The pandemic continues to disrupt the routines and programs created to care for children in and out of school. In the next Pink Mic Legal Confessions we sit down with Suzie Kujawski Smith, Child Advocate and mother of two.
Transcript
hello good afternoon thank you for joining us once again this is pink mike leo confessions i’m gart sukny garcistone an attorney and founding partner at garces law firm in arlington heights illinois where we help parents secure their legacy and protect your children in the event of an unexpected absence today i’m here with guest susie smith who’s a very very successful working mother of two young boys in westchester pennsylvania i can’t wait to meet her because susie i was telling her before this this um this live is that she’s actually very inspirational you hear more about her so susie i uh sincerely appreciate that you’re here and i want you to introduce yourself um to the to the um to the viewers in just a minute um but i i want to sort of uh give a big picture of what we’re going to be discussing today um so today’s topic is is really interesting um it’s no secret in general that uh people are having different options now whether their children are going to school some some of them that are going to school some of them that are still working from home and having their kids at home at the same time things are really different with this pandemic with the vaccine out also there’s different options for children um if they wanted to go in person i don’t think put people fully understand um the options that are available to them and the actually the uh really the potential impact on the children especially with an extreme situation like homeschooling during covid that can have a lot of effect on the youth of all ages and so beyond just everyday care countless children around the country and the world uh quite frankly and their parents are relying on these special programs that exist to wrap around um services that that may not be um be given to the kids or what they’re receiving right now is a little bit different than what they’ve been getting in the past and this can really impact kids so susie in preparation of our interview today um i know you talked a little bit before um are our live about your experience with with having kids at home and and you working from home uh will be very um interesting some of our viewers because you’ve been doing it for eight years i think you said so um you know i i look forward to you talking about how difficult it can be for you and your sons during this time um especially for parents that really hadn’t done it before um and so dedicating every free med that you can um to helping helping parents understand um during this this time and for us to kind of about this how to fight for your children’s needs really the topic of today so do you mind sharing a little bit more about your background and some of your personal stories if you have if you feel comfortable doing so absolutely stephanie and thank you so much for hosting this live did you hear me
hi i think we lost stephanie but i can hop in um i just want to say thank you so much for the platform and for the ability to speak on this really important topic to me and to so many people that i’m close with um stephanie had alluded to i am a mother of a six and an eight-year-old my kids have had different issues during the pandemic and during virtual learning when last march happened we were really unknowing how long this was going to last how virtual learning was going to impact our children so we went into it with open minds my younger son was in a virtual kindergarten program and he had he has some special needs and then then i could really pushed him over the edge he went from needing like 30 minutes of services a week to now um i can get into some of the special needs and wrap around services and things that he is uh is needing in his everyday everyday life and then my second grader had a concussion that impacted his ability to even do virtual learning and was denied access to school um when they were in a hybrid model because of you know some determinations they they made and uh you know decided on what children could uh could attend so different struggles you know i think what what really started my advocacy and i never thought of myself as a child advocate before but you speak for a lot of the parents who couldn’t speak for themselves this is not a popular place to be it can be looked as being anti-school district it is not is not anti-teacher this is a hard time for families to be able to cope in this situation it’s a really hard time for kids and teachers are in a tough spot as well doing virtual learning so you know i’m happy to talk through the struggles and the issues and and bring some uh support to parents that are looking for resources and they don’t know where to turn and potentially advocate for if your children aren’t back in school and you’d like that option how to do so
yeah no thank you for sharing that and i think um you know i think a lot of people can resonate with the fact that it’s everyone’s situation is different so um i can only imagine you know how many parents out there are not really sure um what to do they feel frustrated they want to give what they can to the kids protect them make sure that they’re not severely impacted by all of this but that’s what we’re going to talk about these areas today um so let me let me ask you this uh susie
okay can you hear me now i am so sorry what’s going on i actually just you know this is a classic example i always say with like the homeschooling and like the virtual stuff like technology is so unreliable and it’s quite frustrating so sorry
