Orange County ESE Parent 2 Parent Alliance

We see this all the time in schools.

People are doing the same drills they've been doing since their students were in kindergarten and now they're in 10th grade.

They have the same IEP goals.

They're still working on the same basic tasks.

Don't we want to ask the question, WHY?

How would you feel if at the age of 5 and the age of 15 you were working on the same thing?

Is it really that you don't know what you're doing or have you become so disenfranchised in this entire "educational" process that you've just stopped caring?

This is a theme among the things our students share. So much so that this post and our next will both address it.

Gordy tells us, "Imagine spending every day from age 5 to 21 looking at clocks, coins, and colors. Are you bored enough to riot? Are you defeated enough to unravel your shorts and eat them? I’ve been there and it sucks. If I could change just one thing about education before I die, it would be the idea that nonspeaking people can’t handle real academics. Do better."

Let's make this the year we actually follow through and do better. Want an easy place to get started? Check out this info on our Accessible Academics course - a super affordable, lifetime access, self-paced course designed to help parents or educators learn easy ways to make real academic content accessible to their learners who don't speak and may be communicating just by making choices.

We've helped more than 300 folks get started with this course. Let us help you, too.

Check the comments for a link to the Accessible Academics course👇

Event Information
Hosted by: Parent Education Network

📅 Wednesday March 11, 2026
🕠5:00-6:30 PM

📍Orlando Public Library - Magnolia Room - Third Floor
101 E Central Blvd
Orlando, FL 32801

Special Education can feel confusing — but you don’t have to figure it out alone.

Join us for a relaxed, parent-friendly Coffee Talk where we’ll break down the IEP process in simple, clear language. Ask questions, get support, and leave feeling more confident advocating for your child.
✨ No jargon
✨ No pressure
✨ Just real help for real families

Free Event- Families, Caregivers are Welcome!

When?
Wednesday, Mar 11, 2026, 05:00 PM
Where?
Orlando Public Library - Magnolia Room - Third Floor

Join Us Join Us

Beyond Behaviors Book Study

Wednesdays, May 6, 13, & 20, 2026
6:00 – 7:30PM
Online

Join us for a three-part discussion of Beyond Behaviors: Using Brain Science and Compassion to Understand and Solve Children’s Behavioral Challenges by Mona Delahooke. A NEW approach to solving behavioral challenges. In Beyond Behaviors , internationally known pediatric psychologist, Dr. Mona Delahooke describes behaviors as the tip of the iceberg, important signals that we should address by seeking to understand a child’s individual differences in the context of relational safety. Featuring impactful worksheets and charts, this accessible book offers professionals, educators and parents tools and techniques to reduce behavioral challenges and promote psychological resilience and satisfying, secure relationships. Neuroscience-based effective tools and strategies for children labeled – Conduct Disorder – Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) – Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD) – Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) – Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) – Anxiety & Depression – Autism & Developmental or Learning Differences And children who experience or have – Aggressive, confusing and unpredictable behaviors – Tantrums and meltdowns – Disconnection or shutdown – Adverse childhood experiences – Trauma and toxic stress

The first 20 registrants from our 14 county catchment area* will receive the book for free.
If you choose to purchase the book please be sure that it is the Second Edition which was released on March 3, 2026.

Details and link to registration:
https://card.ufl.edu/2026/01/16/beyond-behaviors-book-study/

🙌🏻❤️🙌🏻❤️🙌🏻

Our bipartisan Elopement Prevention bill for students with autism also has its last committee stop this coming week! Excited to get this bill to the House Floor!

Often, when a child has delays in reading, writing, or math, schools propose accommodations (text-to-speech, predictive writing software, no penalties for spelling or grammar, reduced work) and not actual services to remediate the deficit. It's okay to use accommodations while a child is receiving SDI- it's not okay to offer them with no intention of remediating the underlying problem.

‘Wait and see’ approaches, hoping things will ‘click’, or allowing kids to languish in interventions without meaningful growth is the opposite of the school’s obligations under Child Find. Telling a parent to seek their own private diagnosis first when the school has a suspicion, is a giant red flag.

The behavior wasn’t sexual. The interpretation was. And that’s on the adults. If you’re sexualizing disability-related behavior in children, the problem isn’t the student—it’s you. Weirdos. And then—chef’s kiss—you coach a statement from a student who uses echolalia to communicate, while every other student statement says they saw nothing. That’s not accountability, that’s manipulation. Add in tone-deaf district staff, a useless school board members rubber-stamping nonsense, ineffective district leaders and suddenly declining enrollment isn’t a mystery. Its a consequence. Maybe stop disciplining disabilities, sexualizing children, and gaslighting families. Just a thought.