While teachers are losing their jobs, estimates are that the recall election of MI Rep. Paul Scott cost about $1 million dollars (source: MIRS). 

Wow a $1,000,000.00 fight over a Rep. seat because, in large part, of his stances on Education Reform. I wonder how many educational improvements, teachers/admin salaries, new school resources could have been purchased with that $1,000,000 ?

Not to mention the 1,000′s of man (and women) hours spent on the recall ….. wonder how many kids could have been helped if we could have mobilized all that effort into the classrooms?

The kicker is that Rep. Scott was replaced as Chair of the House Education Committee by Rep. Tom McMillin …. who’s even MORE conservative than Rep. Scott….. so in the end, was it really worth $1,000,000?

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We’ve had such a great response to the Wrightslaw Conference and so much fantastic support from the business community that we’ve decided to add a special BONUS to this conference for FREE!!!!

FREE March 11th Pre-Conference Friday Night  “Experts Sessions” We’ve gathered some of the top experts in this state to share their expertise on a variety of Parenting and Education topics which will help you, help your child and help your family.  Trainings and sessions with these experts frequently cost hundreds of dollars but they’ve agree to share some of their expertise with you on this special night … FOR FREE. Don’t miss out!!!

• Stephanie Cork – RLAC – “Orton-Gillingham & Other Reading Intervention Strategies For Special Needs Children”
• Tom Kendziorski – The ARC of Oakland County – “Social Security, Transitions and Planning A More Secure Future For Your Child”
• Jamie McGillivary – Beaumont HOPE Center & Healing Haven – “Stress Reduction For The Special Needs Family”
• Aubry Dodge – Behavioral Consultant – “Fixing Wrong Behaviors: Functional Behavior Analysis & Behavior Intervention Plans”
• Dean Norton -  Mac Professionals – “The IPad Educational Revolution & Education Technology”
• Dr. Linsk – Integrative Medicine & Pediatrics – “The What & How of BioMedical Interventions For Kids With Special Needs”
• Dr. Wycoff – Wycoff Wellness Center - “Another Way Of Looking At, Understanding & Treating Allergies”

This Friday night “Pre-Conference” Experts Night is our thank you to all of you and a rare opportunity to get some great information from some of the top experts in their fields FREE OF CHARGE. So please join us for this special night.

Click here to view a flyer for this event – Friday Night Speakers – please feel free to download it or share it with your friends!

*** You don’t need to have a ticket to the Wrightslaw Conference to attend this special Friday night speakers night.

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“Lights UP, Sound Down—Sensory Friendly Movie Program”

with a Special Showing Of

“Rango”

On March 5th, 2011 @ 9:15am

This monthly program is open to all families & children BUT is specifically designed for families & children with Autism and Sensory Issues which make watching a movie during prime time hours challenging. During the movie the theater will be a little bit brighter (that’s the Lights Up part) and it will be a little bit quieter (that’s the Sound Down part). This special showing is specifically designed (with the help of parents that understand these challenges first hand) to allow families and children with Autism and related challenges to enjoy a REAL movie in a REAL movie theater.

* Concessions will be available for purchase. If you have a child on a special diet, please call : 734-612-3934, for details!

Canton Cinemas – (map)

From Goodrich Cinemas :

Goodrich Quality Theaters is proud to present Lights Up, Sound Down. Lights Up, Sound Down gives families with children who have special needs the opportunity to enjoy their favorite movies in a comfortable, sensory – friendly setting with the lights turned up and volume turned down in the auditorium.

We recently have had requests from local autistic groups and played special screenings with positive feedback in our theaters located in Lafayette, IN and Canton, MI. We are excited to expand this program to more locations.

We offer a screening once a month of first run movies on Saturdays at 9:15am.

Available at select locations: Canton Cinema (Canton, MI), Grand Haven 9 (Grand Haven, MI), Hamilton 16 IMAX (Noblesville, IN), Holland 7 (Holland, MI), Lafayette 7 (Lafayette, IN), Portage 16 IMAX (Portage, IN), Quality 16 (Ann Arbor, MI), Randall 15 IMAX (Batavia, IL), and Savoy 16 (Champaign, IL).

Regular Matinee prices apply. Ask about Concession Discounts for groups of 15 or more!

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Today we hit the two week mark before the Wrightslaw Special Education Law & Advocacy Conference AND the “Guns & Hoses Charity Hockey Game”.

On Saturday, March 12th during the day we will be hosting Wrightslaw Special Education Law & Advocacy Expert and practicing Attorney Wayne Steedman who will be sharing information with us to insure we’re acting as fully educated & fully prepared advocates for our children at school. For more details about this conference please click here.

Click here for our list of common “Special Education Have You Ever ….” questions!!!

Then that evening, in cooperation with Autism ASK and the Royal Oak Police & Fire Fighters, we will be having a fantastic charity hockey game fundraiser with Special Guest Coach former Red Wing Great Darren McCarty. Proceeds from this fundraiser will go towards therapy scholarships for children with Autism in the state of Michigan.  All money raised will stay in Michigan for Michigan children.

