Jed talks with Yass Prize winner Diana Diaz-Harrison about Arizona Autism Charter Schools’ innovative approach to serving students on the autism spectrum.
Transcript
Hello Charter Folk.
Jed:Delighted to have you here and delighted to have our guest today.
Jed:We're very fortunate today to have a chance to talk to Diana Diaz-Harrison,
Jed:who is the founder of Arizona Autism Charter Schools, which was the recent
Jed:winner of the YASS Prize nationally.
Jed:Diana, let's bring you on right now, and just delighted to have you here.
Jed:Welcome to Charter Folk.
Jed:Congratulations on the YA Prize.
Jed:Congratulations on having made a school that is perceived by so many to be making
Jed:such a great difference and inspiring a lot in our movement to do even more.
Jed:There's all sorts of things I'd love to dive into, but just because of your
Jed:knowledge around autism generally and just the questions that so many people
Jed:society have about this, I wanted to start focusing on that I thought that
Jed:I knew a fair deal about autism myself, but to visit the CDC and see that the
Jed:s of autism identification in:Jed:or something, thereabouts, I'm sorry, one in like one hundred sixty-six kids.
Jed:And now we see, it's at one in 54, and some folks are saying it may be
Jed:even a, a smaller number than that.
Jed:So we are seeing a large increase in the identification and most people
Jed:are celebrating this absolutely as an indicator that we're doing a far greater
Jed:job of just finding folks that have autism and being able to respond accordingly.
Jed:But others are also identifying, perhaps we're seeing a higher
Jed:incidence, that autism is actually happening more in society.
Jed:Can you tell me how do we parse this information?
Jed:What's your per personal opinion on these issues given your expertise?
Diana:I definitely think that there's more awareness of autism as
Diana:a neurodiversity, and as different communities get better access to
Diana:healthcare and medical diagnoses as schools become more proficient
Diana:in their school evaluations in identifying autism, that has contributed
Diana:to a higher incidence of autism.
Diana:In particular, for example, here in Arizona, we have a large Hispanic
Diana:community, and I think eliminating or reducing the stigma associated
Diana:with autism has helped many kids and families seek diagnosis sooner than
Diana:later, and that is what we want because early intervention is very important
Diana:in serving children with autism.
Diana:So I think eliminating the stigma has contributed to teasing out autism
Diana:from other developmental conditions and having more awareness has also
Diana:led to higher rates of diagnosis.
Jed:Yeah, I was fascinated to see that the delta between autism identification
Jed:rates in caucasian students and in black students has basically evaporated
Jed:over the 20 years that I was previously referencing, although it looks as though
Jed:black students are identified with autism later than white students are.
Jed:And when you're talking about, early intervention being so important,
Jed:we can see how that disparity could have profound consequences.
Jed:And I still see that, tell me what can you just explain what the
Jed:consequences are for identifying later and, and why we should be so in
Jed:focused on getting even better at this?
Diana:Yeah.
Diana:So early intervention for kids on the spectrum, on the autism
Diana:spectrum is all about your learning to learn skills, right?
Diana:How to attend to a person or a task, or acquiring functional communication,
Diana:because a lot of kids on the spectrum have communication gaps, that's
Diana:one of the core symptoms of autism.
Diana:So they have a lot of catching up to do that doesn't happen
Diana:through the natural environment.
Diana:There are specific therapeutic interventions that are evidence-based
Diana:that need to be worked on intensively during the early years, that's pre
Diana:five years old, that's from when, as early as, two years old to when a
Diana:child becomes school age at five old.
Diana:So that's why early intervention really makes a difference.
Diana:As when children are young, their grades are more moldable as well, they're
Diana:making more neurological connections that can really make or break really
Diana:a student successful start in school.
