Hey, Betsy DeVos: I invite you to do homework with my son with special needs

Social media is still buzzing about Tuesday's confirmation hearing for Betsy DeVos, the nominee for Secretary of Education. Among the many voices of dissent: special needs parents and advocates alarmed by DeVos's seeming lack of familiarity with IDEA—the Individual with Disabilities Education Act that guarantees children with disability a "free and appropriate public education" that takes place in the "least restrictive environment."

This is troubling. But it raises other concerns about DeVos's base of knowledge.

In a nutshell, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine asked DeVos whether all K-12 schools receiving government funding should have to abide by IDEA. She responded, "I think that is a matter best left to the states." Fact: IDEA is a federal law that mandates education equality for students with special needs in every state. New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan (who has a son with cerebral palsy) followed up with Devos, who admitted "I may have confused it."

Hassan also expressed concern that some voucher programs—which DeVos supports—require students with disability to give up their rights under IDEA. (A school voucher, aka an education voucher, is a certificate of government funding for a student at a school chosen by him or his parents.) "I would urge you to become familiar, should you be nominated, with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act," Hassan said. "I do have to say I'm concerned that you seem so unfamiliar with it and that you seem to support voucher schools that make students sign away their rights.... That's very troubling to me."

Senator Elizabeth Warren also grilled DeVos, this time about managing a trillion-dollar student loan bank and distributing 30 billion dollar in Pell Grants to students each year. Warren asked if she had experience running a bank or overseeing major loan programs. Nope. Then Warren asked about her personal participation in these programs, noting "I think it's important for the person who is in charge of our financial aid programs to understand what it's like for students and their families who are struggling to pay for college."  

THAT. Understand. It's vital for a Secretary of Education to grasp not just the struggles of students with financial concerns but ones of students with special needs, too. And there are a lot of them: Recent estimates reported by the CDC indicate that about one in six children school-age children (ages 3 to 17) have a developmental disability. That's 15 percent of children.

Understand.

And so, Betsy DeVos, I invite you to stop by our house one early evening, when I get home from work and I am doing homework with my son, Max. He is determined, responsive and bright. He also has intellectual disability (ID). You can sit with us and see how it goes. 

Max has come a long way. He can focus well. He uses an app, SnapType, that enables me to take photos of worksheets so he can type in answers (handwriting is a challenge). His reading is improving. He has a grasp of basic math. But it does not come easy to him. Homework takes a long time to do, especially when Max is typing out his answers. 

On the nights when we do his current events assignment, we choose an article from a kids' news site (ideally, something about fireworks or Disney World). I simplify the text and explain the basic concepts. Then we go through a series of questions: What's the title of the story and the date? Is the story local, state, national or international? What is the main idea? What is your opinion? 

We do the same, more or less, for his book reports. Typically, when I ask about the main idea, Max stares at me blankly. "I don't know," he will finally say, resting his face on his hand and looking somewhat dejected. At times, there have been tears. Even when I reread pages of the book or explain the article again, he has trouble answering. 

I reassure him that it's OK. We work it through. But I feel awful that his lack of understanding bothers him. I grapple with the fact that grasping ideas and scenarios that go beyond life as he knows it is difficult for him.  

Max, like other youth with ID, learns best from repetition. He needs information repeatedly explained and hammered into his head to understand it, process it and retain it. This is so critical to Max's learning existence that when I recently checked out a high school for him, and was told that there was a longstanding no-homework policy, I knew it wasn't the right place for him. I pressed the principal on it, and the reason boiled down to this: Students are tired when they get home and homework is a burden for parents. My reaction boiled down to this: WTF?! To be sure, Max is fatigued at the end of the day. I am, too. I'm not saying every child with ID benefits from homework, but he does. Our children have diverse needs, as all children do.

I wonder just what knowledge Betsy DeVos has, if any, about this segment of students and their needs. (Or any students, for that matter.) Should she become Secretary of Education, parents and advocates will stay on her to preserve the tenets of IDEA. But we will also expect her to understand what it means—and takes— to educate a student with intellectual disability, and the challenges my son and others like him face. Without that, there can't be development, progress or innovation. Without truly knowing the population, she can't understand the potential.

Her learning curve will be steep. But the person in our country charged with spearheading the education of our children should truly know the community she serves, the entire spectrum of it. Otherwise: #fail.