i’m doing little tricks um no so so um yeah so what i was trying to get it is that you know some of these the parents that are watching on this today they want to know you know how many how many things that they can do that i haven’t thought about you know because i know the parents are quite frankly they’re frustrated they don’t want to um be in this forever of this remote learning because you know it’s nice to have your kids at home i think and people can because yes you know you’re i spend more time with them but at the same time people are frustrated and so um in your opinion you know kind of one of the things what we’ll talk about is that um is there dangers for prolonging homeschooling and virtual care um and we’ll talk about that but what do you think i mean do you think that that’s do you think there’s a danger in that i think there are dangers across the board that impact all different types of families economic status having parents at home working at home or being left at home alone uh there there are really difficulties across the board and safety issues for sure um you you know it’s really funny what you’re talking about some of the tech issues and i sat through and watched children lose their work and seen videos of my my friends kids lose their work have breakdowns get kicked off the zoom teachers not being able to call on kids you know my son who has special needs would just throw his ipad across the room and wouldn’t get on he refused to do it and when you’re getting these emails like they don’t want to participate i don’t really don’t blame them um
i mean it’s crazy to think about i mean the fact that you know i think kids they’ll do as they’re told to an extent but like i mean it’s been has it been a year i mean it’s been about a year since they’ve been out of school right so at this point you know it’s not that new but of a concept but i i find that there’s these programs that we’re going to talk about the programs that are available i mean are the programs being enforced that’s one of the one of the main questions i know i’m uh we can talk about um you know is there a lack of consistency and accountability in some of the homework or even between the parents um i know there’s some privacy and security concerns that we’ll discuss today because you know i’m sure you’ve been reading the news there’s these odd things that happen during these zoom calls where either the tablet is not you know all the way off and there’s weird things being you know shown to the classroom or there’s a you know unmonitored tablets that are being used in laptops and i think that’s very interesting because um you know i’ve always said in this in this world and in this generation there’s youtube there’s all these other options for kids but the fact that they have a tablet on them literally all day or a laptop is very interesting so we’ll kind of talk about that um some of the other topics that i wanted to to touch base on is the types of care plans that might be necessary in your situation so um tutoring or additional support is that something that you may think about um as a parent in school time whether there’s a set number of weeks where you go to school on next days but not on this these days and then there’s obviously like the in home uh care if that’s an option so um we’ll talk about like an educational plan for kids and susie will will enlighten us with all that she’s she’s done and is doing and advocating for the kids is what she’s going to be talking about um and and actually one of the things that i think is interesting too that we’ll discuss is how should parents fight for their kids i mean we we all talk about you know protecting your kids and doing doing what we can for them but how do we do that i mean should they be concerned with one thing and not another that you know is there something endangering their kids future if they just completely ignore it and are there any local organizations that they could rely on so um just to kind of touch base because it’s for some of you that have been just joining us now and actually um after i hopped off um just giving you a recap of what we’re covering today on peak michael confessions my name is attorney stephanie garcia the principal founding attorney of garces law a founding a law firm in arlington heights where we do estate planning civil work and real estate but we really do help parents secure their legacy and protect their children in the expect unexpected absence that they might face and so um child advocacy how to fight for the education and care for your child during covet is what we’re covering today so just as a recap in case you missed the last episode uh the last episode was very interesting because we talked about how to select a proper guardian for your minor children so you could watch your recording on my youtube page um also on my facebook if you wanted to catch up so we are welcome you here and we actually changed the time um from 2 30 to 1 o’clock every tuesday to cover pink mike legal confessions educating all of our viewers about different topics um so now that we have a lot of questions that are kind of coming in about what we’re talking about one of the things that one of the viewers is asking they just messaged me about they’re saying is it safe for my kid to go back to school after getting covered um this is an interesting um turn of events in our in our interview because you know are you seeing this uh susie are you seeing that being an issue or and your parents are are concerned about this sort of thing and and assuming that um you know they’ve disclosed this to you of course but have you seen this i mean is it safe yeah i mean safety is something that you can look at a couple of different ways and i think that’s a great question there’s safety in getting covered and how that might impact children and families but the science has already stated that if kids contract covet or anybody you’re not it’s 99 but 99.9 percent survival rate so while i don’t want to downplay how uh serious this pandemic or or covet is um i also believe that there are other things that are that make not being in school
