HOW OSERS CELEBRATES DOWN SYNDROME MONTH AND BLIND AWARENESS MONTH & DYSLEXIA AWARENESS! (791 hits)
For Immediate Release From OSERS!
Last month, I was looking for a great back-to-school message and came across a sign posted outside an elementary school in California. The sign painted in different colors on wooden boards read:
WELCOME ALL ABILITIES ALL RELIGIONS ALL ORIENTATIONS ALL CULTURES All COLORS LOVE lives here
The sign was shared four years ago by the mom of a then-kindergarten student named Drew.
I recently checked in with Drew’s mom, Becky, to see how school is going, and she shared that her son has had amazing inclusive experiences in two different schools in two different districts. In fact, Drew made national headlines a few years ago when he became a UPS driver for a day.
I love the quote embedded in the news story, “Joy is my platform as it relates to Down Syndrome because to be honest, having a kid with Down Syndrome has been the greatest source of joy in my life.”
I asked Drew’s mom, Becky, some follow-up questions by email, and I want to share an excerpt from our email exchange.
Valerie: Tell us a little about Drew. What does Drew like about school?
Becky: Drew is a social, athletic, loving kid who lives to make friends and spend time with them. At school he easily slips into the “big man on campus” role — he knows everyone’s name and they know his, and he’s delighted to see them all.
He loves school because that’s where the people are. There’s a daily kickball game, and he gets to read and learn cool things.
Valerie: How is Drew’s start of the school year going?
Becky: He’s had a strong start. Drew is in the general education classroom 87% of the time, supported by a 1:1 aide who (delightfully) carried over with him from last year and who knows him and his motivations well.
Seven weeks in he is eagerly diving into his homework — focused mostly on math and reading books, which is one of his favorite things to do. He appreciates the structure and engaging delivery of his teacher, who’s a great match.
The school team tells us he’s demonstrating a whole new level of independence and verbal communication this year. We suspect he’s going to crush his individualized education program (IEP) goals at this rate.
Valerie: I see that Drew’s school has an inclusion policy statement, which reiterates their commitment to “…fostering inclusivity and valuing diversity…for ensuring our students meet their potential…To that end we embrace inclusion school-wide as an ongoing and ever-changing approach that aims to increase access and engagement for all students by identifying and removing barriers to learning.” Would you please describe how parents are made aware of the policy and how it impacts Drew’s education.
Becky: If I could wave a magic wand, I would have every public school in our nation adopt this inclusion policy. Consider these three powerful sentences from it:
We provide services to students with IEPs through the pedagogical lens of Inclusive Practices. Students with special needs receive the majority of their services within the general education classroom, with special education and general education teachers sharing the responsibility of providing variability and support. Students with disabilities have a strong presence, access, and voice in the general education classroom. The policy is published on the school’s website and shared directly by the administration with any parents who inquire about it. It has had a profound impact on Drew’s education.
First, he’s challenged, daily. The inclusion approach begins by presuming competence, and then meets him where he is. He is exposed to the full curriculum and afforded the opportunity to learn at his highest potential, every minute of the day, with the support of his aide and the teaching team.
Second, he’s able to learn side by side with his friends — and just as important, they’re able to learn side by side with him. That means he and his whole class are not only learning things like multiplication and science together, but also empathy, curiosity, comfort with differences, and a variety of styles of communication. In the world in which our kids are growing up, these skills will be crucial for all of them.
Valerie: Have you started thinking about middle school and beyond for Drew? What would you like his upper grade education to look like?
When I was 12 weeks pregnant and 39 years old, we found out that Wren was going to be born with Down syndrome. As is the case for most families, this news was a surprise to us, but for me there was a lot more to process.
At that point in my life, I had been a pediatric occupational therapist for 17 years and many of those years had been working at the public charter school, which my older two children attended. I worried about potential health concerns, could our family continue our active lifestyle in nature, could I keep working at a job I loved? I worried so much, I took the joy out of my last pregnancy.
The minute Wren was born, unexpectedly six weeks early, and they placed her in my arms, all those worries melted away. She was just my baby that needed all the same love and care as my older children. Once we busted out of the neonatal intensive care unit, we quickly found that Wren was happy to go along on family adventures like camping, hiking and backpacking. She even took some of her first steps on the Appalachian Trail. I truly believe this has helped Wren grow into a physically strong, brave, and independent little girl.
Fast forward to age five and kindergarten. Wren has a natural love of life and learning. When we are out in nature, cooking, or in the kitchen, she thrives on being independent. One of Wren’s favorite things to do on the weekends is cooking Daddy an egg on the stove by herself.
Working at the same school as Wren and being an integral part of the school Exceptional Children’s Service team, I have seen firsthand how her level of independence is different in this fast paced, loud, overstimulating general education environment, and it made me think deeply about the whys of what we do at school.
I imagine I am one of a few parents who get to be part of both worlds, which I have found to be both a blessing and one of the hardest experiences of my life. I get to witness Wren having real relationships with her peers and learning amazing things in the classroom. I have also watched her struggle, which gives me the opportunity to problem solve with her team.
Being both Wren’s teacher and mom, has come in handy most days. I am thankful for a school team that honors both of my perspectives. Not only has this helped Wren directly, but it has also benefited so many other students with similar needs.
Best Buddies, International, is dedicated to ending the social, physical and economic isolation of the 200 million people worldwide with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Their programs empower people with IDD to form meaningful friendships with their peers, secure jobs, improve communication and advocacy skills, and live independently, while also offering support for their families.
I am Sami Woodcock. I am 17 years old and a junior at Thornton Academy. I have Down Syndrome. Besides my extra chromosome, I’m just like my Best Buddy, Brooke.
I am Brooke Helgesen. I am 18 years old and a senior at Thornton Academy. The students in our Best Buddy chapter are phenomenal, every single one of us. My buddies have shown me resilience and proven with a little support they are capable of everything.
Sami loves dancing, playing on a team, being a part of the student council and being a leader and in our Best Buddy chapter. Brooke is the student council and student body secretary, a member of National Honor Society, and Best Buddy chapter president.
We both play unified sports, practice for and attend Special Olympics events, take unified physical education and art classes at school and are both mentors in our Best Buddies program.
Sami attends all mainstream classes at school, which means she is able to learn and interact with all her peers. Sami loves having friends on campus. Her favorite class is dance, she loves seeing herself and her peers in the mirror learning the moves together. Brooke’s favorite class is honors anatomy and physiology and volunteering as a teacher’s aide in the functional life skills program. After high school we both want to go to college.
Brooke graduates this year, and she wants to pursue nursing at St. Joseph’s College of Maine. Sami graduates in 2026 and would also like to go to college and live independently making her own decisions.
Collaboration, Inclusivity and Ingenuity Creates Growth Opportunities
October [was] Blind Awareness Month and Oct. 15 is White Cane Safety Day
October is Blind Awareness Month and last Tuesday, Oct. 15, was White Cane Safety Day, a nationally recognized event established by Congress and signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Oct. 15 is also known as Blind Americans Equality Day. Around the country, local education agencies, state agencies, nonprofits and foundations, infants, toddlers, students, families, teachers, and administrators came together to celebrate the importance of the long cane used by individuals who are blind or visually impaired.
The cane is a paramount tool that helps people with visual impairments live independently; it also serves as a symbol that recognizes the talents, skills, and achievements of those who are blind or visually impaired.
I wear multiple hats: I am an educator; I am a researcher; I am an intern in the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP); I am a parent of a child who is blind with other disabilities. In all these roles, I advocate that we hold high expectations for children with disabilities.
As a Ph.D. student in special education, I’ve had the privilege of interning at the federal level with the OSEP where I work on various projects related to supporting students who are blind and visually impaired. This experience has invited me to delve deeper into the development of policies and initiatives aimed at improving educational outcomes for these students. I have also analyzed qualitative data from state-level projects that support students who are deafblind.
Fundamentally, my work at OSEP reinforces my understanding of the importance of evidence-based practices and the critical role that collaboration plays in creating supportive and inclusive learning environments.
From a personal level, my family has experienced the benefits of collaborative, inclusive environments firsthand. When my son was born fully blind almost six years ago, I knew little to nothing about visual impairments – despite having worked in education for many years. However, it did not take long for me to understand the importance of early identification and early intervention services.
Within six weeks, Santiago had an evaluation, and within two months, he was receiving services from a teacher of students with visual impairments (TSVI), an orientation and mobility instructor (O&M), a physical therapist, a speech-language and feeding therapist, and an occupational therapist. His services in an educational setting have since expanded to even include music therapy.
Launching into a Lifetime of Literacy with Braille and Talking Books from the National Library Service
By: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled at the Library of Congress
This blog post was contributed to Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) by the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled at the Library of Congress as part of our recognition of October as Dyslexia Awareness Month and Blindness Awareness Month.
Inclusion and acceptance at school are important to all students, and for students with disabilities, reading and enjoying the same books as their classmates can be an important part of fitting in.
“It’s huge to be able to have access to the same books all your friends are reading,” says Brian, who is blind. “To be able to talk about the same books others are reading, as a kid, is about being part of the community, being able to engage.”
Readers of the OSERS blog may already be familiar with Bookshare, the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)-funded digital e-book platform, which is free to eligible students in the U.S. and includes access to textbooks and other books in a variety of accessible, digital formats. To learn more about Bookshare, visit Bookshare.org or watch this episode of the EdTech for All Webinar Series, which features an educator, developer,and student sharing their Bookshare experiences.
Like Bookshare, the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS), a free program of the Library of Congress, provides books in accessible formats for children, teens, and adults who are blind, have low vision, or have difficulty using printed materials because of a physical or reading disability. For students, those books are a window on the world—and that’s not all.
“I spent so many years feeling isolated . . . when I couldn’t read books like the Harry Potters and the Twilights,” motivational speaker Molly Burke, who lost her vision as a child to retinitis pigmentosa, told NLS’s national conference in 2022. “I really believe so much of the bullying I experienced was due to what the sighted students perceived as a lack of an ability to connect with me, a lack of relatability.”
If she’d had access to the books everyone was talking about, she said, “Who’s to say how much easier schooling would have been for me in terms of friendships and relationships? So, it’s more than just reading—it allows us to connect with people around us in more meaningful ways.”
NLS offers eligible students reading materials in audio and braille in a variety of genres: mystery and detective stories, science fiction and fantasy, animals and wildlife, sports and recreation, historical fiction, reading-list favorites, and more. Once enrolled, students can download books and begin reading right away using NLS’s BARD website or BARD Mobile app, or they can get audiobooks or hard-copy braille books delivered by mail free of charge from one of nearly 100 NLS network libraries throughout the country. NLS also provides on loan audiobook players and refreshable braille displays.
NLS isn’t only for people with visual or physical disabilities. It also serves people with reading disabilities such as dyslexia.
A mother in Washington State told us about the impact NLS has had on her son, who was diagnosed with dyslexia in elementary school.
“He felt a lot of shame at not being able to read some of the books his fellow students were reading,” she said. “But soon after his diagnosis, I learned that NLS provided services not only for those with low or no vision, but also to those who had reading disabilities.”
