Protecting the Promise - Military Families and the Special Education Experience

Imagine moving every year (or more)! Finding a new dentist, a new doctor, a new playground, the best spot for coffee, a haircut, a new school, a new friend! Now, visualize having all of these tasks and a child with special needs who needs supportive services right away. We sat down with the legal analyst and the director of research from Partners in PROMISE to talk about what the data really says about military-connected special needs families, and why every number in that research represents a family figuring out how to make it work, again and again. Behind every policy gap and every statistic is a parent who's become an expert in something they never signed up for. Come for the research. Stay to witness the incredible lengths these families go to, providing emotional stability and educational continuity for their children. Show Notes: This podcast is made possible through generous funding by the USAA Foundation.   This show is mixed by Concentus Media in Temple, Texas, USA.   Resources:   Partners in PROMISE https://thepromiseact.org/   Partners in PROMISE Data & Reports https://thepromiseact.org/our-data/   Military Child Education Coalition https://militarychild.org   Our Guests: Crystal DeVoss Mahany, MA, MPS Crystal has worked as a paralegal, advocate, policy researcher, and legal analyst in Special Education Law, and has taught courses on Special Education as a Civil Right and Disability as a Tenet of Diversity. A founding member of Partners in PROMISE, she serves as Adjunct Faculty at George Washington University. As a military spouse and mother to two military-connected sons with special needs, Crystal is a fierce advocate with a focus on Civil Rights, Disability Rights, and Special Education Law.   Dr. Jenna Kremkow Jenna is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Elmhurst University, where her research focuses on the experiences of military families with children with autism and the use of technology to improve communication outcomes for these families. She holds an MS and PhD from Penn State with an emphasis in autism and augmentative and alternative communication, and has worked clinically as a speech-language pathologist in schools, clinics, and early intervention settings. Her goal is to use data-driven research to support policy changes that improve special education services for military families.