"What can we legally do about this?"

That question, asked almost three years ago, truly lit a fire in me. I thought helping a mom get her son tested would be straightforward. Boy, was I wrong! It just exposed a massive "can of worms."

I never imagined that moment would lead me to June 2, 2025, and the opening of my new business, AEIOU Students LLC, in my own office.

Next to me is a hefty 4-inch binder. This was just the beginning for my favorite student, a collection covering May 16, 2022, to March 21, 2024. It doesn't even contain every email, text, meeting note, or progress report from those two years.

Instead, this binder holds the crucial evidence for my state complaint to the TEA. That complaint accused a district of:

1. Failing to identify a child with a disability and determine their eligibility (Child Find violation).

2. Failing to provide that child with a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE).

Among the many powerful documents in this binder are:

• emails

• iStation scores

• district screeners

• MAP scores

• attendance records

• report cards

• Irlen screeners/reports

• Reports/assessments (Psycheducational Evals, Dyslexia Evaluations, OT, Speech, Irlen’s, etc) from inside and outside the school district

• Procedural Safeguards

• Prior Written Notices

• 504’s

• IEP’s

• Documents from TEA: “Resolving Special Education Issues with Your Child’s School”, laws relating to Child Find, information on how to identify and test for dyslexia, Special Education timelines, and “Special Education Complaints Process”

• Information on assessments like the KTEA, KABC, WISC, Conners, GORT, CTOPP, to include how they’re administered, how they’re scored, explanations of subtests, explanations of composite scores, standard scores, scaled scores, Tscores, percentiles, age equivalents, grade equivalents, and understanding the bell curve

Along with his mom, I quickly found myself frustrated trying to get a student the help he needed at school. Even with my teaching certificate, classroom experience, a Master's degree in Education, and work at various state agencies, I knew just enough to realize what was happening simply wasn't right.

I soon learned there was so much I didn't understand about Special Education. There were endless confusing acronyms, a clear lack of empathy or urgency from the school, and no resources to tell me where to ask questions or get help. I often felt outnumbered in 504 and IEP meetings—it was "us" against "them." I even saw staff coming into meetings annoyed that they had to get a substitute just for "another" meeting. The list goes on. It became very clear: families like mine were navigating this complex system alone. I knew I had to learn as much as I possibly could about Special Education laws, testing, dyslexia, classroom accommodations, and more.

As I dove deeper, I uncovered a painful truth: families were consistently unaware of their child's rights. This discovery ignited a deep desire within me to help others. That's why AEIOU Students LLC was born.