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Alright – so, PACER is a well known and well run oiled machine started by Paula Goldberg and others decades ago. The initial mission and vision were very touching then somewhere down the line Pacer became so powerful and so arrogant that they had to get all of the public funds for special education. Few months ago after my son was wrongly and unfairly suspended by the heartless Bloomington Public Schools I went to PACER for help. Other than Hassan who is amazing – I don’t really have prior history with them. Well – except when I was part of the Minnesota Autism Task force and the person who represented them Jody M was against Medicaid covering autism therapy for low income children with autism – not a typo.

Anyway, this was years ago and as we all know now – without Pacer and quite frankly any mainstream agency’s support, we were able to pass in the state and at the federal level a policy that allows low income children with autism and related disorders to have access to autism therapy such as ABA in Minnesota. So when I called them and I told them what Jefferson did. Over the phone they were so nice and said all of the right things. Their advocate told me that Bloomington was in the wrong and she would help. Then they met me and realized I was Idil the advocate who was relentlessly against them during the passing of DHS covering ABA therapy for children with low income Medicaid. Then the same advocate tells me “well – maybe I misunderstood the school and blah blah”. So, I contacted their director Paula G who was at the very least rude, sounded entitled and arrogant. Keep in mind Pacer takes public funds and their responsibility is to help ALL parents who have children with any disability. In other words, they are parent advocates not school advocates. Oh I almost forgot – Paula had Virginia with her on the phone whom I deeply admire and respect. Finally, I told Paula and Virginia – thanks but no thanks.

Then I tried to find a minority advocacy agency that could help. Do you know I could not find one – not one single agency of color has been funded to help communities of color parents whose children have disability. I know what the heck.

To make a long story short – I contacted the federal agency that funds states for special education which is HRSA then I contacted MDE. It turns out Pacer simply hogs majority of the federal and state funding to help parents with any and all special education needs. And, Pacer can not pick and choose who they help. In other words, they don’t have to like the parent or the child but they have to advocate for them. As someone who always advocates from policy perspective – I decide to gather some data then ask the simple question – why does Pacer hog public grants and what happens when they don’t meet parent’s needs. Apparently nothing happens. In fact, MDE does not even ask them any data to tell us how many children of color they helped and their satisfaction rate. No other agency even competes with them or is even aware of such funding. Can you believe this and they collected millions of public funds. Really what the heck? Sen. Hoffman – please don’t tell me you are still ok with this.

Some of their funding from HRSA click here.

Another funding that they hog click here.

Below is the other funding they hog form the U.S Department of Education via MDE, and they get this without even having a competition or anyone asking why? Can you imagine the level of elite entitlement.

1. Can you tell me which grants MDE gives to Pacer?

PACER currently receives a Parent Training Grant and a subgrant that is part of Minnesota’s State Personnel Development Grant.

2. When did it start, how often is it allocated?

The Parent Training Grant is a five-year grant that began in 2015, and the State Personnel Development Grant is a five-year grant that began in 2015.

3. How much is it?

The Parent Training Grant provides PACER with $440,000 per year, and the State Personnel Development Grant provides PACER with $75,000 per year.

4. What federal/state law describes this grant (link, etc).

The Parent Training Grant supplements the PTIC funding described at https://www2.ed.gov/programs/oseppic/index.html and the State Personnel Development Grant is described at https://www2.ed.gov/programs/osepsig/index.html.

5. What rules if any MDE asks Pacer to follow in order to get this grant?

The Minnesota Department of Education follows government-wide policies and procedures in requests for proposals and awards of grants at https://mn.gov/admin/government/grants/.

6. How many grants does MDE manage for special education from state and/or federal government?

MDE manages approximately 13 federal and state grants related to special education.

7. How does MDE measure if Pacer met the qualifications of the grants they get?

PACER met eligibility requirements for a sole source grant as defined in Minnesota government-wide policy at https://mn.gov/admin/assets/grants_policy2012_08-07_tcm36-207122.pdf. In the case of the State Personnel Development Grant, PACER was a partner in Minnesota’s application for the grant.

8. Do you have total number of minority autism families that have been helped by Pacer using this grant?

PACER is not required to report this data separately or disaggregated in this way.

9. Remind me again why MDE offers and gives grants to Pacer without any competition?

PACER meets eligibility criteria as a sole source vendor for the Parent Training Grant according to government-wide policies and procedures in requests for proposals and awards of grants (https://mn.gov/admin/government/grants/). PACER was also an original partner in Minnesota’s application for the State Personnel Development Grant.

10. Has Pacer ever collaborated with a minority advocacy agency for any MDE grant? If so, who did they collaborate with?

PACER was not required to have a formal partnership with an external minority advocacy organization for either the Parent Training Grant or State Personnel Development Grant. PACER demonstrated the capacity to collaborate with minority advocacy agencies in attaining stated goals of both grants.

So what does this all mean. In my humble little opinion, we need minority advocacy agencies to wake the heck up and stand up for our children because clearly Pacer isn’t. We need to apply for these grants, contact HRSA and others and compete with Pacer. We need to demand equality and fairness. What I really would like to know is what the heck do Minnesota Urban League and NAACP do exactly?

Above words do not reflect any candidate, agency or committee.

Idil – Autism Mom

Alright – so, Bloomington school district in Minnesota as I’ve said many times in my blog and to everyone I see has suspended a child with autism who is nonverbal for a behavior they triggered and they took away his voice by denying him his communication device. This happened on May 3rd, 2018 at 5:18pm. All of these are facts, another fact is that this district reached a deal with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) on February 26, 2018 which was signed by the commissioner of MDHR on March 28, 2018. Less than three months later they suspended another minority child. You would think they take suspension seriously and not hurt children and families, but not arrogant Bloomington school district. No, they can do whatever to whomever. How lovely.