a more unsafe option and it was interesting um i hopped on a call today with the chicago teachers union public cp which i thought was their acronym cps was incredibly odd because
that we’re finding is is child abuse and domestic violence and kids left at home actually access to nutrition mental health and other services that are provided by school so is it safer for kids not to have access them to that than to get covered where they likely won’t have any symptoms and are almost guaranteed to survive i would say you know and the cvc backs this up the safest place for kids to be is in school and you know while we’re a year out and it’s it’s it’s really gut-wrenching to hear the unions try to use all of these ploys for you know benefits or gain i really don’t want to get into the union issue too much but while they were talking through this meeting they were speaking for parents saying parents are scared to send their kids and kids aren’t going to show up and i think you’ll see the opposite when parents and children have the opportunity to be in school and to be safe and have access to the resources that they need they’re going to be safe they’re going to be as safe as they can be the safest place for teachers to be is to be in school because the transmission levels are minimal in elementary and low on the other end of the spectrum so i think looking at covid um quarantining the over quarantining they’re doing with these kids the contact tracing it’s it’s really exhausted the system where you know some of those cases end up being under three five percent of kids that they’re quarantining or staff so that’s where the danger lies i think in the inconsistency of going back and forth um and then you know also hearing about some kids that were they left school they got jobs they have to help out their families they have to watch younger younger siblings mom maybe mom’s a single mom like myself and you you can’t there’s no you don’t have two parents you don’t have two incomes so that’s also you know considerations that i think are are making things uh really unsafe for kids to be left home all day potentially and teens for instance are who are left home virtually learning all day long i found this statistic to be just really hard to swallow but they are the most at risk for suicide than any other population in the entire world and we’re seeing that we’re seeing the emotional social um stress on these kids and i think for some entities to say that kids are resilient is is a really awful way to put it on them to because while they may be we don’t know what the long-term effects here are going to be on their future yeah absolutely and i think um it’s interesting that you took that angle susie because i you know i haven’t done a ton of research on it but i know um there’s different schools of thought let’s say um out there with covet and children and what and what not um but you know it’s it’s interesting because i think uh more than ever uh parents are forced to face this question of is my child safer at home with me or and you know given the impact that they could have on them long term or are they safe for a school and i know a lot of children and thank you for whoever asked that because a lot of children need stimulation they’re so sick of being at home they do not want to be they’re not like adults you know where we we uh you know we work from home and we have tasks to do where we you know and we get paid to do the work whereas like children are just they’re just trying to get by and and it’s interesting because a lot of them have i know um ace and nephew have mentioned to me you know i i like going back to school because they can see my friends you know that sort of thing and i think i underestimate you know the amount of um need that the children need in that sense um i think there’s one other point i want to i want to touch on there and and there there is fear from a lot of parents they might have uh you know issues with some pre-existing conditions or grandparents at home but there’s always been a virtual learning model there hasn’t always been an inch in person model for the kids who don’t need it and i think that’s the one component that needs to get addressed is that there are choices for virtual there are no choices for in-person in some cases like in chicago and there are different factors at home so that fear might be from a medical standpoint that you know they could just not know what’s going on in the schools and since schools have been shut down parents haven’t been able to set foot inside the schools our school district was virtual at the beginning of the year and then went to a hybrid model and while they were in a hybrid model i actually went in and toured a school it’s a social emotional learning center that they have for my son and i was floored i think parents would be really surprised to see how the strict you know the distancing and the mask wearing and it was it was very jarring to see kids i mean really distant i can see them at the park playing with each other you go to the grocery store i mean there’s no zero risk so you know i think kids just having that knowledge and seeing them i’m like they’re much safer there from a distance standpoint than they are at um you know playing in the park with with some kids that they might not know right right well and kind of speaking on the programs another question came in about um i think someone’s particular issue they’re mentioning my child’s school has suspended all additional care programs so who should i raise um or she says who should raise an issue first and should like should it be her i think or or him um is what they’re asking so what do you what are your thoughts on that you know i would definitely uh make some phone calls and send some emails to the administrators they are not uh you know out of touch