Diana:Of course some of our students have never had access to these, to early
Diana:intervention or official diagnoses, but their parents know, they need a
Diana:specialty program because what they were doing in typical school wasn't working
Diana:out and we do everything that we can to catch them up, in terms of their
Diana:basic learning to learn skills, shape behavior, so that they're able to access
Diana:learning through a school environment, and that's a huge part of what we do.
Diana:. Jed: Yeah.
Diana:My experience is primarily anecdotal here and having a couple teenagers in the
Diana:household with a lot of friends, several of whom have been identified, but to be
Diana:able to see the difference between those that were identified earlier in their
Diana:lives versus some of our friends that have been identified just in the last
Diana:year or two, it's a very different overall profile for that kids' experience in
Diana:school, that kids' experience growing up.
Diana:So early identification is obviously very important.
Diana:And it's something that also relates to how our overall public
Diana:education world is doing relative to identification and support.
Diana:I wonder, so we see that the identification rates
Diana:have increased over time.
Diana:How would you assess like our K-12 readiness?
Diana:Are we doing a decent job?
Diana:Are we getting better at this?
Diana:Where are the very big problems that still remain?
Diana:And maybe where do you see opportunities for the charter world to provide
Diana:some critically needed leadership in terms of improving autism support
Diana:across the entire K-12 establishment?
Diana:I would say I'm super grateful that here in Arizona we were able to
Diana:start a charter school, using best practices that are typically only seen
Diana:in clinical settings or private schools.
Diana:Schools like mine do exist, but they're 40 to $50,000 a year, and that's just
Diana:not accessible for most families.
Diana:I paid that for a couple of years and couldn't keep going in that trajectory.
Diana:So I learned that in other states like Florida, there was a successful tuition
Diana:free autism charter, and I thought, our state with the high incidence of
Diana:autism and parents seeking solutions that were just not being listened to
Diana:in typical mainstream district schools.
Diana:It was about time that Arizona had a model that was best practice and tuition free
Diana:and completely prioritizing the smaller, more personalized learning environments
Diana:that are needed by children with autism.
Diana:So I think we are really blazing the trail to show what school for kids
Diana:with autism should look like to help the students become as fulfilled,
Diana:independent, and creative and community contributors of post-secondary.
Diana:I think most districts do have a SPED program, but these programs, as
Diana:a mom, I experienced, they were all about what the kid couldn't do and
Diana:what the school was not going to do.
Diana:And it was all about what is free and appropriate, because that's the law
Diana:to have to be an appropriate public education, but what's appropriate
Diana:to an education bureaucrat is completely different than what's
Diana:appropriate for an autism mom.
Diana:So there were many directions that I could have gone, like many parents,
Diana:I hired advocates, attorneys, and all of this thing, and at the end of the
Diana:day I realize that, even if I win, this program is going to be forced.
Diana:It's not going to be a program that's done with the intentionality and love
Diana:that I want for my kid, like a parent paying 50 to $100,000 a year at the most
Diana:prestigious autism private programs.
Diana:So I researched what a charter school could look like, what the fund funding
Diana:formula was and it became very feasible that if our state approved our charter,
Diana:that we could make better use of the funds, by having it in a charter
Diana:model that was driven by parents than by bureaucrats who were just about
Diana:telling us what our kids couldn't do and what they were not going to do.
Jed:So it's reminding me, I'm just coming back from a visit with my
Jed:parents, and they have a group of friends that know that their son
Jed:is obsessed with charter schools.
Jed:And so those friends will send articles to them, and so when I got to see mom this
Jed:weekend, she had these articles there.
Jed:The top article was about how well charter schools are doing with foster youth.
Jed:And it was a story of a particular school and a particular, I happen to know that
Jed:school and leader very well, but I also know the background of that school, which
Jed:was the entry point, was we don't wanna do this in the context of a charter, we are
Jed:going to do it within the broader system and just spinning wheels for eight, ten,
Jed:I think it was longer than 10 years before this incredible school got started, but
Jed:once people realized, that running at the problem they're most passionate with
Jed:about within the charter school context was what they were focused on, wow, why
Jed:are you may able to make more progress?
