Welcome to Unlimited Parenting. This is a show
where we talk about what it's like raising children
with disabilities and or sometimes both. It's
hard. No, I'm just kidding. I ruined your intro.
It's hard out here raising special education
children. Individuals with disabilities. Yes.
Special healthcare needs. Oh, it's hard. God,
I hope the audio doesn't cut out right there.
I'm really sorry. That was funny. I thought you
were done. I'm sorry. No, I love it. I'm just
feeling all the feels this morning. Yeah, it's
December. It's been a hard week already. It's
December. It's Tuesday. I know. I feel this.
I'm like, I just want it over there. I'm kidding.
The microphone wasn't even even. Oh, okay. It's
definitely that. Yep. I'm not counting Amy in
this outfit. We try to make it from breakfast
to bedtime, and we included are those people
too. Okay, I'm sorry. No, it's okay. This episode,
it sounds like it should be a BYOT with the way
we're going, but it's actually a Toot Your Own
Horn. It's a Toot Your Own Horn episode. I would
love for us to reflect, review. Think about,
ponder 2025. And I see that you've all come very
prepared with your binders of reflections on
2025. So let's start, I believe. We just set
it on fire. So iPoll does this really funny thing
where every year at Christmas, we get ornaments.
Yeah. And we share them with each other. And
this year's ornament. We're doing an ornament
exchange. We're doing an ornament exchange. Yes,
thank you. And my ornament is... Well, don't
tell. What? It doesn't have to be a surprise.
Yeah, I thought it was. I thought it was. Yeah,
but no. You guys aren't going to get my ornament.
Oh, okay. It's Sesame Street, and it says 2025
was brought to you by the letters W, T, and...
I think you can guess where this is going. That's
amazing. But what if I want that ornament? Now
I'm going to be... I know. It's $14 .97 on Etsy.
I'll just give you another one. Oh, really? Yeah.
I'm going to get with the program. So I need
an ornament. December 23rd is when we're doing
this. Yes. You have time. Okay. You have time.
I want one Christmas present so far. One. I've
bought zero, so you're doing better than me.
I've sat in the hospital for two months, so guess
what I did? Did you shop? Oh, okay. Ridiculously.
For myself, for people. It was an expensive two
months. She's already got all of her Christmas
presents wrapped, everything. You get a Bentley.
Yeah. I get an Audi. It's ridiculous. Maybe a
keychain. Okay. A Hot Wheels. I bought a car.
Yeah, she did. Did you buy that from the hospital
too? They drove right up. No. The car dealership
delivered it and just went away. That is wild.
Dang. This is bring your own topic. That's actually
kind of nice though. Yeah, because buying a car
takes a hot place. And we drove it around the
block of the hospital. That was my first day.
I just got to make sure I can bring my baby home.
Did I mention he's like 19? 20. 20? Okay. Alrighty.
Well, we're already off the tracks. If I remember...
This is our year in review. This is literally
our year in review. It's true. It's very true.
Personally and professionally. Not mentally,
though. If I remember correctly, the year starts
with January. Yeah, I think you're right on that
one. Did anyone here do anything in January?
I think we got ready for February. Oh, I... Oh,
disability? No. Oh, I did. That's February. I
did a pump fake in January. I wrote a PTI report,
but then it got pulled back. What is a pump fake?
You know, you're like, tease, tease. I did it,
but then I got pulled back. You know what this
reminds me of? Sports? I don't know. Well, a
couple of podcasts. You're going to say something,
and we're all going to regret it. A couple of
months ago, we did a podcast, and you had to
explain to me what a snow bunny was. This is
kind of reminding me of that. You know, you're
driving in the car, and someone's taking a drink
of water, and you pump the brake, and you're
like, and they spill it. Let's go on a ride today.
That sounds like trauma. I would cry because
I hate having wet clothes. Okay. Okay. So I attempted
to write our parent training information center
and our grant was up for renewal, the five -year
cycle. And so I attempted to write that, but
then it got pulled back and I rewrote it again
in March. So I started it in January. It was
a rough draft. It was a rough draft. It was.
And then we just took a little bit of stuff out,
delete, delete, delete. Resubmitted it. Resubmitted
it. And it was successful? Yeah. Here we are.
We were refunded. So we were refunded. Okay.
