Terri Daniels, the principal of Folsom Middle School in Folsom, Calif., believes that principals have a responsibility that goes far beyond the school building.
Over her 40 years as an educator, and 17 of those as an administrator, Daniels sees it as part of her role to speak up—for her students, her staff, and her community—and has applied this maxim to her advocacy with legislators, school board members, and parents alike.
“If we don’t tell our own stories, they’ll be made up for us,” she said. “[School leaders] are really in the trenches. We’re working with our teachers, we’re working with our students, … we are the ones letting people know what’s going on in our schools.”
Last month, Daniels—who was recently named the National Advocacy Champion of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals—was in the nation’s capital to meet with her state representatives and lobby for continued federal support for services essential to students with disabilities or those from low-income households.
Back home, Daniels is a regular at community and rotary club meetings and hosts several parent nights to keep the community informed about the support her teachers, paraeducators, and even students provide children with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities in her school. Out of 1,600 students in her school, about 300 require special education services.
Within Folsom, Daniels and her staff started a buddy system five years ago that pairs up students in general education classes with students with disabilities during gym class or elective periods like choir practice. The buddy system, Daniels said, has expanded, with more students signing up than there are spaces available.
Advocating on behalf of students and teachers is a key part of Daniels’ job—but it wasn’t always considered part of the principal’s role, she said.
When Daniels was a special educator and history teacher, the principal was a “disciplinarian,” a figure out of reach for students and parents. The contemporary principal cuts a very different figure, said Daniels, with a much expanded set of responsibilities and an obligation to “tell our stories to those who [make] our laws.”
Daniels said she was happy within the confines of her classroom. She’d trained as a history teacher and was certified as a special educator. Getting an administrator license was more of a failsafe.
“As a single mother, then with three kids, I realized to make any money in education, I should get the license,” said Daniels.
She interviewed for an assistant principal’s role on a whim—and got the job. Daniels has been an administrator ever since, and her background in special education has helped her connect better to students with disabilities, and the educators who teach them, she said.
Aspiring administrators should have dedicated training on special education, Daniels said, to “truly understand the different types of disabilities, services, and support that students now require.”
Daniels received the title of the National Advocacy Champion of the Year due to her work in special education, as well as her advocacy for better mental health services and parent engagement. Education Week spoke with Daniels about the honor and why the role of the principal-advocate is more important now than ever before.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What are the current challenges in supporting students with disabilities?
There are a lot of things that I believe were written with very good intention [in the laws], but what it looks like on the ground floor in schools is not necessarily as effective as we would like it to be.
The [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the federal education law] is written with a lot of restraints and a lot of expectations on schools, and we’re not able to always fulfill those expectations. We have only been funded about 12 percent when we should be funded at 40 percent.
Another part of it that’s truly impacting [special education] is that not a lot of people are going into the field, and so we are having to hire interns and new teachers in positions with some of our most difficult classes. That leads to a high burnout rate and maybe not the [highest] quality of educators. When I’m in Washington, D.C., I [talk about] how I’m very much bothered by the fact that we can’t meet compliance because of some of the requirements in [IDEA]. There’s just not people that we can get to fulfill those positions.
In your school, what efforts have you made to better support students with disabilities?
A lot of my advocacy is geared toward supporting parents. Parents use the IDEA law for what they believe is best for their students, when in the long run, it may actually be hindering their students.
For example, requesting a one-on-one paraeducator for their child, when having that person following that student around may actually hinder their ability to be more independent. The student [will] rely on that person more than they need to.
Focusing on the disabilities more than the abilities of that child can be detrimental. Our goal is always to help them to be independent human beings once they leave the program.
How do you get your message across to parents and the larger school community?
Through social media, through blogging, through local news stations. I talk to parent-teacher groups. I’ve gone into my own community, and spoken about special education to Rotary Clubs, etc., to get the word out about how, as a community, [we can] work together on what is the best way to to educate.
It’s my main goal to educate [people] on what’s actually happening and what’s needed in the schools. I advocate for resources so that we’re better able and better equipped to meet the needs of students.
In my own personal school district right now, they are offering incentives for even our paraeducators to go back to school and get a teaching credential, because there’s just not enough special education teachers to fill all the spots.
More generally, to address mental health needs of middle schoolers, I’m trying to work with parents on understanding the adolescent brain. Middle school is such a unique time for students. Kids are growing up. I want to support parents so that they can support their children.
I started a parent series where I meet with parents every Tuesday night in person. It’s a four-week series where I will cover how parents can understand what’s going on with their students socially and emotionally during these years as they enter adolescence.
I just started it this spring. But it’s already overwhelming because of the number of parents who’ve signed up.
You also started a peer-support program in your school for kids with disabilities. How is that going?
I have to give credit to my teachers who created this program with me. We have “buddy” PE, art, and choir classes for students with severe disabilities. Students who are typically developing can sign up to partner with them.
In each of those classes, general education students are assigned to a special education student and they work with that student, whether it be on their art projects or their PE assignments. It’s just been a really, really great program. It gets the students with disabilities more integrated into the general education community, and their buddies look out for them. The general education students get credits for these classes like they would for an elective class.
Some of the students who have signed up for the program [five years ago] have gone on to high school. Some of them come back. Some of them are looking at going into teaching special needs. That’s a plus right there. We were able to give them that experience in middle school, and it’s something that they saw value in, and made it their goal for their future jobs.