Jed:Right.
Jed:So I see you in a very comparable situation, there's
Jed:a clear problem in the world.
Jed:There's a clear problem in our education world to respond to that broader
Jed:societal problem and now we need to unleash people to come up with the
Jed:solutions that are desperately needed.
Jed:It sounds to me as like you, it's very similar to what you had.
Jed:Tell me a little bit about what was it like to become a charter folk?
Jed:Did you resist it in the beginning?
Jed:Did you have other ways that you wanted to do it?
Jed:Or did it wasn't natural for you to think about it really early in the process?
Jed:No, I mean, it wasn't my first thought, I was basically just a mom
Jed:needing a better education solution for my kid who was highly impacted by
Jed:autism, but I was a little bit spoiled because I did get him into early
Jed:intervention of the best type early on.
Jed:And, while I saw how he was in a typical principal, which was a disaster just
Jed:sensory overload, large class size teacher who had no idea what to do with him.
Jed:He was very bouncy, more so than typical preschoolers.
Jed:Then he went into small group and one-on-one early intervention that was
Jed:based on applied behavior analysis, which is backed by more than 50 years
Jed:of research to produce best outcomes for kids like my son with autism.
Jed:And I thought, bingo, we're gonna keep doing that.
Jed:We're going to do that until he doesn't need as much deliberate support.
Jed:And so we did, a few years of early intervention, then when he became school
Jed:age, they weren't doing that, even though the district had an autism program,
Jed:they said that all of the therapeutic practices were above and beyond pretty
Jed:inappropriate, and I'm like, that's silly.
Jed:We know this is what works for kids.
Jed:Like my son, there's a class full of kids that learn the same way he does.
Jed:And so then it all became, it's that horrible feeling of becoming
Jed:adversary, you're, you become that mom that is a nag and not settling.
Jed:So, again, I did the drill hired Agba kit and attorneys.
Jed:He got put in a private placement.
Jed:And that also just wasn't the way I wanted school to go for
Jed:myself as a mom and for my son.
Jed:So it was actually very refreshing to learn that other states had gone on a
Jed:path to open charter schools that were based on applied behavior analysis
Jed:and had all of the curriculum and instruction, the small groupings, the
Jed:embedded therapies that were needed.
Jed:And I pitched it to a lot of seasoned, educators or clinical people that
Jed:worked with kids with autism, but nobody wanted to touch how
Jed:litigious special education can be.
Jed:And so after a lot of going around and closed doors, I decided, well if I really
Jed:care about this, which I do, I'm going to have to form a team myself and I can.
Jed:That is the charter folk story.
Jed:And it's also, it's something that I think it's frustrating for our world
Jed:to have to remember, but when we're sometimes accosted in the supermarket.
Jed:You're a charter school supporter and I hear all this stuff, right?
Jed:When you're able to go back and say what the problem was and your willingness
Jed:to try to make it work in so many other different ways, and it's not working
Jed:and then coming to this way, and it's in fact, working is a really great entry
Jed:point for a redefined discussion with whomever it is that you're talking about.
Jed:And it seems to be, and it seems to me like coming to see your school is
Jed:probably a very important thing too.
Jed:I know where the Governor of Arizona comes and many others come.
Jed:But for those that haven't been able to make a personal visit to your school,
Jed:and by the way, I'm coming to Arizona shortly and your school is absolutely the
Jed:top of list, I can't wait to get there.
Jed:But just equate our listeners or our viewers with how would you give
Jed:the backstage path to how Arizona autism really works given that some
Jed:of our folks are really educators and really understand how a lot of these
Jed:kinds of programs are put together.
Diana:Yeah, so I think the tricky thing with autism is
Diana:that it is a spectrum, right?
Diana:There are some folks who have very intensive behavioral and communication
Diana:challenges and then there are kids who are on the autism spectrum, who are highly
Diana:verbal and have no scattered skills.