We were refunded again. So there you go. Thank
you. They didn't refund us, you guys. There's
nothing to refund. There's no such thing. So
we continue to be Idaho's Parent Training and
Information Center. Yay. Applause. and the crowd
goes wild in January I did legislative updates
yeah a lot of them I think we were at like house
hearings whether it was education or Department
of Health and Welfare hearings like at least
twice a week these entire right every every week
I watched the the House committees would meet
in the morning and the Senate committees would
meet in the afternoon. So Mondays and Wednesdays,
every day of the week, I had something to watch
in the morning and something to watch in the
afternoon. It was my sports. I know I've said
that before. I know. And the joke will probably
die one day, but it's not today. But you did
such a good job with the updates that you get
to do it again. Yeah. Oh, you benefited from
that. Sure. That are your listeners too. You
weren't at the last Friday meeting. I was requested
of me. Oh, I was not. I was not. To do that again.
Yeah. So you get to see my face again. Well,
that's cool. I also did a presentation for a
new rotation of pediatricians, which I thought
was super fun. That's cool. That was in January.
So we sat in front of a cohort of new pediatricians
and told them, you know, what Apple does, how
they support the community, how to use this as
a resource. I did the same thing, but in front
of a group of special education new directors.
Oh, yeah. Or so for OnTrack, you know, we get
invited to do those things. And same thing, same,
same. So you're in front of health care, I'm
in front of education. It's almost like that's
like our buckets where we hang out. It's almost
like that's what we do. But that's really exciting.
I love to do that kind of stuff because I think
the more new people into these fields that know
about us and the resources that we can provide
to families, the better. A hundred percent. How
many podcasts do you think that we recorded this
year? Well, at least two a month, so. 2020? You
would think. No, don't make me do 2020 again.
No, 20 podcasts. Did we do 20 podcasts? It should
have been 24. Okay. But this will be our 23rd.
Okay. Wah, wah. Wah, wah. It's been busy. That's
crazy to do that many. 23. Holy crap. That's
a lot of podcasts. That is a lot of podcasts.
And I think the coolest part about this year
was we did series. So we did the 10 steps to
special education. I solo did a positive behavioral
intervention and supports one. And I think the
kind of idea is, is to maybe do some more of
those next year too, right? Is that what we're
talking about? Some of the podcasts that we've
already done will get faithfully transcribed
into Spanish. That's exciting. Translated, yes.
Not by me, people. No, and it's hard to find
a way to make that faithful, culturally appropriate,
you know. Okay. And interestingly, not with a
Castilian accent. people in spain they talk with
the lisp when they speak spanish oh but people
you know who hail from mexico and why are you
looking at me like this and south them because
i don't are you being for real i mean so for
real they when they pronounce their c's and their
s's they go So that's what you mean in terms
of our cultural appropriation. Yes, because I
believe that the individuals that we serve do
not speak with that kind of accent. And I am
actively trying to find ways to make it more
authentic for them. Because to me, and maybe
this is just me, maybe nobody cares but me, that
would kind of be like if we were in, let's say,
And they were like, we're going to make an English
podcast. And they used, and it was for Americans,
and they used someone with a British accent.
Are they still speaking English? Sure. Can I
understand? Yeah. But it's not. It sounds fancy.
I feel like it's kind of the same. I get it.
I thought you would, though. I'm just kidding.
I mean, I do. You thought I was just coming up
with some stuff. You learned me a lot. Yeah.
Okay. Uh, okay. Are we out of January yet? No,
I'm still in January. I was like, you guys had
a slow January. I mean, I was preparing for February
and March, so. I think I was too. Yeah, sure.
I also. I was writing that grant. We did two
more things in January. The first was we did
the maternal child health needs assessment and
priority setting with Title V. So that's where.
If you want to conceptualize a large room at
BSU with a whole bunch of provider, well, not
providers, partners and individuals who support
maternal child health in a room trying to figure
out what priorities we want to work on for 2025.
Finally, in the month of January, we did the
Idaho supports Medicaid at the Capitol. You guys
were all there for that. Lots of partners. Help
me out here. We had the. I don't remember. Oh,
yes. Yes, you do. Christine Pisani. Yes. Was
there. Help me. We had. The Council for Individuals
with Disabilities. Okay. Were we inside? We were
not. We were outside. We had the sign, right?
