Question 1
Describe your experience working with or on behalf of individuals with disabilities.
Answers are listed in alphabetical order by the candidates’ last names.
Cristina Diaz-Torres
Cristina Diaz-Torres I have experience working with students with disabilities in the classroom, as an education policy advisor and as the sister of someone with a learning disability. As a part-time preschool teacher and a high school math teacher, I was responsible for identifying students with disabilities for assessment, participated in IEP meetings and delivered appropriate instruction per IEP requirements. When I was a math teacher, our district used a co-teaching model to support students with IEPs in a general education setting. I had anywhere between 5-15 students with IEPs per class and worked with my co-teacher to support all of our students, no matter their need.
After leaving the classroom, I have worked in federal, state and district policy. Throughout this work, students with disabilities have always been a key priority. To cite one specific example: in 2018, I worked on the ground in my home island of Puerto Rico supporting the Department of Education to re-tool their teacher professional development framework and induction program. Previously, the only guidance general education teachers received about serving their students with IEPs was a 15 minute presentation at the beginning of the year. We introduced a learning agenda that brought teachers together for half-day sessions to learn about identification of students with disabilities, differentiation, and Universal Design for Learning and adaptive technology. This model is still in use today.
In addition, on a personal note, my younger brother has a learning disability. I remember attending his IEP meetings from a young age and watched my parents struggle with identifying his needs for many years. He ultimately got the support he needed and is now a successful business owner in Connecticut.
Steven Krieger
Steven KriegerAs a social justice advocate and an attorney, I have predicated my career on helping people gain access to legal remedies, and in serving traditionally underserved and marginalized populations, including those with disabilities. I believe that everyone should have access to our justice system and the protection from the wrongdoings of others, which is why I serve as a Guardian ad litem (“GAL”), a court-appointed lawyer for children involved in the court system, for both disabled and non-disabled children. Almost all of the children the court appoints me to represent have an IEP or 504 plan and as the attorney for the child involved in the court system, I attend the corresponding meetings and participate in the decision making to help determine what is in the child’s best interest. In my role as a GAL, I have seen firsthand how the unique challenges experienced by students with disabilities result in barriers to accessibility, which plays a critical role in reduced access to opportunity and achievement. 1
Three years ago, I began advocating along with the PTA of Key Elementary School against a facilities move of the immersion program from their current location into a different and smaller building. Any type of change of this magnitude affects children with disabilities even more so than their non-disabled classmates. Special education teachers at Key are always concerned with issues that create even greater obstacles for families of students with disabilities, many of whom are also English learners. The decision to change the school location to a location with less access to public transportation for special education and related services meetings, as well as the likely change in staff and continuity that goes along with any move would have disproportionately impacted students with disabilities.
As a school board member, I will work to actualize APS’s noble vision as a diverse and inclusive school community by maximizing inclusive and effective instruction, intervention and support for all students. APS needs to ensure that the commitment to academic excellence and integrity is realized for all students, including our most vulnerable students with special and dual needs. One area that I believe could be improved upon is the School Board’s collaboration with SEPTA and Arlington Special Education Advisory Committee (ASEAC). The parents in SEPTA (and ASEAC) have dedicated an enormous amount of time and effort for the betterment of APS. Based on my conversations with these parents, they feel, too often, like they are fighting an up-hill battle and that has to change. When you consider students with IEP and 504 plans, students with disabilities make up 19% of the APS population – that is very significant.
1. In a different context, I would have liked to share a story with you about my role as a GAL, but due to attorney-client privilege as well as my ethical responsibilities as a member of the Virginia Bar, I am not permitted to provide specific examples from my GAL role.
Sandy Munnell
Sandy MunnellMy experience working with individuals with disabilities has varied over my many years in education as a classroom teacher, as a professional developer, and in my personal life as well.
In 2016, I taught two levels of English (12th grade IB High Level and 12th grade Regular). Note: Because of inclusion, there are only two levels of English, AP/IB and Regular. There were 28 students in each of those 4 sections. In the 12 Reg classes, 14 and 12 students in each class respectively had an IEP. So, I was assigned a special education co-teacher.
Co-teaching is not a marriage; rather, it’s a business arrangement. The regular ed teacher is held responsible for the instruction, implementation and assessment of all the students. Negotiations between the co-teachers over how, when and where to interact takes place. If you are fortunate to have a common planning period, it makes that negotiation easier. It also helps if the special education teacher has a common background; i.e. ELA if assigned to an English teacher, math if assigned to a math teacher. But that doesn’t always happen. It can be an uneasy dance with many missteps if this alignment is out of sync, as it frequently is.
I was fortunate that the special education teacher assigned to me had over 10-years’ experience as a co-teacher and desired to be an equal partner in instruction. Without a common planning period, we frequently had to work afterschool for planning, or at lunch. The biggest problem was with 28 special education students, there were 28 different needs. This is not the kind of teaching one is prepared for coming out of a college teacher preparation program.