Diana:They might be very gifted in math, for example, but still struggle with language
Diana:and communication and understanding social nuances, which become very
Diana:important in middle and high school.
Diana:So because we serve the whole spectrum, the way we group kids by abilities
Diana:and needs, helps us be successful.
Diana:We have programs for very intensive needs for high functioning students,
Diana:and we have special programs for students falling somewhere in between,
Diana:and we can only do that because our whole school serves kids with autism.
Diana:In a typical district school, for example, you might have five kids on the spectrum.
Diana:One of 'em is a high functioning math genius, another one is still
Diana:needing toilet training and is very impacted, but they may be placed
Diana:in the same autism classroom.
Diana:It's almost not fair, it's very feasible for us to group students liabilities
Diana:and needs and staff accordingly.
Diana:Students that have a lot of needs, you'll see a two to one or even a
Diana:one-on-one ratio because you're working on communication and functional skills.
Diana:For our classes of kids who are higher functioning, it might look
Diana:more like a typical classroom, but you really won't see more than twelve
Diana:to thirteen kids, a lead teacher and two behavior support staff.
Diana:In some cases, you might see therapists pushing in as well.
Diana:And then every kid has a personalized learning program because there are
Diana:a range of strengths and challenges that need to be worked on very
Diana:deliberately with kids with autism.
Diana:So in addition to obviously tracking how they're doing in language arts,
Diana:math, science, we're also tracking their behavior, social skills, and their ability
Diana:to navigate a group environment, which is a little harder for our kids, and so that
Diana:all needs to be taught very deliberately.
Jed:So that's a great backstage pass to the program.
Jed:I would love to go further into this.
Jed:Just being an old teacher myself and the only pushback I ever got from
Jed:my parents was my father saying to me, I hear the charter schools don't
Jed:serve special ed kids, and I was just assuring him, are you kidding me, dad?
Jed:No.
Jed:Every kid and every problem we think that we can run out
Jed:with greater effectiveness.
Jed:So I'd love to dive further into the details, but I have to recognize we
Jed:only have so much time with you and there's so many other backstage passes
Jed:you can equate our listeners with.
Jed:Give me the backstage pass for the YASS Prize, I mean, congratulations again.
Jed:All the applicants across the entire country and Arizona Autism is supported.
Jed:Can you tell us, I mean, what was the most exciting moment and what
Jed:has the experience been generally to have been recognized like this?
Diana:Oh, it's been amazing and I'm so grateful that, I really love that
Diana:the YASS Prize and other, other private funders as well are starting to recognize
Diana:that there are various paths to success.
Diana:While some students may go to college, other students may be entrepreneurial.
Diana:We could equip them with the ability to start a business which is better
Diana:suited to their personality and trait.
Diana:And then other kids, that we serve might be in a facilited working
Diana:environment because that's the support they need to be productive.
Diana:And so just because a child is highly impacted or has different
Diana:social skills, doesn't mean that they shouldn't be invested in.
Diana:And so I was so grateful to be able to tell the stories of how our kids go
Diana:from feeling defeated and the parents as well, because the whole education
Diana:previous to us was all about their challenges and what they couldn't do.
Diana:Whereas here we build up from their strengths and help them catch up on
Diana:all those gap skills to be feel like fulfilled, productive students that
Diana:leads to build productive citizens.
Diana:We really, even though autism does have real challenges, we like to
Diana:think of it as a neurodiversity.
Diana:Over time there were likely a lot of people autism but they were just
Diana:seen as eccentric or if you think about it in a scary way, they were in
Diana:institutions if they had a lot of meaning.
Diana:Nevertheless, it is an out of the box way of learning and seeing the world
Diana:that if funnels appropriately, can help us solve a lot of challenge, and I think
Diana:our kids can be amazing contributors.
