We walk through how to fill out a state complaint, step by step.
You don't know what you don't know, but you need to. This is why we sit at the table prepared.
Want to go deeper? Inside Special Education Academy we break down every page of the IEP, your procedural rights, and how to navigate and negotiate successful student outcomes. Start at specialeducationacademy.com.
About our guest: Michelle Williams is a 26-year veteran educator who is taking her fight for public education and students with disabilities to the policy level as a candidate for Texas State Representative. To learn more about her campaign or support her work, visit https://michelleforstaterep.com.
This episode is educational training, not legal advice.
✨ When we get it right for the child, we get it right for everybody. ✨
👩⚖️ Hosted by Karen Mayer Cunningham, Advocate & Special Education Boss®
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