And we had the hand. And the hand. And I remember.
Yes. Idaho Anti -Trafficking Coalition. Yes.
Okay. Who made those signs? Do you guys remember?
Was it Idaho Voices for Children or was it the
council? Because we were holding a sign and we
got a picture taken of us. Beautiful signs. Someone
put so much work into that. I'm not sure who
it was. It was either voices for the council
potentially. Actually, that was really cool.
It was cool. I can't believe I forgot about that.
That was a while ago. Wanted to make sure they
got that. And so, yeah, I mean, they were lovely.
The signs were great. The amount of people that
were there. People there. That was so surprising.
Senators came out. I want to just say that that's
what I have been so pleasantly surprised is this
year. Our events and the events like that, the
Medicaid rally at the Capitol, you know, and
we'll talk about some more of them. There's people
have showed up and have showed out for these
kind of things. Well, I mean, I like it and I
wish that happened all the time, but that's also
kind of. what you need to do when you're at risk
for losing services absolutely yes sitting behind
and complaining about it and not doing anything
about it is yeah that doesn't help anywhere yeah
yeah roll up and show out right i remember that
it was cold it was freezing it was really cold
and you had to dress with tights if i'm cold
right you know i don't remember if was i wearing
tights no that wasn't wearing tights that was
frederick's dad oh i was not wearing tights on
this day okay But it was freezing. And if I'm
cold, the rest of us are cold. Bring them in.
If you're cold, they're cold. That's why I remember
the hand warmers. There were hand warmers. There
were a lot. And we were all so cold. You had
one hand warmer for both your hands. Yes. I have
my gloves. Okay, what did we do for February,
March, April? We'll just go quarters, I guess.
Well, we talked about we were at Fred Rigger's
Disability Awareness Day in the Capitol. And
I wore tights. And you wore tights. Because I
would remember being like, you're going to be
cold. But we were inside for the majority of
that. For most of it. There ended up being a,
something was outside. It was not a protest.
They tried to do a rally of some sort. Yes. There
were quite a few people out there because I remember
stepping away to take a picture and going, good
night. Weren't we just here? It was a similar
message. Yeah, that's right. I love that. Keep
it up. Show up, show out. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So
we did that. We we did a three part parent charting
the life course series. That's right. In quarter
one of this year. That was a virtual, but it
broke it out into kind of some different ways
that families can use charting the life course
and all of the tools. Yeah. We did my tools for
life in Moscow. Yeah. Which was the transition
fair for youth. I we learned that at that. um
that really stuck with me um was that youth want
to receive their information um by tick -tock
in person um or from youtube yeah that was eye
-opening for us boomers here yeah but then did
we then prompt the youth to go you really want
me on a tick -tock um we didn't because they
were they They didn't care. That's what they
want. No, that's what they wanted. All right.
And they really want to learn about jobs and
careers, independent living and college. And
then driver's ed was a really hot topic. Yeah.
But that kind of prompted us to then open like
to enter your point. A youth TikTok page, a youth
Instagram so that, yeah, we aren't on theirs
telling them what to do. Yeah. Right. We tried
to listen. Yeah, we did. We're doing our best.
We're getting better every day. Yep. We're listening.
And then a lot of career and resource fairs for
the high schools and the pathways to partnerships,
pilot schools and school districts. So reaching
those families and youth on. Life after high
school. Yeah. Around that time, we also did Operation
Advocacy at Link. Yep. So we're always out there
supporting partners, too. Because advocacy at
all levels that are appropriate for you. Yeah.
Are appropriate. I think sometime in those three
months is when we did our round one of IEP 101
with the State Department. We went up north and
we tried it. And then. realized that we still
had some tweaks that we needed to iron out and
went back to the drawing board and then relaunched
that. So what I'm hearing is you didn't give
up. We didn't give up. No, it wasn't exactly
what we wanted it to be, the end product. And
so we went back to the drawing board, made it
more parent friendly, made it less fire hose,
more conversational. Yeah. And it was much more
well -received when it was put on later in the
year. So that was adapted and overcome. I think
that's a good point, though. When we are doing
our trainings and we have all of these resources
available, we're always asking for feedback.
And we do truly take it to heart and change the
way. I mean, I've been here for nine and a half
years. Yeah. Times change. Families change. The
dynamics change and we listen and we really try
hard to meet our families and change the way
our families need their information. Yep. We've
learned that. We've learned that with the podcast.