Diana:At our school we also have adopted the was ed curriculum for the STEAM
Diana:learning projects, and our kids, once they have those learning to the learn
Diana:skills and are engaged in hands-on projects with very interesting text
Diana:materials, they thrive and sometimes they surprise their teachers because
Diana:they come up with things that a typical brain would have a hard time doing.
Diana:So I think when you see the kids as Neurodiverse even gifted and change
Diana:the narrative about how they feel about themselves, how their family
Diana:see them, how the community sees them.
Diana:Then it's a whole different ballgame in terms of the possibility.
Jed:So then, tell me about next chapters.
Jed:So we have this exciting prize and I've heard a little bit, but I don't
Jed:know too much about your vision for the future, how you might use these new
Jed:resources to catalyze even more impact in Arizona and across the country.
Jed:Tell me what you're thinking about for next chapters for Arizona Autism.
Diana:Yes.
Diana:So we do have a few more campuses planned for Arizona, our home state, and part
Diana:of the gas price is going to help us launch the National Accelerator of Autism
Diana:Charter schools because we believe this should be a choice no matter where you
Diana:live or what state you're in, parents shouldn't be subjected to just mediocre
Diana:to low performing programs because that's the only choice at their district.
Diana:Or paying 50 to 60 to more thousand a year to go to private school, not sustainable
Diana:for a lot of families or most families.
Diana:So having a school choice charter solution that is focused on best
Diana:practices for autismis in demand.
Diana:We have students move from out-of-state to access our school.
Diana:Last count, we had students from more than 30 states that had relocated
Diana:to be able to attend our school.
Diana:We've had parents accept jobs or decline jobs based on whether their
Diana:child could attend our school.
Diana:And we really feel that families shouldn't have to uproot and move
Diana:to get a high quality specialty program for their children.
Diana:In many cases, families have more than one child on the spectrum.
Diana:We have families of three and four, and your kids are at different levels of
Diana:the spectrum and we are grateful and blessed that we can serve them off.
Diana:So this is something that the charter school movement can help us fast track
Diana:and make available so that no family gets left behind just having to accept
Diana:subpar programming for their kids.
Jed:So I would imagine you're being somewhat selective about
Jed:what states you want to go to.
Jed:And it seems as though this effort, its success will hinge on whether
Jed:or not the advocacy conditions permitted to happen and I'm sure there
Jed:are many states where the existing status quo wouldn't make it work.
Jed:Have you already been able to identify your subset of states that you would be
Jed:prioritized for building the national accelerator of autism charter schools?
Diana:So, Arizona and Florida have done this successfully because the funding
Diana:formula for autism is pretty favorable.
Diana:But we have had partners in other states who are working with less funding
Diana:and adding funding through Medicaid billing for schools to make it work.
Diana:So, of course we're going to go into charter friendly states first,
Diana:we've identified Nevada and Texas.
Diana:We know what it takes to educate to successfully, so there could be a
Diana:number of funding screens from federal IDEA using title funds strategically
Diana:using interns from universities to help elevate the staffing ratio.
Diana:I mean, we parents will do whatever it takes and then slowly but surely
Diana:work on getting the funding formula where it leads to be by serving as
Diana:a proof point for what's possible when the right funding is in place.
Diana:And also by when we have longer term data showing that our kids can be
Diana:more self-sufficient when they've been through our educational program
Diana:and they won't have to rely on the state for their entire adult life.
Diana:They could also be contributing members of society.
Diana:So yes, we will definitely go after states that are more favorable funding wise,
Diana:but we're not going to give up there because students with autism families,
Diana:kids with autism are everywhere and it would be amazing for families to have
Diana:this option no matter where they live.
Jed:A Lot of the advocacy challenge would pertain to any kind of school.
Jed:What is the funding mechanism for autism and special needs kids generally, then we
Jed:have the uniqueness of charter schools.
Jed:What would your message be to the charter school advocates?
Jed:X State, just greenfield.
