Belonging to our community: Room for achieving full potential

Kennedy Krieger Institute has an excellent newsletter entitled "Potential" where they discuss inclusive child care training, assisting Spanish-speaking families with special needs children, helping teachers understand special needs, etc. Here's a link:

https://www.kennedykrieger.org/pdf/potential/communityIssue2008.pdf

This publication reminded me that our community has a rich history of providing a quality education for its citizens. One problem has been that families who have special needs are so busy trying to meet their child's needs, that they have little or no time remaining to participate in the community itself. Our school boards, without benefit of membership and substantive input from parents with high needs children, may not understand how some other school districts have evolved to provide greater support to help all of the students achieve their full potential. Some of these parents have even been told that it is not the obligation of the Winnetka Public Schools or New Trier to help children achieve their full potential. We cannot afford to have our community aim toward mediocrity.

We need to ask what our community can do to support all of its families, especially those with needs that have not been traditionally met by our school systems and other public bodies. Our train stations and many old buildings continue to be inaccessible by those who need "handicap accessible" ramps, elevators, etc. Many families indicated on the Caucus survey that they are having to spend thousands of dollars per year toward private tutoring to supplement and/or replace the educational services in our public schools.
If your family has underserved or unmet needs, I'd appreciate a confidential email contact at winnetkacommons@jeannebeckman.com or call at 847-446-1251 so that I can formulate a formal needs assessment we can utilize in including everyone into our community life.