When we moved from self -contained special education classes in high school to integrated classes for the core content classes, no one was prepared. The idea that the general education teacher should all at once be held responsible for the instruction and assessment for special education students was not a part of what, say a math teacher, or 2rd grade teacher signed on for. For more than two decades, differentiation became an acquired skill for any core teacher gleaned from a few professional development classes. But graduates from colleges in both a general education or special education teacher prep program are not prepared in for co-teaching. Working in an integrated core course has a special advantage when done well, the curriculum can be individualized and driven by self-interest. I will return to this further down in my responses.
On a personal level, I have a daughter diagnosed as dyslexic. Because anyone labeled special ed meant lower expectations, I did not have my daughter identified in school. She struggled mightily, but had resilience, support and graduated at the top of her class. She excelled in college and then when she went to veterinary school, it caught up with her. She needed extra support, a notetaker so she could focus on the lecture, ability to record lectures, extended time for testing, and space alone for testing. There was never the expectation she couldn’t succeed, but rather an enlightened dean who supported interventions as necessary for the success of the students’ in the vet school. Today, she practices veterinary medicine here in Arlington.
Her son quickly became a concern in kindergarten when the teacher said he was not as “reading ready” as his peers. My daughter asked for further testing on his behalf, but she didn’t know to invoke the right words to trigger the testing. First grade, she asked again, and the reading specialist assigned him not to a different kind of instruction, but additional balanced literacy sessions. It wasn’t until spring of 1st grade, that my daughter asked for a “child study.” And 10 days later, the testing began to happen. However, it took a further 7 months for him to be identified and an appropriate IEP put in place.
David Priddy
David PriddyMy experience working on behalf of individuals with disabilities has been focused on the ongoing issues at the newly built Alice West Fleet Elementary School. During construction at Fleet, there were budget overruns which led to key components for accessibility being omitted from the final design. Items such as the second elevator, playground equipment, access to the building, and others, were “value engineered” out of the scope of work to save money. As a result, the building is not accessible for all and we need to have those items installed at Fleet. My role in this process has been to speak at PTA meetings, help organize a group to speak at School Board meetings, meet individually with various stakeholders (parents, APS Staff, School Board Members, County Board Members, etc.) to advocate for the re-issuing of funds to complete the items. This spring, we successfully lobbied to get the funds allocated. Now I am on a parent committee with a special APS liaison to manage the checklist and ensure the items at Fleet will be installed.
In addition to the advocacy at Fleet, I have been a voice for parents whose children have not received their services in accordance with their IEPs. I have advocated at the school level and higher, on their behalf, to make sure the students are getting the required services.
Terron Sims
Terron SimsSince the first grade, I have stuttered, had a speech impediment, and dyslexia. Every Wednesday and Friday the second semester of fourth grade, I met with a speech pathologist for half an hour during my English period to work on sound and multi-syllable word pronunciation. Because I had straight As, meeting with the speech pathologist was fun and an added plus to my education experience. It took me being an adult to truly appreciate my mother’s attentiveness to recognize that though I was performing well in the classroom, that I required unique assistance for long-term success.
Because I was able to teach myself how to excel in life as a stutterer with dyslexia, that experience has provided me the innate ability to see the greatness in every child I have mentored and tutored over these past 14 years, especially those with IEPs, which enables me to help those kids tap into their inner greatness and become confident in themselves and their abilities. What I came to realize about twenty years ago is that my “disabilities” are not disabilities because they have shaped who I am. They are as much a positive part of me as what others would deem as positive physical and mental attributes.
I think of my twenty-one-year-old “little” cousin Jordan who has autism. He has been an integral part of my life since he was born. Jordan is one of the coolest, happiest young men you would ever meet. Last year, he had a great experience in Kentucky working with Job Corps and is now training to become a professional baker. My pride in the young man Jordan has become, and that he is striving to attain his dreams, is immeasurable.
S. Symone Walker
S. Symone WalkerI have an 8th grader with ADHD and Dyslexia, a learning disability. I have been dealing with my son’s special education needs within APS since approximately first grade when it began to become apparent. In 2017, I began volunteering with SEPTA’s policy review team to review APS policies from a disability advocate perspective. In 2019 I joined the Arlington Special Education Advisory Committee (ASEAC) to advocate more directly for students with disabilities. In addition to SEPTA and ASEAC, to help shape my advocacy, I joined Decoding Dyslexia Virginia (DDVA) and The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA), which is an independent national American association of parents of children with disabilities, attorneys, advocates, and related professionals who protect the legal and civil rights of students with disabilities and their families. During the 2020 legislative session, in my capacity as Education Co-Chair for the Arlington NAACP, I worked with DDVA on a bill to mandate reading screening and structured literacy intervention (HB 332).