Special Education Boss® with Karen Mayer Cunningham

What if we stopped calling kids “difficult”… and started getting honest about what difficult behavior is really communicating?In today’s episode, Karen Mayer Cunningham sits down with John Vergara (aka The Difficult Student) — an assistant principal over special education and one of the most impactful voices online when it comes to behavior, leadership, and building classroom culture that actually works.John shares his personal story — from being the student with challenging behavior to becoming a leader supporting teachers, paraprofessionals, and IEP teams across two schools. This conversation is real, practical, and grounded in what helps kids and protects learning for everyone in the room.✨ What You’ll LearnWhy John says “the student is good — it’s the behavior we work on”The 3-part foundation: safety → love → self-esteemWhy structure and procedures are not “strict”… they’re supportA simple mindset shift that changes everything for teachers in hard environmentsResources + Links✅ Join The Academy (Skool Community): https://www.skool.com/special-education-academy/about✅ Get Karen’s book The Epic IEP (official link): https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1637635125?tag=simonsayscomFind John Vergara (The Difficult Student)Instagram / TikTok: @thedifficultstudentPodcast: The Difficult Student Podcast (Spotify / Apple / YouTube)If this episode helped you, follow the podcast, leave a review, and share it with a teacher, parent, or advocate who needs it.“When we get it right for the child, we get it right for everybody.” — Karen Mayer Cunningham Support the show✨ When we get it right for the child, we get it right for everybody. ✨ 👩‍⚖️ Hosted by Karen Mayer Cunningham, Advocate & Special Education Boss®Each week, Karen shares real stories, legal insights, and no-nonsense strategies to help you navigate special education with clarity and confidence. 👉 Subscribe & never miss an episode — new episodes drop every week!🎓 Join The Academy: Weekly live trainings + 250+ hours of advocacy tools & expert resources🔗 Learn more at The Academy 📬 Have a question? Email us at [email protected] 📱 Follow Karen on: TikTok & Instagram: @specialeducationboss YouTube: Special Education Academy 🧠 Want to level up your advocacy game?Check out the Advocate's Bookshelf — a curated collection of must-have tools, guides, and legal references every special education advocate should own. From federal code to diagnostic manuals, these are the essentials that help you advocate with clarity and confidence. 📚 Browse now: https://amzn.to/3RiQPLl(As an Amazon Associate, Karen may earn a small commission if you make a purchase — at no extra cost to you.) ...

This week’s Ask the Advocate is a fast-paced Q&A covering what parents and educators are dealing with right now: staffing shortages, messy “tier” conversations, behavior needs being dismissed, and districts trying to move too fast (or stall completely) when the child needs support.🧑‍🏫 Staffing, Paras, and “Who’s Allowed to Do What”Sub paras placed in self-contained/tier settings with no training—what to say and who to alertCan students be left alone with high school helpers?Can a short-term/long-term sub run a self-contained classroom for consecutive years?📚 IEP Process, Documentation, and DataPWN: getting the denial in writing and why it mattersWhy Karen doesn’t want “service logs”—she wants raw data collection sheets tied to IEP goals🚨 Behavior, Safety, and FAPE“IEPs are only for academics” — absolutely notElopement: when the BIP isn’t working, you need a new FBA/BIP and stronger supports🏫 Inclusion and Continuum of Placement“Inclusion only” with no pull-out/self-contained options = denial of the continuumOut-of-district placement: what documentation and patterns matter, and when it becomes urgentLinks & Resources📘 Pre-order The Epic IEP + claim bonuses:Order on Amazon (or anywhere you buy books), then submit your receipt at theepiciep.comBook link: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1637635125?tag=simonsayscomBonuses: https://www.theepiciep.com🌐 Special Education Academy: https://www.specialeducationacademy.com📩 Want to host a book tour training stop? Use the intake form on the website to get connected. Support the show✨ When we get it right for the child, we get it right for everybody. ✨ 👩‍⚖️ Hosted by Karen Mayer Cunningham, Advocate & Special Education Boss®Each week, Karen shares real stories, legal insights, and no-nonsense strategies to help you navigate special education with clarity and confidence. 👉 Subscribe & never miss an episode — new episodes drop every week!🎓 Join The Academy: Weekly live trainings + 250+ hours of advocacy tools & expert resources🔗 Learn more at The Academy 📬 Have a question? Email us at [email protected] 📱 Follow Karen on: TikTok & Instagram: @specialeducationboss YouTube: Special Education Academy 🧠 Want to level up your advocacy game?Check out the Advocate's Bookshelf — a curated collection of must-have tools, guides, and legal references every special education advocate should own. From federal code to diagnostic manuals, these are the essentials that help you advocate with clarity and confidence. 📚 Browse now: https://amzn.to/3RiQPLl(As an Amazon Associate, Karen may earn a small commission if you make a purchase — at no extra cost to you.) ...