they should be getting getting back to you so mine have definitely become um they know they know who i am at this point uh and become knowledgeable because i haven’t been shy about asking the questions and i know that not every parent is comfortable doing that but i do think going to the administrators or your principal whoever you feel comfortable with and asking them you know what what what’s what options do i have if your kid has special needs they may have some in-home services that the school can provide one of the things that my my younger son was receiving was actually an in-home aide full-time personal aide at the cost of the school district which is substantial right one virtual day he had that’s how bad it was and that was something that they suggested it wasn’t something i demanded it was having a conversation going through and learning what that looked like so if if they if your child’s in a special ed situation certainly reach out to those folks because they they really know those kiddos the best yeah outside of that i would look to boys and girls clubs i ran into a mom um we were at a go-kart place for my son’s eighth birthday on saturday and she was telling me all about you know her struggles she has four or five kids she’s been you know financially very impacted she has a single mom um you know just getting getting by really and there are services within the boys and girls club near her where she was able to send her kids to a safe safe place so that she could go to work and they could be cared for so uh distance learning centers i i don’t know what’s it what’s available in chicago but i’m sure there are some entities out there ymca who are always income eligible you know they work with with families who you know may have uh disparities on their income or not being able to afford programs like that um we found a karate studio that was doing hybrid virtual learning and my kids loved that they had somebody help them and then they got to do karate so if they were neat it was great um and then you know the other part is look at look at the your iu and if you need to reach out to your state education resources the illinois department of education reach out and see see if they have an offering because they don’t promote these really well so you have to do a little bit digging and then i think at the end of the day ask parents i saw the pack that that chicago has there’s about a thousand parents that are in that pack and i think just asking around and seeing you know what else is out there might be the best way yeah no thank you for talking about that i mean i think like i think you said it best i mean really leaning on the resources that you have and and i think this is the point of this program you know because educating parents and people that maybe they don’t know where to turn you know like for the person that asks a question i totally understand and they feel the sincerity and that they didn’t i genuinely know who is supposed to raise this issue do they wait for the district to say something is the principal gonna say something or do you have to basically step outside your comfort zone and advocate for your for your children and i think that’s what the theme is i mean these packs that you’re mentioning susie and it just goes to show that um you know you’re stronger together and so we’re all in it together really i mean the parents parents are feeling it it’s not like you know one person is feeling it more than the other i think it’s equal across the board because um and depending on what district you’re at there has to be resources you know in your city or nearby cities um the ymca or even the karate the karate place you mentioned that is so interesting because i would never have thought that a studio that’s like you know independent of you know the ymca or the school would have something like that so that’s actually pretty neat so thank you for whoever asked that um another question somebody had is if i fight for my child’s rights will they threaten their long-term educational career um that is a great question i think that’s that’s super concerning you know people don’t want their kids to feel um you know should i say um you know singled out or something um you know because everybody talks right they see the teachers talk you know their friends talk middle school high school they all speak to each other so what are your thoughts on that susie i would say if you’re if you’re more worried about what your teacher your your kids teacher thinks of you then you are about you know what this year is going to mean if you’re not getting what your child needs at the time i think those are very little concerns the the administrators and principals and teachers they’re not doing it for the money right they they have thankless jobs um and they really love these kids i would say in it for the most part for teachers i i wouldn’t see that there be any repercussions um i’ve been very vocal but i’ve been positive you know trying to work together to find solutions or you know just coming at it as approach of of being a partner and not being aggressive so i always say kill them with kindness you know you get more more uh bees with honey than you do with vinegar yes you can you can be an advocate and be vocal and you could do it in a positive way where they aren’t going to uh be annoyed with you and you know what so what if they are everybody they still have to work you know your kid’s still in school and you’re not not every parent is going to be their favorite but i found a lot of times when i brought things up now that they might not they might know who i am a little bit more that my response time is a lot quicker even if it’s like something very like oh you lost a water bottle or whatever like this is going on like you know but in in that vein i think just be positive try to have the goal in mind and understand that the