As many of my readers know, I have been a special education teacher for twenty-six years. For several of those years I have also been an independent special education consultant. I grew up with an aunt that had intellectual disability. I have a grandson on the autism spectrum. I have...
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Lately, I have found myself thinking about the future of special education. I'm always reading about special education, talking with parents, discussing with school personnel, so the various issues are never far from my mind. A couple of weeks ago, I read an article written by a special education professor...
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The idea of this series is to help parents by answering their questions through short videos.

If you have questions you would like answered, please submit them in the comments below or email them to me at Dawn@DawnGibson.Consulting

I haven't met many parents that look forward to IEP meetings. More...
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My entire adult life has been devoted to those individuals with special needs, twenty-six of those years, professionally. I have worked with students whose diagnoses span a vast array of medical terms. Some of my students had medical names for their diagnosis that when written out, were as long as...
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This past week I read an article about a special education teacher that ended up quitting due to the the ridiculous and inappropriate testing that was being required of her students. As I read through the story, and the subsequent comments on the story, I found myself shaking my head...
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Welcome to my first video blog, and my first video in a series I'm calling "SpecEd Answers"!

The idea of this series is to help parents by answering their questions in a short video (3-6 minutes).

Please submit questions in the comments below or email them to me at Dawn@DawnGibson.Consulting

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Special education has been a driving force, for most of my life. Maybe I should say, helping and encouraging individuals with special needs, and their families has been my driving force. It is what I do, and contributes to who I am as a person. As a veteran teacher, I...
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For a parent of a child with a diagnosed disability, the issue of transportation to and from school should always be addressed in the child's Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act ( IDEA) 

"transportation includes travel to and from school, and between schools; travel...
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All lives matter. 

We hear this on a regular basis on TV, on the internet, people chanting, signs being held.... but do we believe it? Do all lives really matter? I read an article today about a law passed last year in the state of Pennsylvania, stating that parents are...
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The series that I’ve blogged on for the past several days has been a stroll down memory lane for me. I have had many, many students over the years and more stories than I can possibly tell in just a few short days. Even now, I continue to add new...
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The year is 1997. I’m still teaching in the same county, just a different school…one closer to my house. This would be the school I would teach in for the next ten years. I liked this school. I met many wonderful teachers and a lot of interesting students while there.

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In 1995 I started teaching in a new school system. I was placed in an inner city classroom that consisted of nine streetwise boys…all of whom had some sort of emotional/behavioral type of disturbance. I admit at that time I was naive’. I had no idea what lay ahead...
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