Saturday, January 24, 2004

Make your virtual voice heard

Sometimes, when you've sat through enough doctor visits in which the specialist seems annoyed that you have a viewpoint, and enough school meetings in which parents with ideas are seen as troublemakers, and enough family dinners where everybody thinks they know how to raise your child better than you, and enough child behavioral struggles in which your child wants you to take "No!" for an answer, it may seem that nobody, but nobody wants your opinion. So take a little empowerment break this weekend, and let the following folks have your say:

1. A parent organization has posted a petition asking Disney to consider reinstating its special passes for kids with "invisible disabilities" like ADHD, DSI and Bipolar. For a wonderful while, the parks would allow these kids to skip the wait in line, but they've since rescinded the privilege, and moms facing a long wait with a short attention span are beseeching them to give it back. Click here to add your name to the list.

2. If that leaves you feeling all enfranchised, you can scan this list of special-education petitions on PetitionOnline and register your concern about the IDEA reauthorization, Due Process regulations, recording IEP meetings and other hot topics.

3. And if you really want to make a difference for the next generation, or just one particular member of it, take this quick survey posted by the daughter of a friend of mine for her civics assignment. There are two demographic questions, which you can opt out of, and three opinion questions, and she'll have to interpret the results for her homework. A bigger sampling's always better than a smaller one, so click here and help the kid out. Then you can call up your mother-in-law, and she'll get you back to feeling like your opinion counts for squat in a hurry.

No comments: