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.
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.
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
Tracking Gen-Ed Minutes as Inclusion Proof: Who We Believe Our Children Are
In every school building, there is a quiet arithmetic that tells the truth long before any mission statement does. It is not the language on the walls, not the slogans about excellence or equity. It is the simple count of where a child spends their minutes. Those minutes do not lie. They testify. For students with IEPs, general education minutes are not a small technical detail in a long document. They are a declaration of belief. They reveal whether a system sees a child as a full member of the learning community or as a visitor, escorted in and out of spaces where other children are presumed to belong by default. If we claim to believe in equity, then we must count the minutes where that equity is either practiced or denied. The minutes tell the story. Tracking them is how we decide to stop lying to ourselves about who our schools are truly built for.
The Weight of Lenny Wilkens
There are lives that refuse spectacle and still command a room. Mr. Wilkens carried a peculiarly American burden with grace, coaching while playing, teaching while enduring, and choosing generosity over noise. The life he built is a text we must read carefully.
Mentors Built Me, Now We Build Pathways
College and career go together. Use IEP transition planning to combine dual credit, Career and Technical Education, apprenticeships, paid work, and industry certifications. Add mentors from Black owned and community owned businesses, and from real workplaces like professional kitchens. Track completion rates, paid hours, and supervisor feedback with work based learning logs, then organize artifacts with a student Portfolio Checklist.
Community Partners Are Multipliers
Partnerships work best when they are local, accountable, and organized. Build a partner database that centers Black-owned and community-owned businesses, secures MOUs and DSAs that comply with FERPA, matches students by IEP supports and interests, tracks paid hours and outcomes, and publishes a quarterly dashboard. System beats heroics.
Gil’s Arena Became The Arena: My Mixed Feelings, The Business Logic, The Blueprint For Keeping Your Name
Gil’s Arena becoming The Arena is the trade every creator faces. Scale asks for control. Distribution asks for a piece. The only way to grow without losing yourself is to design independence on paper. Keep the marks in your house. Keep the episode library. Set vetoes on casting, cuts, and sponsors. Finance growth with recoupable guarantees and time‑boxed terms so expansion does not erase identity. That is how you partner for muscle and still keep your name.
Differentiation Without Watering Down
Differentiation should lift students to grade level learning, not lower the bar. Keep grade level texts on the table, add accommodations and scaffolds to open access, and monitor progress so supports fade as independence grows.