Uh -huh. Some of our self -guided. Value your
feedback. I agree. That's a plug for our surveys.
I think we did. Yeah. So kind of along with your
transition fairs, we did some early childhood
events like at Lincoln Elementary Early Childhood
Center. So we're kind of trying to make sure
that all ages. Right. We're in all those ages
and spaces. Yeah. Busy first quarter. I did the
circles of expertise for early childhood, which
is essentially, like Melissa says, every state
has a parent training and information center.
And out of the parent training and information
centers, five were selected as being experts
in the area of early childhood. And we were one
of them. So it was a really cool experience to
see. what early childhood resources other states
were delivering to parents and to be able to
share what Idaho did. And for better or for worse,
Idaho had a lot to share and teach, which I thought
was cool. And I learned some cool different tips.
tips and tricks so it was it was worth it you're
in something similar now right yeah so i just
finished up a very similar it's family data leaders
and so it is teaching families to understand
data so that they can sit at a table like an
early childhood space or you know a transition
to adulthood you know but what because data drives
so many of these conversations and so many of
our kids eligibility and all of these things
so It's really this training itself, the family
data leaders, was really to help families kind
of tease apart data and make it more user parent
friendly. Digestible. Digestible. I like that.
Yeah. So we'll see where that goes. And then
we went to the Parent Center Conference in Denver.
Do you remember that? I do. Can you believe that
that was this year? When was that? April? Yeah,
it was like April. I cannot believe that that
was this year. It doesn't. Wow. It really feels
like it happened in a past life. We presented,
Melissa and I presented on amplifying tech tools.
So like kind of like what we talked about, what
Sarah had mentioned, podcasts and articulates,
how do we use those to reach diverse voices?
And how do those modalities support people in
rural and or frontier regions? And how do parent
training information centers level up? Yep. And
since that presentation, we've had. Several centers
reach out for that continuing support and assistance.
Which is fantastic. Happy to help. Love it. Yeah.
I don't know if you know, but I love to hear
the sound of my own voice. So it's been great.
That was where I watched and dragged Melissa,
who was the better for it, honestly, if we're
being serious. We watched that. Awesome presentation
about two spirits. That's right. That changed
my life. It was. That changed my life. It kind
of changed mine too. It gave me a whole new perspective,
very much opened my eyes to a bunch of different
communities. A bunch of different communities.
The individual who presented it came from a space
of just love and warmth and welcoming of all
opinions and how this presentation might have
made you feel. And there was like a comeback
to earth moment after the presentation where
it was like, how do you take what you learned
here to be bigger, better, and do great things
in your community? That's cool. We go to a lot
of conferences, right? We walk away going to
a lot of sessions. That was a session that I
remember that session. Yeah, I'll probably remember
it for forever. Absolutely. You get a lot of
those like contact cards too. There's a lot of
swapping of the business cards. I still have
that one. I know. From them. I swear I can even
remember their name. Arctellos St. Amour or something
like that. That's amazing. Because like it just
really like sat on my heart. You know what I
mean? Anyway, it was great. It was great. I'm
sorry if I mispronounced your name. It came from
memory. I, on a totally different note, I should
have said this when we were talking about it
earlier. You guys did the Charting the Life course,
and I finally jumped on the bandwagon and became
an ambassador. I was the last one, I think, in
the office to do that. No, I don't know. And
that was really cool. Angela and Jesse just finished.
Okay. Amongst us here at this table, I was the
third. That to say that now our office is so
embedded in charting the life course, it's tools,
it's foundational elements. It's part of our
curriculum. It is. It's just the way we speak.
I swear if you've reached out to us in the past,
just like here, you've probably gotten charting
the life course material. Like my kids. The tools
and the framework, we use it. We actually do.
Literally the other day, I gave it to my daughter
and I said, here you go. She's trying to figure
out grad school. I'm like, let's do a trajectory.
That's wild. That's why. Isn't that wild? I'm
not old enough to have a daughter going to high
school. That's what you were thinking. That's
not the wild part. What would you guys be knowing
about that Idaho legislative review panel? Do
you guys remember that? It was a lot of hours.
