As we all know, having a child with special needs may require a lot of effort at home and a ton of effort working with schools to ensure your son or daughter is receiving the services they need.
Peter was hazed into the special education world in 2007, and has been working for others since 2010, and full time since 2014 when he was laid off from his systems maintenance programming job. He is still debugging, but special ed problems now instead of computer code.
Amy Munera is the current president of Autism Society San Diego, and has served on the board of directors for the past seven years. She is the mother of three autistic boys, ages 11,14, and 17, and is an active volunteer in the local autism community in San Diego County.
Sandra Dixon Shove is a former elementary educator, a non-attorney special education advocate in private practice, and a longtime Autism Society affiliate leader.
Mishon Johnson, California native and mother of three boys first began advocating for her 2nd born son, Evan, who was diagnosed with Autism at the age for 2 in 2014. Evan was in early intervention at the age of 16 months when regression was noticed. The transition of advocating was helped tremendously by her extensive background in the child development field for over 15 years.
Leigh’s 25 years in special education advocacy began with her autistic son. He was in a low-expectation special day class with only four picture icons to communicate and now he attends a four-year university. This was due to extensive determination, persistence, and advocacy.
Anne has been a special education and disability resource lay advocate since 1991, a paralegal since 2005, and an educational psychologist since 2013.
Juliet Barraza is the parent of two young boys, one of whom has developmental disabilities and epilepsy.
Valerie Aprahamian, Founder of Advocates For Angels, is a Non-Attorney Advocate, Author, Teacher of Special Education Law, and Speaker. Valerie’s life work has been to assist parents of special needs children in the development of their child’s Individual Education Program (IEP)—to enable each child to reach the highest expression of themselves and fulfill their potential in living a meaningful life.
Lynda is an Educational Consultant and Advocate who helps families with the Special Education process to receive the best placement and services for their special needs child.