In this Ask the Advocate episode, Karen Mayer Cunningham, Special Education Boss®, answers rapid-fire questions from parents, teachers, and advocates—and shares how her new book, The Epic IEP, gives you a clear roadmap to write and understand an IEP that actually serves the child.Karen and Cindy dig into real situations from the IEP/504 table, including:The Epic IEP & Pre-Order Bonuses – How the 7-part framework walks you through an IEP step by step, plus how to pre-order the book and unlock $500 in bonuses and group bundles for schools, agencies, and parent organizations.LRE, Placement & Services – Moving from early childhood services into life skills, what Least Restrictive Environment really means, and how to know if your child’s needs are being met.Paras, One-to-One Aides & Staffing – Whether a para can be alone with a student, if a teacher can leave all IEP minutes to a para, and why the phrase “special education para” is misleading.Behavior, Safety, Truancy & FAPE – When sending students home becomes a denial of FAPE, what to do if your child is hurt, restrained, or you only see part of a video, and how to respond when schools stop communicating.The Epic IEP Weekly Academy – weekly training on federal law, IEPs, and live Q&AThe Epic IEP 2-Day Intensive – live and on-demand deep-dive training📘 Pre-order The Epic IEP + bonuses:https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1637635125?tag=simonsayscomSubmit your receipt for bonuses: https://www.theepiciep.com🏫 Learn with Karen weekly inside The Academy:https://www.specialeducationacademy.com📩 Host Karen in your state:Email [email protected] Support the show✨ When we get it right for the child, we get it right for everybody. ✨ 👩‍⚖️ Hosted by Karen Mayer Cunningham, Advocate & Special Education Boss®Each week, Karen shares real stories, legal insights, and no-nonsense strategies to help you navigate special education with clarity and confidence. 👉 Subscribe & never miss an episode — new episodes drop every week!🎓 Join The Academy: Weekly live trainings + 250+ hours of advocacy tools & expert resources🔗 Learn more at The Academy 📬 Have a question? Email us at [email protected] 📱 Follow Karen on: TikTok & Instagram: @specialeducationboss YouTube: Special Education Academy 🧠 Want to level up your advocacy game?Check out the Advocate's Bookshelf — a curated collection of must-have tools, guides, and legal references every special education advocate should own. From federal code to diagnostic manuals, these are the essentials that help you advocate with clarity and confidence. 📚 Browse now: https://amzn.to/3RiQPLl(As an Amazon Associate, Karen may earn a small commission if you make a purchase — at no extra cost to you.) ...