It was a lot of hours. It was one of those pack
the room type situations. We're talking about
House Bill 345. We're talking about Medicaid
expansion population for Medicaid, different
reporting requirements. And we... And subsequent
listening sessions, because in case you are new
to Idaho or you don't know, Idaho is moving to
managed care for Medicaid. I think I provided
a little bit of public testimony on that. Oh,
yeah, you might have, huh? I did. Yeah. That
was fun. Oh, man. My heart just fluttered again.
And it was a long time ago. And I'm like, oh.
Yeah. I forgot that you did that. I did that.
I haven't even done that. You did a fantastic
job. You did it with Christina Pisani. Yeah.
Christine Pisani. Sorry. I corrected myself.
No, you did. No, it makes me run. I don't know
what year it was. I don't know what month it
was. It was sometimes in the month. It was in
the middle of the month. Well, let me tell you
what. It was before sine die. It was. It was
before the end of the legislative session, so
it had to be in March or April. Was it? Oh, my
goodness. No, I thought it was after sine die.
It wasn't. Really? I almost guarantee you. I
really thought it was after because we were just
kind of still talking about the impacts of managed
care. I don't know. It was a report. It wasn't
during the session. It was just a report during
one of their quarterly reports. Yeah. I don't
know how I feel about this, you guys. I've never
been wrong before. No. It was Medicaid. They
had to do a report. Yeah. I'm going to figure
this out. It was sometime this summer, I believe.
I'm in June right now. Okay. So I'll figure this
out. What about... No, you go ahead. We did Heroes
in Plain Sight. That is our fun little race for
rare event that we do. I love doing that one.
Yeah, that's always just a fun one. It's a feel
-good one. It is. We support our families with
rare conditions. I think that's maybe why I like
it. You and I are those families. It's like we're
amongst our people sometimes. I get to see the
kids and people annually, and it's nice to see
them come out and feel supported. Yeah. And we
love Race for Rare as a partner. And that's,
you know, like you said earlier, this is kind
of a recap of our year, but it's a recap of all
of our partnerships too. What about when we went
to Sacramento? Yes, that was fun. That was September.
We're in September. I don't think anyone presented
in Sacramento. Am I wrong? No, we didn't. No,
we didn't. We learned. We took it all in. We
did. We took it in. The Sacramento airport. I
remember being a little. No, never mind. That
was the Denver airport. I was going to say there
was an airport that tricked our escalators. Don't
you slander me. That was up to the parent center.
You guys, I tried to walk up a down escalator.
And then once I was redirected by a staff, by
someone who worked at the Denver airport, I thought
they were teasing me and I continued to try to
walk up the down escalator. It's not my finest
moment. We had had a long journey. It's true.
Anyways, we didn't talk about Hands Around the
Capitol. We did that. Oh, that's right. July.
You know what? It's because it's not on my list
because I didn't attend, but I would love to
hear about it. I wasn't there. Oh, okay. 35th
anniversary. I think it was of the ADA. The ADA.
Yep. Americans with Disabilities Act. Thank you.
So there were, oh my gosh, there were dancers,
there were speakers, there were food trucks and
activities and crafts. It was a really cool event.
Then we all held ribbon hands around the Capitol.
Around the Capitol. A ribbon around the Capitol.
There was an aerial photo. Did the plane, did
the plane ever plane? I don't think there was
a plane. There was supposed to be a plane. It
was a drone. Yeah. Oh, okay. I know what happened
there. There was supposed to be a plane, but
however, there could not be a flyover because
the governor was in the house. So if he's away,
then you can do a flyover. Gotcha. But he was
there, so we couldn't do a flyover. Roger. So
we just did an aerial drone photo. Okay. But
I mean, that whole entire park was full. It was
a good showing. Again, The community showed up.
So many partners. I wasn't even there and I knew
that. We've presented multiple times, I think,
this year to CASA. And that's a partner that
is a really good partnership. That's a Guardian
ad line of presentations. Yep. Yeah. So I have
that on here. And then in quarter three of this
year. Nope. Quarter four. I guess we're in quarter
four. The end of the year. September. The end
of the year. I don't remember when I just did
it. I did it last month. IEP 101. Yeah. I did
my first inaugural IEP 101. This is going to
be a quarterly training that we are going to
do. We've committed to doing just to deliver
those basics. Whoever needs that. And how did
it go? Well, it went, it was a little slow start,
but we're getting there. Again, we tweaked. Yeah.
