Presence Isn’t Inclusion, Especially for Parents
There’s a point where you realize that being a parent of a neurodivergent child quietly turns you into something else. Not by choice, and not because you feel particularly qualified. You become an advocate, a translator, a planner, and sometimes a buffer between your child and a system that doesn’t quite know what to do with them.
The New Inclusion Crisis in Education: Why Opportunity, Not Presence, Defines Equity
“Inclusion is not based on presence; it's based on equitable opportunity.” – Brian E. Roach
In speaking to one of my colleagues at HiNAIA I used that line. It resonated with me because I spent years watching what happens when presence gets mistaken for inclusion. A child can be in the room, in the routine, in the picture and still be completely invisible in ways no gradebook will ever show. My daughter experienced that kind of quiet exclusion more often than anyone realized.