Author: Anthony Washington M.Ed.

Meet Anthony Washington, a dedicated Special Education advocate, and CEO of Thoughts Cost, SPED Support Services. With a Masters in Special Education and eight years of experience, Anthony focuses on several areas of SPED, including culturally responsive transition and specially designed instruction development, emphasizing Social Emotional Learning. Raised in Seattle's Central District, he understands the power of education firsthand. Anthony is reshaping Special Education with unwavering passion and expertise, championing inclusivity and student empowerment.

Leverage Isn’t The Problem, Entitlement Is

College basketball has always been a business, the difference now is the players finally have leverage. That part is overdue. Still, the money can’t be an excuse to erase the principles the game is built on: compete, earn it, be coachable, be accountable. When the first questions in recruiting are about guarantees instead of development, it signals a shift that’s bigger than NIL, it’s a culture problem. Pay the players, absolutely. Then demand the same thing the sport has always demanded, effort, discipline, and the willingness to be coached.

Equity Without Cash Flow Is a Lie: Why Reimbursement-Only Funding Breaks Community Organizations

Reimbursement-only grants force community organizations to front public service costs for 45 to 120 days, shifting risk downward and filtering out the groups closest to the work. This is a structural equity failure, not an administrative hiccup. Here’s what better funding looks like, and what policymakers can do now.

Why IEP Data Transfers Keep Failing and How to Fix Them Without Buying Another Platform

IEP data transfers rarely fail because the “API broke.” They fail because identity breaks first. When a transferring student lands in the receiving district’s systems, the question is simple, is this the same student or a different one? If the answer is uncertain, the database does what databases do, it creates a new record. That single moment creates a chain reaction, duplicated minutes, missing accommodations, transportation errors, Medicaid billing rejections, and compliance timelines built on incomplete context. The solution is not another platform. The solution is deciding what your source of truth is, usually the SIS, then implementing a crosswalk that maps the canonical StudentID to every other system’s identifier. Pair that with matching rules that prioritize stable identifiers, automation for high confidence matches, and a review queue for uncertainty. Clean identity is not paperwork, it is protection.

Why IDEA Must Stay in the U.S. Department of Education, and Why 850+ Organizations Just Drew the Line

More than 850 organizations across the United States have issued a unified call to keep IDEA oversight within the U.S. Department of Education. Their message is clear: moving IDEA to another agency risks eroding protections, weakening accountability, and disrupting services for millions of students with disabilities. IDEA is a federal civil rights law, not a discretionary program, and it requires consistent, centralized oversight to ensure equity, guard against fragmentation, and stop the continued funneling of marginalized students into under resourced special education systems.

Liquid Cooling, AI, And The Quiet Battle Over Who Owns Tomorrow

Liquid cooling for AI data centers is not just an engineering upgrade. It is a turning point in how power, technology, and opportunity are distributed. In this piece, I break down how AI infrastructure connects to education, Special Education, and the long fight to make sure our communities do not get left out of the future once again.

From “Wait To Fail” To “Teach First”: Why Washington’s SLD Shift Matters For Our Kids

Washington is finally moving away from a model that labeled children off a test score gap and toward one that asks a simple question first: how were they taught. For students who were pushed into Special Education because of discipline, bias, or adult frustration, this shift is a chance to stop hiding harm inside an SLD label and start telling the truth with instructional data. Thoughts Cost has been calling for this since Covid, when it became obvious that you cannot call it a disability if a student never had a real shot at learning.

Extending Special Education To 22: Time, Dignity, And The Work We Choose To Do With Both

Washington extended special education eligibility so students can now receive services through the end of the school year in which they turn 22. That extra year is not a formality. It is a second chance to get transition right. If we treat it like storage, nothing changes. If we treat it like launch, we can use this time to build real adult lives, with real community connections, for students who have been surviving school instead of benefiting from it.

When The Ground Shifts Under Our Classrooms

The federal government just moved billions of dollars in education programs out of the Department of Education, framing it as a step toward “returning power to the states.” Behind that language sits a harsher reality. Special education offices have been gutted, key grants are being scattered across unfamiliar agencies, and families are being left to navigate a system that no longer has a clear front door. This moment demands more than outrage. It demands local organizing, documentation, and community based accountability to protect students who have always lived on the margins of the system.

Turning Stories Into Proof: How To Make Narrative Count As Data In Schools

Narrative is not the soft side of education. It is evidence. It is the living pulse inside the data we claim to honor. When a student finally asks a peer for help, when a family sees independence taking root at home, when a young person takes a step forward that no scoreboard will ever measure, those moments are the data. The job is not to shrink stories to fit spreadsheets. The job is to structure the story so clearly, so precisely, so truthfully, that no one can deny its weight. Story becomes measurement. Observation becomes evidence. Growth becomes visible.

Fixed For Who

An email exchange revealing concerns about a potentially manipulated Request for Proposal (RFP) process in Rhode Island's education sector. Gatekeeping, "Statewide" Work, and Black Kids in Washington Somebody in Rhode Island hit send on an email that most people in education politics only say out loud behind closed doors. "It's a fixed RFP, but luckily … Continue reading Fixed For Who →