teachers you know are not in a great situation either so right and actually i i wanted to point this out because i was just thinking about how uh when we talk about like parents communicating with the teachers we’re assuming and i’m just saying this because some of our viewers work different hours that you and i do but you know assuming that they can have an opportunity to speak with them um or even you know uh trying to contact them what do we tell the parents that i mean this is not in my curiosity what do we tell the parents that work night shifts or you know or not or maybe they’re sleeping during the day because they work you know or or they work uh odd hours they’re not like nine to five and they don’t work from home how do they get in contact with with the principal what the the school district with who the teachers whoever they need to talk to to advocate for their kids what do you think about that i mean great point email email could always be an effective form of communication a lot of the online platforms have some access to teachers where they can you know ping ping a teacher ping uh whoever and ask a question so i don’t think the hours make make a huge difference i’ve sent things on the weekend and have gotten people gone back to me so great well it’s good to know i was just wondering that myself because i know i’ve had um i’ve had different clients that have said to me you know i don’t my children are like two two ships passing in the night or with the other parent or you know where you’re not necessarily working from home and don’t have the ability to always uh get on the phone but yeah i think email’s a good a good tactic for that so that’s good um okay so we got another question on this so um are there any research reports published on the impact of homeschooling during covid there are a lot
i know there’s a lot out there there are a lot one of the most recent ones the cdc had produced a survey that looked at about 1200 parents and children between the ages of five to twelve and they found that those that were involved in full-time virtual learning or even in a hybrid model were more likely to struggle with mental emotional and physical health and the survey also found that parents dealt with emotional distress and job stability issues as well as child care worries so all of the things that we’re touching on that is a study that just got published recently i believe about a month ago with the cdc so you’re you know the health departments they’re looking at this very closely and there are a lot of other groups that are doing you know we did our own survey within our school district we actually pulled through right to no request we pulled performance reports that were coming directly from the school district to point out you know the issues and gaps on failing rates and you know kids not showing up for school and how some of those gaps in in certain communities were increased and you know what that harm could look like long term so we you know we had to get their own information to kind of show them and scare them so i would i would absolutely recommend if you’re not already doing it or you’re not you don’t have a group of parents fine find a group of parents um and and put it put a right to note request if you if you question about what’s going on in the school they have to that those are public documents that they have to provide to you right and i i don’t think we’ve ever as a community of parents have looked at school districts and school boards as closely as we’re doing right now and the more we look the more we find out that’s very troublesome you know through one of our right to know requests we found out that our school board president said that access to education is a privilege and not an entitlement which goes directly against the u.s constitution the you know the all state constitutions and if you’re familiar with unicef they they’re pushing really the last couple years the children’s rights the crc which is a global right for access to education and distance learning at the end of the day is not a suitable replacement for in-person education we know that right uh and to have your school board president literally say that is is very cringe-worthy it’s got a lot of national attention unfortunately for for that individual but also looking at who are you who’s on your school board there are school board candidates right now that that there actually is a pack called keeping kids in school and they are supporting candidates that um are really you know supporting those efforts for for access to in-person education not mandating it but allowing those who want to choose to be in school so look at look at who you’re voting for and look at their voting records look how they’ve handled the pandemic and if there are school board candidates that are coming in and really trying to impact positive changes within your school district take a look um i think it’s it’s worth more now than ever at really seeing what their voting history looks like if they’re voting to keep schools closed if they’re voting to raise taxes during this time where when everybody’s gotten coveted money those are important things that we need to take a look at so um yeah i there are a lot of organizations that that you can tap in for for information on that but one i would look at that at some of those in person education groups and you know try to try to make some contacts there yeah absolutely and you know i was thinking when you were saying join a group or join something you know everyone here i think can agree that the facebook you know facebook is a great way to connect i know that there’s different um groups so there’s like parent groups or mom groups or data groups whatever um out there so if you are into facebook and you’re like i don’t really want to like you know go very far you start there and i know um i personally have