We changed a couple things. We're getting there.
It's going to be great. Yeah. It needs to get
that momentum. It just has to. It does. And this
quarter is always a hard quarter anyways. There's
a lot of stuff going on. People are really busy
and bogged down. And there's dress -up week.
Oh. Next week? Is it? At school. Something about
peppermint and then another one's pajamas. Pajama
day and ugly sweater day. They hate it. Yeah.
Kids wear their pajamas every day anyway. Yeah,
they do. Why do we have to have a special day?
It's every day. That is true. Today, when I dropped
my kid off at 10th grade, I don't think it was
pajama day, but there was an individual going
in her pajamas and slippers. They were maybe
Uggs, but they're basically slippers. That makes
me sound very old. They're basically slippers.
Okay. you might have to know my leg fell asleep
but now i can't like do anything talk about conferences
um yeah september october november were full
of them i had the envision employment summit
yeah um where we got together with our partners
statewide um in six different locations um business
leaders vocational rehabilitation school districts
um some parents to talk about employment for
youth. How did that go being broken apart in
six different, like? It went well. It did go
well. Yeah. Okay. I mean, we. Definitely had
different attendance at each of them, but I think
at least at a minimum there were not less than
20 people at each set. And it's regionally appropriate
for those people. You get business leaders from
or business representation from each of the regions.
So it's relevant to families and educators and
youth in Region 1, Coeur d 'Alene area, and then
all the way down to Region 7. And then I took
a course to become a parent cafe facilitator.
So I'm looking forward to hosting some parent
cafes around families with disability, kids with
disabilities in 2026. We had the Idaho Pathways
to Partnership Conference. That's a statewide
conference for school districts to bring their
secondary transition teens to learn. about resources
and better their school district's teams for
transitioning their youth out of high school.
Then we had regional parent summits in November.
Angela and I spoke and taught at the Burley Conference,
the United We Make Change Conference in Burley,
where there were about 200 people in attendance.
we did that region people show up they do good
for you guys good for burley yeah yeah it was
great um that was co that was put on by uh the
dd council and um their burley leaders so okay
um Sorry, I'm just thinking about how I said
Christina Bassani. Like, I don't know. Sorry.
Go on. That's okay. And then we did the Northwest
Pyramid and Early Learning Conference where that
encompassed a few of the Northwest, Pacific Northwest
states, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, about
early learning and the pyramid model through
challengingbehaviors .org. where i spoke on family
engagement in early childhood so child care um
preschool to about 100 family or 100 providers
um did you see that feedback yet not yet it's
good i gotta i need to look i saw the email come
through yesterday so i'm i'm super hopeful and
then i spoke to some paraprofessionals that are
getting their special education endorsement through
another resource service administration grant
that Idaho received to educate and elevate our
secondary, our special education professionals.
So this was all paraprofessionals who want to
get that special education endorsement. So that's
not giving them a teaching endorsement. It's
just giving them an endorsement, like a para
level. Yes. So they can they can they can do
more. OK. And potentially. use that towards obtaining
a special education degree. Wow. And is that
a WIOA -funded initiative? So Resource Service
Administration. RSA. Yeah, RSA. It's an RSA grant
that Idaho applied for and was awarded. So the
universities, so Boise State and University of
Idaho, yes, are participating in that and educating.
I think other, like... General education teachers
can take it as well. It's just a college -level
course. Very nice. And what was WIOA? Workforce
Innovations Opportunities Act. Thank you. You're
welcome. My bad. Yeah. Yeah, it's just a few
things. I like that commercial. By the EOD, I
need a RIP of the, I don't know. And it always
cracks me up because I'm like, that is us. I
never feel more ridiculous when I say some stuff
like, did you guys see that new RFI? How's that
going to impact the RFP? Yes. And I'm like, what
am I even doing here? By the EOD, I need your,
yeah. Why do I talk like this? Okay, I have to
be honest. I did some download top secret that
I classified stuff that I can't share with you
yet between October and December. So a lot. Please
tell us. A lot. I'll tell you in January. Okay.