What do you do when the school’s “data” makes no sense, your child is stuck on a 504 instead of an IEP, or behavior is being blamed on your student instead of addressed in the plan? In this Ask the Advocate episode, Karen Mayer Cunningham, The Special Education Boss®, is answering rapid-fire questions from parents, teachers, and paras who are in the thick of it every day.All with humor, straight talk, and a whole lot of “you’re not crazy for asking.”📚 The Epic IEP™ – Pre-Order + BonusesKaren’s new book, The Epic IEP, releases next month! When you pre-order, you can come back and claim $500+ in bonuses.👉 Order the book here:Official Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1637635125?tag=simonsayscom👉 Then claim your bonuses:Visit TheEpicIEP.com and submit your information to unlock your pre-order bonuses.🎓 Train with Karen & Special Education AcademyReady for deeper training and community?Join The Academy (Skool community)Weekly live trainings, 250+ hours of replays, and practical tools for parents, paras, educators, and advocates.👉 https://www.skool.com/special-education-academy/aboutNeed support at the table?Complete the intake form at SpecialEducationAcademy.com, and our team will connect you with a trained advocate partner.Like, follow, share, and subscribe so you never miss an episode. Send this to a parent, para, or teacher who needs backup at the IEP/504 table. Support the show✨ When we get it right for the child, we get it right for everybody. ✨ 👩‍⚖️ Hosted by Karen Mayer Cunningham, Advocate & Special Education Boss®Each week, Karen shares real stories, legal insights, and no-nonsense strategies to help you navigate special education with clarity and confidence. 👉 Subscribe & never miss an episode — new episodes drop every week!🎓 Join The Academy: Weekly live trainings + 250+ hours of advocacy tools & expert resources🔗 Learn more at The Academy 📬 Have a question? Email us at [email protected] 📱 Follow Karen on: TikTok & Instagram: @specialeducationboss YouTube: Special Education Academy 🧠 Want to level up your advocacy game?Check out the Advocate's Bookshelf — a curated collection of must-have tools, guides, and legal references every special education advocate should own. From federal code to diagnostic manuals, these are the essentials that help you advocate with clarity and confidence. 📚 Browse now: https://amzn.to/3RiQPLl(As an Amazon Associate, Karen may earn a small commission if you make a purchase — at no extra cost to you.) ...

Today’s episode of The Epic IEP™ is a little bit longer — but you’re going to want to hear this. Karen Mayer Cunningham, The Special Education Boss®, shares a real IEP meeting where the school’s data didn’t match what the student could actually do at home. And the difference wasn’t small.Karen walks through why she always brings her own data to the table — three cold reads, two cold writes, and a clear picture of the child’s real baseline. When the school claimed the student was reading 80 words correct per minute on a Level Q, the home data told a very different story: repeated errors, constant self-corrections, and a much lower true accuracy rate.In this episode, you’ll learn how to:• Use home cold reads to verify (or challenge) school data• Identify inflated reading levels using clean accuracy percentages• Share video evidence in the meeting to clarify present levels• Respond when staff say “we don’t take off for errors”• Bring the conversation back to needs, baselines, and appropriate goals• Reset the meeting when the data doesn’t match realityKaren reminds parents and advocates that a child’s needs don’t disappear when they walk into the school building. If it’s a need on Saturday, it’s a need at school. The goal is always the same: find the real baseline so the team can write IEP goals that enable the student to make progress appropriate in light of their circumstances.📘 Get The Epic IEP (official Amazon link):https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1637635125?tag=simonsayscom👉 Join The Academy:250+ hours of training and weekly coachinghttps://www.skool.com/special-education-academy/about Support the show✨ When we get it right for the child, we get it right for everybody. ✨ 👩‍⚖️ Hosted by Karen Mayer Cunningham, Advocate & Special Education Boss®Each week, Karen shares real stories, legal insights, and no-nonsense strategies to help you navigate special education with clarity and confidence. 👉 Subscribe & never miss an episode — new episodes drop every week!🎓 Join The Academy: Weekly live trainings + 250+ hours of advocacy tools & expert resources🔗 Learn more at The Academy 📬 Have a question? Email us at [email protected] 📱 Follow Karen on: TikTok & Instagram: @specialeducationboss YouTube: Special Education Academy 🧠 Want to level up your advocacy game?Check out the Advocate's Bookshelf — a curated collection of must-have tools, guides, and legal references every special education advocate should own. From federal code to diagnostic manuals, these are the essentials that help you advocate with clarity and confidence. 📚 Browse now: https://amzn.to/3RiQPLl(As an Amazon Associate, Karen may earn a small commission if you make a purchase — at no extra cost to you.) ...