Advocating for African American families with children who learn differently.
Highlights of the AACLD's History
The AACLD was first organized in January 2000 by a mother and her two sons for the purpose of increasing awareness in minority communities about learning differences and promoting parent advocacy. For more than a decade the family had struggled with academic challenges that seemed almost insurmountable at times. The maze they traveled for academic success resulted in a strong desire to make the road easier for other families in similar situations.
On the Martin Luther King Holiday, January 15, 2000, the recruitment of a board of trustees and advisory council began with a letter writing campaign. By the end of March a full board and council had been confirmed. As a first step, the AACLD was able to promote a column to the more than 200 minority weekly newspapers throughout the country in urban areas via the wire service of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA). A website was first launched in December 2001 and was recognized by both the National Association of School Psychologists and the National Institute for Urban School Improvement.
In early 2002, the Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities (CCLD) invited the AACLD to join in partnership with the other six nonprofit leaders in the field: Learning Disabilities Association of America, International Dyslexia Association, National Center for Learning Disabilities, Schwab Foundation for Learning, Council for Learning Disabilities, and Division for Learning Disabilities at the Council for Exceptional Children. Numerous requests were soon received for speaking engagements at meetings and conferences, television appearances, and the presentation of testimony before the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education.
The AACLD released for distribution in July 2002 the publication, One Child at a Time . . . A Parent Handbook for African American Families with Children Who Learn Differently, a project funded by Schwab Learning. Later in 2002, the AACLD was awarded a grant from the Columbus Foundation (Ohio) to distribute copies of the parent handbook locally and to provide community outreach services to one of the city's lowest performing elementary schools.
In 2002, the AACLD also received a grant to provide guidance and expertise in the development of public service ads for a national campaign targeting African Americans and encouraging parental involvement when a child is experiencing difficulty in school. In addition to a Parent Network, the AACLD developed a Parent Leadership Institute for the purpose of disseminating information to communities nationwide and for providing a collective voice on special education issues. Funded by a grant from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, the AACLD held its first nationwide training of parent leaders in November 2003.
The AACLD served as a member of the 2004 Learning Disabilities Roundtable, a forum enabling national advocacy organizations to respond quickly to important policy issues and take action. The 2004 work focused on the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). In 2005, the AACLD revised the organization's parent handbook based on the previous year's reauthorization of IDEA by Congress and intersecting information from the federal No Child Left Behind Law.
In June 2005, the AACLD was invited to become a member of the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD), a national committee of representatives of 13 national organizations committed to the education and welfare of individuals with learning disabilities. In July 2005, the AACLD participated in an African American Leaders Roundtable on Education hosted by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Dr. Dorothy I. Height, Chair and President Emerita of the National Council of Negro Women, in Washington, D.C.
Effective January 1, 2006, a Professional Advisory Council was established to draw upon the expertise and knowledge of educators and researchers whose work could be relied upon for accuracy and documentation. The former Advisory Council, was renamed more fittingly as Supporting Organizations. On August 25 and 26, 2006, the AACLD presented a two-part Train the Trainers for African American Parent Leaders in school districts throughout Franklin County, Ohio. The project, which included the development of a training manual, was funded by the Ingram White Castle Foundation and the Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council.
In December 2007, the AACLD launched Stand Up! A Campaign for the Children Left Behind recognizing that in the past the voices of African American parents have been absent in important discussions about public policy issues that affect their children. This campaign, a collective nationwide effort to promote racial equality in special education, provides a forum for parents to stand up and make their voices undeniably heard.
In June 2010, the Oak Foundation awarded a planning grant to the AACLD for the purpose of building "a strong, organizational foundation to support the expansion and sustainability of services to deepen understanding and advocacy for learning differences in African American children." As a result of this year long grant, the AACLD will conduct research to identify promising initiatives and significant findings on strategies, engage experts from academic and non-profit sectors to advise on how to support parent advocacy, and develop a full grant proposal for achieving the organization's goals.
The AACLD has grown to serve thousands of African American families throughout the United States. In addition, it has continued to serve the broader public by responding to an extraordinary number of requests for information nationwide from a very diverse audience including teachers, public and private K-12 schools, colleges and universities, social service agencies, psychologists, hospitals, churches, lawyers, parent groups, and other organizations.