clients had a lot of success uh personally with with what they’re trying to do with their kids um just by connecting with their parents um through those groups um susie you mentioned a great amount of other resources available out there and actually love the the fact that there’s that parents for in-person education um as linked below me i mean this this is important stuff i mean i think that the general public doesn’t always have uh the time or the resources to really go in one direction or another of how to advocate for their children they’re just trying to do their best right i always hear parents talk about that like i’m just doing all i can but you know it’s interesting to talk about this because um the voting the voting is so important i mean if you do not know who you’re voting for like find out because you know susie you said it best and you don’t know what the what the people you’re you know are are voting for and and they owe it to the constituents to explain it you know i think that could be a whole um a whole pink mike legal um you know topic voting you know in general because it really impacts um your family yourself um in the long run especially when they’re people that have backings from other people that are maybe against the position and they stay there for quite some time right that’s the worst part because then you’re like oh you can’t really it would be hard to get rid of them at that point yeah i mean you see a lot you see a lot of that and that’s why we’re discussing term limits but you know just in pennsylvania our primary has some really important things on the ballot in addition to school board um elections and that’s limiting you know the emergency orders and powers of shutdowns which have you know impacted a lot of small businesses and have allowing schools to open and um you know people to be able to earn an income in a lot of cases so that that’s that that’s really our biggest factor here in getting people to the polls yeah yeah no absolutely i really i mean maybe i’ll just have you be on the next one um for voting because it really matters i mean now more than ever because there’s just so many things to decide what pandemic and you throw a pandemic in the mix um so yeah i think we kind of uh mention this one so maybe someone is asking last minute here but uh they were talking about local organizations where they you should start um i know we kind of cover that topic but uh susan your opinion which one is the most um accessible or are they all just equally as accessible and what is the easiest thing for someone to kind of like learn about should they be going online should they be going you know somewhere else i mean i think everything’s probably online nowadays yeah i i would say facebook is is probably going to be your best bet and that’s where i found this chicago parents group so i i would take a look there i didn’t i i didn’t spend a lot of time in that group seeing what they were talking about but yeah if you get in just take a look and and just maybe be an ear there to to listen and hear what people are discussing one of the most influential people that i’ve met through this journey doesn’t even live near me i’ve never met in person i found them actually through this i think it’s the teachers for open schools and there’s a group in wisconsin that successfully got their school to open five days a week and i reached out i said you got to tell me the secret sauce i have i have this incredible group of parents that have spent every waking moment outside of their kids and and work and they they’re up all night you know speaking on news channels and writing op ed pieces and everybody kind of has a little bit of a different role but really intelligent you know parents that have not worried about what people thought and have really been pushing forward um on these initiatives and i found found this uh mom and we chatted and she was you know amazing and basically provided us a lot of the you know her rule book on on how they got them to do it show the information show the failures so those are things that we were already doing but there was a um a group that they had a local group that they were working with called citizens for change and that’s where we really started to understand that the open records request and seeking information could be a very valuable tool and at the end of the day that that was really um i think what allowed us to understand what what was keeping us closed and obviously in chicago you know it’s the unions they haven’t made that quiet at all yeah in our case it was the health department you know in chester county in pennsylvania where i live they the health department controls basically guidance on two different counties outside of philadelphia and in that health department there’s not a medical doctor and they weren’t uh you know following the cdc guidance where it was you know six feet were feasible they were saying six feet so once we got them to really take a look at that and align it they had to open schools because that that’s where they had the goal posted that that day you know they kept moving it um so you know they couldn’t do anything else and now that our cases are actually up a little bit they had to be under a certain per you know 100 per capita they’re up over that but they’re not closing schools because they found the transmission rates and schools are much lower than what they’re seeing in the community even though pieces are rising well that’s interesting though caesar because i think like if i’m remembering correctly like at some point when the schools get shut down to begin with the school of thought was and the reasoning really was that there were there’s no way that children could be so close to each other to the child to the teachers because the transmission rate would go you know through the roof but now i think when they have more research i