Host Tracey Spencer Walsh sits down with Lori Podvesker, Director of Disability and Education Policy at INCLUDEnyc and longtime advocate for equity in New York City schools, for an eye-opening conversation about transparency, access, and the lived realities of families navigating special education. With decades of experience across policy, teaching, and parent advocacy, Lori breaks down the systemic barriers that continue to impact students with disabilities and what it will take to build a school system rooted in dignity, accountability, and real support.

Here is what you'll take away from this important conversation:🟡 Why families continue to face the same challenges in special education, decades after promises of reform
🟡 How the city’s broken busing system has become a civil rights issue for students with disabilities
🟡 The difference between legal compliance and meaningful, student-centered support
🟡 Why culturally responsive, multilingual family engagement must be non-negotiable
🟡 How classification language shapes equity and why New York State is pushing to change it
🟡 What true transparency looks like, and why families shouldn’t have to navigate the system alone

“Families are trying to do everything right, and yet the system still makes them fight for what their children are entitled to. Transparency shouldn’t be this hard.” - Lori Podvesker

This episode is essential listening for any parent, educator, policymaker, or advocate committed to improving outcomes for students with disabilities. Whether you’ve experienced systemic barriers firsthand or want to better understand the urgent issues facing NYC families today, Lori’s insight offers both clarity and a powerful call to action.

🎧 Press play now and rethink what real accountability, equity, and partnership in special education should look like.

Lori is the Director of Disability and Education Policy at the nonprofit INCLUDEnyc, where she has led initiatives for more transparency, accountability, and improved outcomes for New York City students with disabilities. She is also a member of the New York State Commissioner’s Advisory Panel for Special Education Services, which advises the New York State Office of Special Education to the Governor, Legislature, and Commissioner, on the unmet educational needs of students with disabilities. Lori is the former Vice-Chair of the Panel for Educational Policy of the New York City Department of Education, also known as the New York City Board of Education. Prior to these roles, Lori taught both general and special education in public and non-public schools in New York City and Newark, NJ. She lives in Brooklyn and has a 19-year-old son with developmental disabilities who attends a District 75 program on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

More information about INCLUDEnyc here >> https://includenyc.org/