Our Story.

We are Byron and Abby Honea; we are special needs parents and Special Education Advocates. Let’s start at the beginning… When first picking a school, we as parents selected a private school that we believed that he would excel in. That, however, was not the case. The outbursts and the other behaviors that he was exhibiting in the classroom were not met with compassion but rather a sense of not belonging there according to the school. They would not and could not handle the behaviors that he was exhibiting. Our bright young boy, smart as a whip, was unable to be successful in the school due to his inability to properly regulate his emotions. However, it was also because of the school’s inability to handle the behavior with compassion, understanding, as well as true professionalism. Throughout his time at this school, the school administration and faculty allowed him to be ridiculed by other students and treated poorly. During spirit week for the outfits, he chose one especially wacky Wednesday which earned him nothing but bullying during that day. It was in that school that many of the students in that school were still in well put together outfits even though it was supposed to be wacky. This is just one of those instances. This was something that he held onto that during that time and had outbursts at school because of it as well. However, his other behavior was attributed more than that one incident. He had trouble interacting with his peers and did not do well socially. He had outbursts over things that others did not and would also exhibit this type of behavior at home. Ultimately, we were told that he would not be able to continue attending. That was the first school that did not work for our son.  

We then sought out a less private option and tried one of the local preschools that had some raving reviews.  In this preschool, our son was still struggling in school with behavior and being able to socialize properly with peers. This preschool eventually started to notify us throughout his time there, that the behaviors were off, and he was having trouble making friends with the other kids. We even sat in the classroom with him to observe his behavior.  But that was just the beginning. We found out during the end stages of experience with this second preschool, the paraprofessional in the classroom was rude to him and ultimately abusive. She slammed him down into a chair and later pushed a preschool bookshelf on him when he would not do naptime. Though this happened no one in the meeting stood up for our child but us. None of the teachers or principle stood up for our child, except one who wasn’t even in the meeting. After many meetings with the head of the preschool, an amazing teacher from an entirely different class to our sons, who had a fondness for our child and a care that we wished everyone would, told us that we should reach out to the Director of Special Education in the county. We did and many events that were positive transpired after this. However, again yet another preschool told us that there was no place for his behaviors, him or the type of help that he needed in their school and ultimately ended our time there. We found out much later that the paraprofessional teacher had been fired after we went to the Director of Special Education, which is what should have happened in the first place.

The district offered our son part time preschool in their special needs after some testing that they did in house. The director of special education and others in the building worked with us to have a plan; an IEP (Individual Education Plan) for him going forward, under other health impairments. The Autism diagnosis was not yet given. That came later. They determined that he would be eligible for an IEP through OTHER HEALTH IMPAIRMENTS. This class, though only three hours a day was wonderful because the teacher was wonderful, caring and understanding, though his behaviors persisted. She worked with him as well as possible. The end of the year hit, and so did covid. We lost the little bit left we had of that program to the epidemic.

The new year came, and school was still virtual. New teacher, new class, this was kindergarten. A whole other beast. This teacher was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. She was kind, patient and willing to show compassion, understanding and the utmost care. He was able to learn at home with his mom but also had the understanding of a teacher that cared.

Then real school came, 1st grade, in person. Same teacher, same class as kindergarten with a few new faces. With this, it wasn’t as scary for the first time in a long time. We knew we had a teacher that would truly care for our son in a way that many others did not have in the school system. Here’s where the problems started. Our son couldn’t regulate his emotions which led to outbursts and comments that he made that were not fit for the school setting. There were multiple times that we came in and took him home because of the behavior at the request of the school. We did not believe that this was the best solution or the way that the behavior should be handled. We were constantly told that “he is just done learning for the day” and other comments that they made that made it that much more apparent that we needed to find another way to deal with this.

This is when we asked for an FBA in order to get a BIP done to get a plan in place. The school tried to create an Illegal meeting with the special education teacher, Behavior Interventionalist and us. We had to argue that the FBA (Functional Behavior Assessment) should be done for the BIP (Behavior Intervention Plan) to be created for the behaviors that he was exhibiting during the school day which should have warranted an FBA immediately. Although we argued that he was eloping and tearing things down inside and outside the classroom, the Behavior Interventionalist said that it was unnecessary, and wanted to deny the FBA. The behaviors that he was exhibiting did not have any safeguards or coping mechanisms within his IEP and would soon cause problems for him if the BIP was not in place.

The next meeting we had, the school recommended that we get our son evaluated. Again, his IEP was for OTHER HEALTH IMPAIRMENT at this time. We asked if that was something that the school provided or something that was an out of pocket expense for us. The school said during the meeting that we, the parents, would need to seek out our own evaluation and we were not offered the opportunity to have an evaluation to be done by the school. This evaluation cost us upwards of $3000. It was done shortly after this meeting. We are thankful for the family members that were able to help us get this for our son. We will forever be grateful for their love, support, and help. This is also around the time that our family and friends were telling us that this situation did not seem quite right. It was during this time that we hired an advocate for the first time.