There'll be a very special podcast about it in
January. But rest assured, even though I don't
have anything, like literally nothing to talk
about. between October and now. She was just
watching TikTok. I was. Well, I've been doing
all the conferences. You've been prepping for
January. It's a pretty big deal. I was doing
some top secret stuff. So that rounds out my
year. I think I would be remiss if I did not
mention our state professional development grant
work that while the... cultivating readers and
the SMART 2 .0 program of that has ceased. Idaho
was awarded a new grant and it is now called
Stride. It is our state professional development
grant. It will now focus on serving individuals
or helping individuals in K through, grades K
through three, using a multi -tiered systems
of support approach in math and literacy. So
our previous Our previous grants focused on literacy
implementation and family engagement. Now this
is going to focus on some math and literacy.
Our focus never changes. It is always on family
engagement, how to get families involved in these
processes to the best of their ability and make
it make sense for them. So your data leader stuff
is going to fit right in. Our what? Your data
leaders. Yeah. exactly he's gonna it was like
it was a beautiful marriage yeah it was like
i didn't plan it but it absolutely will it just
marries right in there yeah so that's it i wanted
to round this out because every year i say every
year look i've been doing this for 40 years uh
the last couple of years we've we've also talked
about um professional development that that's
a huge thing about what we do is that you know
we're not just a group of you know, women in
their... Anyway. Jeez Louise. Anyway, that we
talk about what we know about. So professional
development round off. We did a lot of stuff
from a lot of professional development from the
Federation of Families this year. Case. Yep.
And that is special education. The Council of...
Advocates. Advocates for special education. Perfect.
I continue to do a lot of work through CADRE
and that's our dispute resolution folks. Just
some of the topical calls. I try to seek that
information out as much as possible when it's
available because that's my bucket. That's where
I land. I believe you also went to OSEP. Oh,
I forgot. And you didn't talk about that with
me. Yeah. So it wasn't memorable. Memorable.
Usually they come. And this year we have some
travel restrictions and only one per center could
go per grant. So I did. I attended OSEP and that's
the Office of Special Education Programs. And
it was it was different this year because it
was. Not as many people. It was restricted. But
it was a different range of topics, a lot more
school choice topics, a lot more, more. What
I thought was really cool at this particular
OSEP is how much focus was on bringing the parent
center in to support families in this work. And
we already do a really. pretty good job with
our State Department, but there's a lot of states
out there that don't have a relationship. And
we are lucky that we do. And so in some of the
spaces at OSEP, I actually was called on and
asked to really explain our relationship. And
sometimes that happens, right? You guys know
that that happens because we're an anomaly in
the land of... We did a whoopsie. Yeah. We keep
saying OSEP, but we never... She did it. Oh,
you did? My bad. Special education programs.
My bad. You did on that one, didn't I? I was
in pain at that time. Yeah, I did. And we've
also been on a lot of new committees. A lot of
new committees. I started to write down committees
and then I was like... I don't think anyone wants...
If you would like a list of all of the committees
that we sit on, I would happily provide it to
you. But it's a lot of being in the space of,
okay, well, did you tell parents that? How are
you telling parents that? yeah absolutely that's
kind of in every space that you can possibly
imagine in any system that impacts children especially
those children with disabilities or special health
care needs we're like and how you telling parents
that yeah is that parent -friendly language is
that accessible i I must have said that six times
on Friday at my infant -toddler coordinating
council meeting. Ooh, that's not really parent
-friendly. Ooh, are we disseminating that information
to families? So that is the space that iPool
exists in. We are at the tables, at the system
levels, but we are representing you, not us,
as just individual. Parent, family members. We're
representing the systems. My favorite is when
people see you coming off mute and they're like,
okay, we're about to have to take this back to
the drawing board. Yeah, that's true. So that's
it. How about a big cheers to 2026? Yeah. Did
you? I will just say at the end of at the beginning
of 2025, I'm really glad that we are here in
this chair. We all have like a quasi smile on
our hands. We're still employed. We're still
employed. We can still help families. There was
there was a minute there where we were. No, I
was called into question. And yet we persevered
and overcome. Cheers. We're proud of you, too.
Thank you so much, everyone out there, for listening
in. And know that if you are in Idaho or planning
on moving to Idaho and have questions on systems
or services for children with disabilities, please
consider reaching out to us on our website at
iPullIdaho, that's I -P -U -L -Idaho .org, or
by calling us at 208 -342 -5884. Be sure to tune
in next time. Until then, this has been unlimited
parenting. Thanks for listening.