Below is the actual agreement click here. Please take a read, a lot of the things they agreed to has not really happened at least not that I can see. For example.

1. Establish student discipline support team to ensure efforts to decrease suspensions who were to write a report due on May 1, 2018 – two days after they suspended a minority nonverbal autistic child whose behavior they caused by disrupting his routine. Where was this team when Jason Anderson, Kelly Morris and Jennifer McIntyre suspended a child who is nonverbal. Imagine what they do to minority teenagers who talk back at them. Think about that for a minute. If they can suspend an innocent child with a disability who is nonverbal, how will they treat a typical teenagers who is verbal. I remember the day my son was suspended, there was another child with a disability who was verbal and using inappropriate words and my son’s teacher Kelly said “I just could not take that – I can take behaviors but a child who swears – I don’t do that”. At the time, I didn’t think about it but as I learn more about Ms. Kelly Morris and this district – I can’t help but think. What does that even mean – I don’t do swearing as though this is ala carte autism. She should not be choosing what behavior a child with disability will have or not. What kind of a special education teacher even says such ignorant thing.
2. Add to the assistant superintendent’s (Eric Melbye) job description to include suspension. Where was Eric, when Jefferson principal – Jaysen, the teacher – Kelly,  and the special education director – Jennifer were screwing with a minority nonverbal autistic child? He is supposed to be the voice of reason but clearly was not this day of May 3rd, 2018 – mere months after the district reached an agreement to do better and not suspend minority children disproportionately. Again, how lovely this district ignores the very things they agreed to.
3. Community/student engagement – I want to laugh now. There has been no community engagement or feedback from parents including me. This district does not believe in parent engagement. They believe in parent silencing. I will not be silenced about autism ever.
4. Each school within the district was to designate a team lead to promote behavior intervention supports through multi-tiered system. Data I received from the district states that this did not happen as Jaysen the principal, Justin the one who apparently suspends minority children and Kelly Morris the special education teacher did not have any positive behavior support training. How lovely, yet they are too quick to suspend our children. I say we fight back and report them to the state human rights department. Jefferson had no comprehensive positive school discipline strategic plan because if they did, they would not suspend a nonverbal autistic child whose behavior they caused.
5. School site teams will analyze and review procedures for removing students from class, involvement of parents/guardians. Not sure if I should scream or cry, Jefferson did not involve me as a parent other than to say they suspended my child who as I have said a million times and will continue to say does not understand the concept of suspension nor cause/affect.

Bloomington school district failed miserably my son and so many other minority children – data shows this and is not my feelings or opinion. The question now is what can we parents do about it.

1. Make the district teachers, paraprofessionals, administrative staff and leadership more diverse to reflect the students they serve by demanding equality, getting higher education, applying for open positions, and wanting to become principals, teachers, etc. This year in 2018 there were a lot of Somali students who graduated and will become autism teachers. This is amazing. Please connect with St. Thomas University or Deqa Hussein who is an autism mom and a licensed autism teacher and was the force behind this program. She can help you get started so that we no longer depend on teachers like Kelly Morris to care and teach our children with autism. Cuntadu waxay macaan tahay markaad gacantaada ku cuntid.
2. Advocate in the state legislature to hold Bloomington public schools accountable for failing our children as public data clearly states.
3. File complaints with the state human rights department
4. File complaints with the state education department
5. File complaints with the office of civil rights within the federal education department.
6. You can also file individual complaints against the school principal, the teacher and the special education teacher. Google their websites and compliant forms/processes.
7. You can vote out the current board and recruit diverse ones to replace them in the next election cycle – it is doable. Just remember all of the other elections we have won thus far. Diverse school board who reflects the students they serve is more likely to have a fair and equal policies that ensure all students learn to their best ability and full potential. We are either at the table or on the table. Think about it and vote wiser this year.
8. Finally, tell everyone who will listen if you had a bad experience with Bloomington. The more we talk about it – the more help and support we get. Oh, and one more item – please pretty please let’s think about starting autism charter schools for our children where they will not be discriminated against like Bloomington did against my son, but where every child is seen as a child who wants and needs to learn. Proof of how discriminative Bloomington Public Schools are public – look it up. Children of color are suspended more and do not graduate as white children. This is not an accident, it is deliberate, calculated and intentional by the school district leadership.

Below are some helpful proverbs to keep you energized:

1. He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
   -Martin Luther King – in other words, if your child has not been suspended yet and you are a parent of color – it is a matter of time. Don’t assume you are immune to this. You are not – I assure you.
2. Ninkii walaalkiis loo xiirow – adna soo qooyso – Somali proverb.
3. I wish I could shut up, but I can’t and I won’t  by Desmond Tutu. Don’t ever be quite about any kind of injustice especially against children with autism.
4. Do a little bit of good where you are, it is those little bits of good that overwhelm the world.  by Desmond Tutu. In other words, do not underestimate the good you can do or how little it is. Just try and keep trying.
5. If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality by Desmond Tutu. Soomalida Bloomington Schools u shaqaysa – fadlan ha aamusina oo ciyaalkeena u hiiliya.
6. We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey by Kenji Miyazawa. Use the hurt they throw you as as your energizing latte.  
7. The most beautiful thing we can give our children are possibilities. I just made this up, not sure if anyone else said it. Bloomington tried take my child’s possibilities – but it will be a cold day in hell before I allow them.

Above words do not reflect any candidate, agency or committee.

Idil – Autism Mom