We had been advocating for our son the entire time, learning and gaining knowledge in order to help him get the services and the accommodations that were needed to see him successful in school, but we needed another set of eyes to see things that maybe we did not. It was a non-profit organization that helped us during this time, and we appreciated the insight that the advocate brought to the table. The school told us that we were going to have to make our son’s days at school end at half day, which later we found out was not something that should have happened. He was entitled to a full day of education with accommodations and services that would help him to achieve that full day of education. But problems continued from there.

Later that year, we put our son into after school ABA with a local agency. He went from the end of his half day of school to the end of the regular school day during that time. We had the BCBA (Board Certified Behavioral Analyst) attend the IEP meetings that we were having at that time.  ABA was a good chance for him to learn the emotional regulation that he was not learning during his time in school. ABA was good for our son in many ways but because of his intelligence and what they were trying to teach him academically at the time, he got bored. He learned so much in the emotional and behavioral area that benefits him even now.

Fast forward to the next school year, 2nd grade. We believed that he had the same class and the same teacher from the years previous. We did not get confirmation that had changed until the day of Open House. We went to the school for open house and found out that he would be in the same classroom with the same students, the same paraprofessional but that the amazing, patient, understanding teacher had since moved onto another profession within the school system. Our son was ABSOLUTELY devastated. He LOVED that teacher and was so excited to see her after the summer’s end. We had to deal with a full blown emotional, Autistic meltdown right there. It was heartbreaking to see our little guy so sad and hurt that he didn’t get to say goodbye to the teacher that fought for him the last two years while showing him the love, care and understanding that was needed at school.

His 2nd grade teacher was the teacher that the school tried to switch him to that year previous and we told them no. This teacher did not interact with him or handle situations with his behavior as well as the teacher before her. He did not have a great rapport with her before and never really achieved that rapport during that year. She was a paraprofessional in the other classroom, and it did not have the same warm, understanding atmosphere that his previous class had. As time went on, we found out that the paraprofessional, now lead teacher of his class, had not even yet finished her degree in special education to actually be a special education teacher. As we said before, we had long begun advocating for our child and we had so much that we had learned, and one was the place to check the credentials of the teachers that were in his class. She was lacking those credentials.

It was also during this time that we began to advocate for family and friends’ special needs children. We wanted to give back to others the knowledge that we learned and fought for as well as be a voice for those that did not have one. We wanted to be the one that had to deal with the issues, the school and all that came with it while taking the stress away from the parents. We wanted to be the advocate for others, so that the parents could just worry about being a parent instead of adding one more hat to their already staggering stack.

The meltdowns, behaviors, and issues kept piling up that year. Over and over again, we were told to come get our child even though he was only there until 12 pm. There were many issues that came up including our child being hungry 2-3 hours after coming to school. That was something that was addressed the year previous and snacks were provided. This year we also provided snacks for his lunch to help with that. Still issues arose and they would be asking us to come pick him up at 9, 10, 11, even 20 minutes before we were supposed to pick him up.

At the end of his 2nd grade year, we made a decision as a family to move to a different city to try and get a better school setting for him and a better town life for us all. We left our home of 10 years, the only home that our son had known. In search for a better situation in all areas of our lives, especially for our son’s education.

We landed about 30 minutes above Atlanta, GA. It seemed like a great area, with a school system and better environment for all of us. During the summer, we set up his placement with the school system in the county. At first, we believed that he would be going to the school that was right across from the neighborhood that we were renting in; however, that was not the case. They did not have the mirror image of the class that he had in the previous year. However, the elementary school nearby had a similar class setting. We toured the class, spoke with the administrators and the teacher for the class. Everything was set up to be a great year. At first the classroom and the school were amazing but then the problems started.

We hired a bulldog advocate; she was highly rated for getting things done. We got the school to do an updated full evaluation for our son and received some of the accommodations that needed to be in place for our son at school. Even with all the findings in the end, the school denied us coverage under Autism even though that was what he had been under since his diagnosis. Their basis for denial because he could speak well. We sought out due process and even during the summer, the district fought against us.

During our meetings the district personnel were like barb wire. They were not kind; they tried to speak over us and blocked us at every turn. There were problems within the classroom, but our biggest issue was the district itself. Complaints were filed and actions were taken to get the school better training.

Throughout the summer, we learned more and more about the disappointing things that happened to our son at school.  We had extended our finances so far during the summer to pay for an advocate that we were no longer able to fight the school. This combined with what we learned about what happened at school in the previous year, forced us to decide that homeschooling may be the best option for our child.

But the fight did not stop there, we continued to learn, study the law books, take classes and make partnership connections with others in the field. This helped us become the advocates that we are today. We help parents each and every day have a much better journey through special education than we had. We make obtaining an advocate and making sure that you get to the end of the battle attainable through flat affordable rates.

We aim for collaboration to the utmost extent to not only support the parent and student that we serve but also the teachers and schools that are there in the day to day. Collaboration, support, and attainability are part of who we are as advocates. We will work to give the children and parents as much support and direction as possible because we have been there, and we have an understanding that only a parent of a special needs parent may have. We cannot wait to help families and be the support that is needed during their child’s educational journey.