think they’ve really been able to track you know is it really safer in the school or outside the school and and and to your point um you know discussing the fact that they’re it’s they’re less serious at school i mean it really it really makes i guess this is the whole frustration of parents like how can i advocate for my my child you know maybe they’re from a small town i mean some of our viewers aren’t even in bigger cities you know the way we are where we have you know all these people that are you know fighting maybe more population you know but the same thing i mean you have the same issues with the with the other people and so um i love hearing your your thoughts on this because um it kind of again questions you know what can we do what what are we doing enough of and i think um you know going outside of what we’re normally doing you know just posting on facebook isn’t enough right you have to you have to congregate you have to um write writing ed pieces like what is that i never even knew people were doing that i mean that’s that’s real interesting and i have seen people on the news they’ve seen plenty of people disgusted and angry parents but but you only get a quick glimpse of that and then that’s it and you’re like oh you know it’ll go away or it’ll get better but it seems like it’s so um slow moving you know it’s slow-moving and um i just wonder you know what’s going to be the outcome how quickly are they going to get back like you know summer is right around the corner too it’s kind of crazy yeah i mean i think it’s total insanity why chicago is still closed you’re talking about sanitation issues our school district is a title one school and there are you know grants and coven money that are directly related to title one schools receiving a lot more money and um i think when you start looking at some of the groups that are impacted one of one of the groups that in our community that really hasn’t been discussed too much is you know minority groups and you know in in our area um our highest percentage of minorities are hispanics and um you know the issues here really uh gosh they get pushed into when we’re looking at racial inequalities they’re not discussing you know the hispanic population they might be discussing african-american population which is like two percent of our population where our hispanics are 30 percent um and oh wow yeah we have we have mushroom farms um here we’re especially like the capital of the world mushrooms in a neighboring town over so we we have some migrant workers um kids that are literally going to work with their parents for staying home the one thing that did you is open up schools five days a week to ell students okay you know outside of that if you’re not fitting in that population then you’re really not being um you know that they’re they’re not being addressed so one of the school work candidates that we actually have um that i’m i’m working on her campaign you know and helping her a bit hispanic mother of three and you know she she’s felt you know she could never believe her that she’d be doing this right now but she’s felt through this pandemic how can i help support this community and the people who aren’t you know aren’t being served well by a school board or even being addressed um and not just those groups she also has a special education um child and and uh you know i just i i think it’s great that that people are stepping up to the plate because they really truly want to not for political aspirations but they see that there are groups that aren’t being spoken for and they they want to be that voice so i think that that’s it that’s dead-on i mean i think it goes without saying that you know in times of of need you know the leaders step up and you know what better than a person of the actual community to do that because otherwise you know you can’t really speak to something that you’re not part of sometimes you know and i think i know a lot of politicians like you said well have the political aspirations which is great but then there’s other you know communities that are underserved and and it’s actually it’s actually great to hear that there’s someone stepping up to really try to represent the population because if you don’t have at least one represent representative it’s really easy to forget um the out of sight out of mind you know especially if the person isn’t isn’t advocating for that community and um kind of going back to our our topic i mean advocating for the for the kids and and um one of the things that i i wanted to touch on and i know we didn’t go into too too much depth i mean you mentioned like the in-home aid but what are the kind of programs um that parents could consider um during this time susie i know in home maybe is is an option if your school district is willing to do that but what are some other programs that you think would be beneficial to parents i i’ve seen parents you know work through uh pod groups where you know they might have a parent rotate and be kind of like a teacher or liaison for a small group of kids okay that are meeting up and that’s that’s been helpful for some groups that you know kind of keep a close close pod and and they keep you know intact right a lot of the programs you know depending on income eligibility are going to cost money i mean these are these are child care um components that we don’t plan for after our kids are out of a certain age and i there there have been some comments that i’ve seen uh from teachers groups or from some school districts where they they’re you know saying that they they’re not babysitters well that’s not what that’s not what school is but that’s what you end up having to pay for if you don’t fall into a bracket where they’re free or low cost options for your kid to be right in a program and be safe you’re going to have to pay out of pocket for those things so that’s another financial