Click picture for ticket information!!!

We know it’s a full action packed schedule of activities but would love to see you join us on this important day.  During the day you’ll receive invaluable information that will will literally change the path of your child’s education and future (read our story here) and then in the evening you can take your family out for a fun night of hockey and Autism family friendly fun while helping families in this area struggling with the ability to provide their children the life changing therapy that they need.

We look forward to having you join us for these two great events on March 12th!!!!

Wrightslaw Special Education Law Conference

“Guns and Hoses Charity Hockey Game Fundraiser”

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Just A Reminder …

That the Conference isn’t until March 12, 2011 but tickets are selling quickly now …. so don’t miss out on the Wrightslaw Special Education Law & Advocacy Early Bird Tickets!

The early birds are grabbing up the tickets to the Wrightslaw conference.  We did a slow roll out yesterday just to test the pages and tickets started selling immediately.

For all of the details about the conference click – here.

The early bird special is only good for the first 100 ticket buyers so if you want to come to the conference please don’t wait too long to get those tickets.

Last time we sold out at 500 people and were turning people away because we literally could not add any more people to the room.

This year we’ve changed venues (last time Wayne County so this time Oakland County) and while we have a beautiful venue it’s going to be a smaller venue with fewer tickets available.  So check those calendars and get those tickets!!

Get Your Tickets NOW!

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Really excited to be able to book this interview this weekend. It’s great to talk to someone who isn’t telling us we have to be paranoid about every sharp edge, rough corner or potential danger or risk of failure that our kids might experience. A little danger. A little failure. A little discomfort. It’s GOOD for our kids!

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Two years ago we did a Wrightslaw Special Education Law Conference and it was an overwhelming success.  Five hundred parents and professionals attended for a day full of information, strategies and explanations.  In the months that followed we were overwhelmed with stories of parents that were able to get help for their children that had previously been unattainable.

It turns out that old saying is true – Knowledge IS Power.

Since that conference we’ve had people repeatedly asking us to bring Wrightslaw back to the Metro area so they could learn, share and understand more.

Well, we’ve got great news!  After a lot of work trying to coordinate schedules  ….. Wrightslaw is coming back to the Metro Detroit area on Saturday, November 13th for another full day conference.

We’re putting the finishing touches on the conference information and will roll it all out tomorrow … right here.

Along with the conference information we will also be opening up tickets sales and offering a special Early Bird discount for the first 100 ticket buyers.  We’ve changed venues this time so we’ll be selling fewer tickets to this years event so please if you’re interested don’t wait … I’d hate to see anybody miss out!

How can you make sure you don’t miss out ….

• Check back here tomorrow frequently
• Make sure you’re following us on our Facebook page (we’ll announce over there when the tickets go on sale too!)

We look forward to another great conference and hope to see you there!

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Thanks for all those who left comments here, on Facebook or via email.  We have our winners!

Congratulations to those who won and I hope you enjoy the show!

If you didn’t win, well, thanks for playing and hopefully you’re the lucky ones next time! If you can still swing it try to make it out to the show.  We’ve been hearing and seeing the planes making their practice runs the last couple of days and it should be a really cool show.

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This week we will be interviewing Michigan Gubernatorial candidate Pete Hoekstra.

While we’ve traditionally stayed away from being overtly political on the show in the past, as we explained last week things need to change.  Not because of the show but because we’re in strange times now where being an effective parent means that we have to be more involved and active in things going on outside our front doors.

So many of the topics important to us – education, health, nutrition, bullying, insurance, jobs, the economy – eventually have roots that trace back to politics and the government.  This year is an election year and we believe, as many others do, that it is a critically important election.  Whether you’re a Democrat, Republican or an Independent the choices made this fall will have massive far reaching effects in every area of our lives and even more importantly our kid’s futures.

We hope you join us and enjoy the show.  As always if you have any questions you’d like us to ask please let me know via email or leave a comment in the comments section below.

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As some of you have noticed it’s been a couple of days since my last post and a couple of interviews haven’t gone up yet.  The reason is two fold:

1) I took a couple of days off going into the 4th of July Holiday Weekend.

2) The increasing popularity of this site caused a small challenge with the company that provides us our server which keeps all things web/internet moving along.

The break was nice and refreshing and the server issue should be resolved here in the next day or so …. at which point I will be posting all the recent radio interviews along with some other posts that have been written but not posted.

Thanks for your patience and check back with us on Friday for new stories, podcasts and posts ….. ( in the meantime don’t forget you can stay up to date with us over on Facebook )

P.S. – For those of you wondering what the above picture is … it’s an old sign off screen that tv stations use to run at the end of their night’s programming.  The picture would stay on during the over night hours until the next day’s programming began.  Amazing to imagine in today’s 1,00′s of 24/7 channels but yes … there use to be times everyday when the stations DIDN’T air shows and instead would show pictures like the one above.

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