On this episode of The Arc Podcast Lindsey talks with Claire Manning. Claire is the Senior Executive Officer of Advocacy and Mobilization. Lindsey and Claire discuss storytelling and how important it is to share your story along with joining action alerts so you're always in the know for what's happening in Federal Policy and Washington D.C. Here on the links below! Enjoy this episode of The Arc Podcast. 

• Action alerts; thearc.org/action
• DPS and convention: https://disabilitypolicyseminar.org/
• Storytelling toolkit: https://thearc.org/resource/storytelling-toolkit-for-advocates/

In this episode Robyn and Lindsey talk about the future of Education. While it feels like everything is falling apart Robyn brings some good news about education and the future of it. 

On this episode we talk to Darcy from the The Arc National Office about SNAP and SSI. If you have any questions or want to reach out to your member of congress please reach out to Lindsey at [email protected] 

Jen continues the special education law series talking with Selene Almazan and Jack Robinson. Selene Almazan is the Legal Director for the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) and a private attorney specializing in special education and particularly LRE cases. Jack Robinson played a pivotal role as the attorney for Endrew and his parents in the landmark Supreme Court case, Endrew F. v. Douglas County Sch. Dist. Jack's work established a "markedly more demanding" standard for what constitutes a FAPE, rejecting low expectations and requiring school districts to provide individualized education programs that are "appropriately ambitious" with "challenging objectives". This is a great conversation about the case law that shapes special education law today.

Continuing the discussion on special education, Jen speaks with Professor Pepper Stetler again about her latest article in the Atlantic, "The Slow Death of Special Education". They talk about the history of special education, what it was like before the IDEA and what challenges we have now to reckon with given this history. Also read Pepper's latest book, "A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother's Reckoning with the IQ Test"

Leaders at the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce joined the podcast today. Jo Hannah Ward is the Administrator of the Office for Exceptional Children and Kari Jones is the Chief Strategy Officer at the ODEW. The cuts at the Department of Education have caused many worries so we wanted to talk directly to the leadership in Ohio to get a read on whether Ohio is ready for the changes at the federal level and how we can advocate for children being served in special education in Ohio. 

In the next episode of a series of talks on special education, Jen interviews Sara Bitter about what it's like to run for local school board. Sara is an attorney, a mom to two children with Developmental Disabilities and just won her second election to sit on her local school board. This episode gives you some "how tos" on running for local office and why it's important right now to get involved in education advocacy. 

The 50th anniversary of the IDEA is here and The Arc of Ohio wants to keep you up to date on what is happening with Special Education. Today, Jen speaks with Courtney Hansen, Special Education Advocate and SEAT Instructor at COPAA. Courtney updated us on what is going on with the cuts at the Department of Education and how we can best advocate in our state.

Jen and Lindsey talk with Jenetta Thomas about her nonprofit "Hearts in the Park". Jenetta is a nurse and a mom to two children, one with Down syndrome. Jenetta started this organization to offer community celebrations for families with children with developmental disabilities. The 3rd annual community celebration is June 7th 12-3 PM. Find out more on www.heartsinthepark.org

The Stable Account Program at the Ohio Treasurer's Office is back to give us some updates on this great resource for families. We talk about new contribution limits, financial literacy tools, possibly budget changes to these accounts and more. Check out www.stableaccount.com or email [email protected] to learn more.