Special Ed. Parents Air Concerns with White House, Ed. Dept.Ed. Dept.

In a meeting on Wednesday with President Obama's top advisers on disability issues and special education, a select group of parents, teachers and advocates sought assurances that students with disabilities won't lose hard-fought ground for high academic expectations and access to challenging curricula as the Obama administration grants states waivers from provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Parents and advocates involved with the National Center for Learning Disabilities and the Council for Exceptional Children were invited to the White House to hear what the administration is focusing on when it comes to disability and special education policy and to provide their input.

Kareem Dale, special assistant to the president on disability policy; Alexa Posny, the assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services in the U.S. Department of Education; and Melody Musgrove, the director of the office of special education programs in the Education Department, met with the group for more than an hour, according to several parents and advocates who participated.

"This was the administration's opportunity to share what they are doing and what they are working on," said Hilary Cole, the mother of three sons with dyslexia who is involved with NCLD. "We have many concerns about the state waivers and whether those could open the door to lower expectations for special education students. Our main message to them was that we need to make sure these students are given what they need to go on and be college- and career-ready, to be successful in the work force. We need to make sure people don't quit on these kids."

The officials spent a great deal of time talking about the President's budget proposal for fiscal year 2013, said Steve Kukic, an NCLD board member. Parents and advocates expressed their disappointment that the budget would spend less on preparing education personnel to work with special education students, an issue that is of primary concern for the groups, Kukic said.

Read more of guest blogger, Lesli A. Maxwell's article in On Special Education HERE.