Jed:We don't know all of the rules yet.
Jed:What are the things that the advocates should be thinking about to make sure that
Jed:organizations like yours can thrive there?
Jed:Obviously getting a generally favorable environment such that charters can get
Jed:approved and we have a facility to be able to operate the program in something
Jed:that alters schools have to look at.
Jed:But then there are the specifics around funding mechanisms, and it sounds to
Jed:me as though in Arizona and in Florida, there are funding mechanisms specific
Jed:to children identified with autism that seems to be a key enabler and I know that
Jed:there are many other states that don't have such funding specific to autism or
Jed:anything like that, but where there's this like general funding that's available and
Jed:somehow you're supposed to make it work.
Jed:Whomever the kids are that show up at your front door.
Jed:Tell me what's the right way for our advocates, from a charter school
Jed:perspective, to be thinking about this so that we can make sure schools like
Jed:yours can grow in many other states?
Diana:I think there's a case to be made for special population schools for sure,
Diana:because when we are serving, for example in our case, most of our population is
Diana:on the autism spectrum, the economies of scales that can happen and the
Diana:bruisings that are specific to children's abilities and needs are more successful
Diana:and therefore more cost effective.
Diana:So, while some of our detractors may say students on the spectrum would
Diana:be better off in a typical mainstream environment, isn't that what you want?
Diana:Most parents like me have tried that and our kids, even though they
Diana:may be in a class of 25 typical kids, they're more isolated than
Diana:ever and in some cases even unsafe.
Diana:So having these smaller specialty environments, is more successful,
Diana:more cost effective, in terms of what it costs the state for a person with
Diana:autism across the lifespan, doing this investment during K-12 can be less
Diana:reliance on the space in the future.
Diana:I think that's definitely getting more of our kids on the spectrum in the workforce
Diana:is part of a of the biggest driver for us.
Diana:Again, whether it's independent employment facilitated employment, no matter what
Diana:it is we are all working towards having our kids not be re relying on safe
Diana:services for the rest of their life and I think that cost analysis, investment
Diana:and cost analysis should be a driver for making a case for specialty charters like
Diana:ours that are going to prioritize best practice for a very high needs population.
Jed:I'm not gonna get middle in the middle of this, of the disagreement
Jed:or the discussion that's ongoing about whether full inclusion is
Jed:the right way or whether or not specialty schools are the right way.
Jed:What I love is Charter Folk passionate about their issues, being able to
Jed:pursue their view with the freedom and the funding necessary to get it done.
Jed:And it seems to me.
Diana:At the end of the day, it's parents' choice.
Diana:They should be able to pick, if they really want to make it work in a
Diana:mainstream environment, go for it.
Diana:If that's not work for you.
Diana:Then most parents seek out a private option, but then they
Diana:realize they can't afford it.
Diana:So that's where we come in to be that smaller specialty option that is
Diana:accessible cause it's tuition free.
Jed:And so it seems to me as though one of the problems that we have is that we
Jed:simply don't Identify kids early enough and provide the resources to the parents
Jed:regardless of where they choose to enroll their kids, and if we would get that done
Jed:well, then it would enable both those parents that want to see their kids served
Jed:within a full inclusion environment, provide the resources to properly
Jed:test whether it's the right place.
Jed:And also if they'd like to have their kids in enrolled in a place
Jed:like Arizona autism, they would be able to have that choice as well.
Jed:And we advocates, I think we need to be doing a better job of keeping
Jed:both front and center for us.
Jed:We are about going to put our thumbs on the scale either way.
Jed:We want parents that were in the situation that you were in not so long ago with
Jed:your son to be in a fundamentally better place and for schools to have been
Jed:freed up to do exciting new things.
Jed:I'll end with us what last question for you, because we can get involved in like
Jed:funding and advocacy and political fights and all that stuff, but in the end it's
Jed:just what is the positive difference that we're making in kids' lives?
