An Advocate’s Dream

This past week I attended the Special Education Legislative Summit (SELS) and I felt at home. This summit was a dream to attend as a special education teacher whose passion is advocacy. I attended this conference as I just finished up my third year as a  special education teacher. While I was there I met people who have 25+ years of experience in the field. I listened to stories, took part in discussions, and soaked up every second that I could. 

The summit created a community of educators who are extremely passionate about advocating for individuals with disabilities which allowed us all to connect  and learn from one another. I met administrators, coordinators, presidents of organizations from all across the US and parts of Canada. SELS was a great place for educators to collaborate and help each other with what they may be facing in their district. 

Leading up to visiting Capitol Hill to meet with our Members of Congress and their teams, I was tasked with being the Team Leader for Kansas. Being a Team Leader meant that I was in charge of planning our meetings and coordinating with each member and their staff. Being a team leader had many responsibilities, but it was an easy task when working with many wonderful people from the state of Kansas. Working together with them and learning from their years of experience of advocacy was a great opportunity for me. 

During the summit we are tasked with learning the issue briefings that we will be presenting to our state representatives and their staffers on our Hill Day. Our message was talking about the importance of fully funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act(IDEA), putting more support into mental health services, and talking about the national educator shortage in our field. I was able to learn about these issues from guest speakers, and our CEC team that helped us dive deeper into these topics. After these sessions I felt prepared and eager to go to Capitol Hill and advocate for students with disabilities. 

Attending my first SELS Hill Day was a surreal experience. You start off the day by traveling to the Capitol Building with your team. Once you arrive, you step out of your car and look up to the Capitol. As I stepped out of the car, I was overwhelmed with excitement, anticipation, and nervousness. Here I was, a special education teacher in Kansas, on the footsteps of American democracy to go and advocate for a better tomorrow. 

Our team was able to meet with staffers for all six of our members of congress. We were also able to meet with Representative Davids and Representative Estes and their teams. This was an amazing experience to be able to talk to our lawmakers about important issues related to our field. 

The goal of these meetings was to start a conversation with the Members and to create a positive relationship with them. In these meetings I realized that I was doing what I am supposed to be doing. I have advocated for my students at a district level since the second I started working as a teacher, and now I am advocating for them at a federal level. I realized there really is not a big difference between either. The message is still the same. I am advocating for the rights of my students and the opportunity for them to achieve great things in their life. 

This experience was one that I will never forget. I learned the importance of advocacy and the impact that we have as teachers. We are able to help get our message across to Congress because we are in the front lines of teaching everyday. The issues we talked about have a constant impact on us as educators. 

A message that I said in all of my meetings was , “ funding special education funds all of education”. We as a country need to realize that putting funding resources into special education will not only help students with disabilities but students without disabilities. We as advocates need to shield light to Congress and continue to talk about special education as a part of our educational system. 

 My name is Sean Phelan and I currently am a high school special education teacher in a suburb of Kansas City. I have a bachelors and masters degree in low incidence special education from the University of Kansas. This summer I am interning with the Council for Exceptional Children and TASH.