burden that is is really hasn’t been considered and then looking at you know tax increases like we are still over budget we have a 300 million dollar budget for 12 000 students in our district and we are three million dollars over they’re gonna have tax increases now uh things don’t even happen i mean and that is a lot of money i mean it’s one thing it’s like 300 like thousand you’re like okay but what you know and one of the things i was like appalled by was that they didn’t give the teachers hazard pay that that should have been number one yeah you know let’s get them comfortable let you know give them a little bit extra so they can keep themselves safe and if they have to buy any extra supplies like our school district was very good about making sure that things were clean and um and they had the sanitation but if you if you don’t have those things in place then then at least empower the teachers to be able to do it for themselves right i was i was going to ask well what about like tutoring you know tutoring or even additional like educational support is there i mean in your experience are you seeing um are you seeing that is still a viable option as a program to kind of like help the students get through this time or is that really been eliminated i’m not exactly sure on that yeah i know i i certainly think that you know depending on the school district they have some resources like that some extra help our school district is doing a summer program for you know kind of closing trying to close those learning gaps sure you know even my son who doesn’t have academic issues and is actually quite gifted in those areas he has issues and you know behavioral issues and uh social emotional type of scenarios but they have a program for him too that’s at you know just included and they’re no cost to to parents including our three million dollar uh overage in everybody but yeah right the summer school option i think is opened up for more kids to have have access to it you don’t need to necessarily be failing to you know go into some of those programs so i would i would check and see what chicago uh you know school district is is providing and then maybe look towards other groups like the ius um so you know their their ius around the country which are intermediate units that are providing you know support and they go into a lot of the private schools and provide them some some support but they are you know connecting with public schools as well or doing their own programs on the side so that’s another resource i would i would certainly take a look at yeah no definitely well i i really appreciate you at least educating me first of all i think i learned a lot during this interview but also our viewers because like i said i think the average parent feels the the frustration almost at the point that sometimes you don’t know where to turn and so i hope that um our viewers today learned a lot about how to advocate and fight for your child especially when they’re in a position that you know they didn’t have any control over and and but i think what we can agree on is that what you do have control over is the outcome you know the limiting the impact that this could have and really um trying to set your your child and children up for for success um as things start opening up so i want to thank you so much susie for your time today and for your information um it was wonderful talking with you and learning more about how passionate you are about advocating for children and also how much knowledge you brought um to an interview today so i really appreciate that um and we encourage our viewers uh you know to speak up when when needed um for your children to advocate even if it’s outside your comfort zone just try because i think what susie was saying you know it sounds like there are people that will listen and they almost are forced to listen because everyone you know knows what’s going on in the world so so don’t be afraid to speak up um to get proper care and whatnot in education for for your children so um there’s no official end in sight for the pandemic as of right now but protecting your children’s future is a priority um and and here at my firm we also uh make parents and children our priority we do a lot of estate planning for them wills in case you know they want to pick their guardian in the event something happens to them these are really important um resources and tools to have in your in your family because you don’t ever know what’s going to happen as we know with the pandemic nothing has been normal or predictable but again uh thank you again for joining us and talking about this today uh thank you to all the people that dropped in questions super helpful for us to talk about this because i know people have burning questions about how to advocate so we cherish the opportunity to gain your trust and to understand your issues so that we can best address them during this during this interview so i invite you here next week uh tuesday at 1 pm for pink mike legal confessions and we’re going to be talking about another topic but you have to stay tuned to learn about that but as always i always invite friends families uh you know anyone on facebook that is interested um grandparents if you want to share with them as well to learn more about what we talk about every week and um really we’re just here to help and educate the viewers and anything that is relevant and so um also i should mention a lot of the viewers have messaged me personally and said to me hey what have you covered this and what if you care for that so if you’re watching this right now and you have a thought on something you’d like to see covered please feel free to message me personally i’m happy to come up with with a concept for you so so keep that it open mind on to that so again uh thank you susie and thank you all viewers and we’ll see you all uh just next week