Jed:Obviously, as a mom, you made a huge difference in the life of your own
Jed:son, but now you've made a difference in the life of so many other children.
Jed:So many different experiences are different.
Jed:And you're staying, the autism spectrum is very wide, there's no one best thing.
Jed:But is there any general viewpoint, is there any rule of thumb that
Jed:you would just wish was more understood among the educator world?
Jed:About how we can more effectively, serve autism kids and autism and families
Jed:where autism kids are within it?
Diana:I think the smaller and personalized learning programs that are
Diana:data driven for each student and the project based learning that allows kids
Diana:to have agency in how they apply their foundational skills and something that
Diana:is of high interest to them has been truly magical for us because kids with
Diana:autism are known to have very thick.
Diana:Right?
Diana:We have kids, for example, that memorize every license plate in the parking lot.
Diana:So you don't have to learn some foundational skills where they can also
Diana:track data on license plates would be.
Diana:Yes, that would make them wanna go to school every day because they get to
Diana:have a project that's based on their interest, but they're also applying some
Diana:foundational skills that are critical for navigating the school, growing in their
Diana:academics and at some point applying what they know to an employment opportunity
Diana:or an entrepreneurship opportunity.
Diana:But I think all of the things that we know are good for kids on the spectrum are the
Diana:smaller sizes, the embedded behavioral supports that are all positive behavior
Diana:supports, are things that we're starting to notice are beneficial for kids.
Diana:A lot of kids now have gaps in learning loss and have traumas of many sorts.
Diana:And so, whereas now, social emotional learning is kind of the fun, we've been
Diana:doing behavioral and social emotional of learning all along because it's required,
Diana:for kids on the autism group spectrum to work on behavior, while you're also
Diana:working on academic skill aquisition.
Diana:So I think the pendulum is swing swinging for sure, where parents are opting out of
Diana:big giant programs and doing micro school.
Diana:Why?
Diana:Because their kids get more attention if they really get to know their peers.
Diana:And a teacher that's serving 10 kids versus a teacher serving 28 kids,
Diana:their emotional needs as well as their learning will be tracked better.
Diana:And I think there is a lot of value to that personalized support
Diana:that really all kids are craving.
Diana:Many of us grew up in big classrooms and didn't have this available
Diana:and, we tolerated that, right?
Diana:Perhaps we tolerated not doing projects that were not interested
Diana:or being in a big group and kind of figuring stuff out on your own.
Diana:Kids on the spectrum are a little bit more truthful in that if something is
Diana:not reaching them or not interesting to them, they'll tell you or they'll
Diana:let you know with their behavior.
Diana:So I think that as educators, we should really see that as cues for evolving
Diana:how we reach students, and really giving them foundational skills and then
Diana:agency and how they apply those skills.
Diana:That's really what worked well for us, and it's something that we want to replicate
Diana:so that other kids on the spectrum and families can just feel better about
Diana:what their kids are doing in school.
Jed:Absolutely.
Jed:It reminds me of the language we used at High Tech High where we realized that some
Jed:of the language around special education and other supports for kids with unique
Jed:needs sometimes focuses on deficit.
Jed:And we forget that, that IEP, which can often be deficit associated
Jed:individual education plan.
Jed:Are you kidding me?
Jed:We want every kid to receive an individualized education plan.
Jed:We want every student to receive special education and there are some leaders,
Jed:who take advantage of the charter school landscape to help advance an awareness
Jed:tthat's what we want for all kids.
Jed:And you're helping us do that, Diana.
Jed:So thank you so much for the time you spent with us.
Jed:Thank you so much for the progress that you're making on behalf of all the
Jed:kids that you're serving in Arizona.
Jed:But I'll leave a special thank you for just changing the discussion nationally.
Jed:Cause I think through your work we're going to see just a huge
Jed:number of kids more effectively served in the decades to come.
Jed:Thank you so much.
Jed:Thank you