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NJ Student Advocate - Hot Off the Presses
NJ Student Advocate On-Line Version

Our organization, A Parents’ Initiative for Every Child’s Education http://APIECENJ.org has completed work on and will be picking up 10,000 copies of “The First Issue” of The New Jersey Student Advocate, with the slogan: “Standing up for the rights of all students including those facing adversity due to disability, racial disparity and economic inequity.”

This initial issue, while addressing several topics, is primarily dedicated to our efforts and those efforts of over thousands of adult residents of the state, mostly parents, and dozens of organizations, to prevent the rollback of rights for public school children with disabilities, their parents and guardians, and the elimination of important processes that are vital for the survival and success of such students.

The first page leads with a copy of the petition that has already gathered over 1100 signatures and instructions on how to mail or fax copies to the NJ Department of Education as well as to us so that we can gather the signatures for our presentation of the petition during public testimony on these issues.

The paper also includes articles about letter writing, the hearing process, the issue of where are the candidates on these issues, racial disparities in special education, how advocacy attorneys are disputing DOE interpretations of IDEIA 2004, how to organize a meeting on these topics in your community, bullying, the need for independent organizations, IDEIA 2004 resources, the Amistad Act, the SCC debacle, the Roberts nomination and student rights, how to protect your child’s privacy, recreational programs for those with disabilities and other topics.

Why a newspaper:

While we have been able to reach many people through internet and face to face organizing, many people do not read their e-mail messages and many are not geared toward the internet at all.  There are many among our constituency who can not afford internet access or have little or no time to participate in internet discussions on these topics.  Furthermore, there are many folks who are interested in these areas of concern but who would prefer to communicate the dialogical face to face method of communication – they will respond to such discussion but not necessarily to internet messages.  The newspaper will give the opportunity to make these connections.

This newspaper will be a valuable organizing tool to connect with our constituency – the families of 225,000 special education students in the state of NJ.  It will also give opportunity to explore opportunities for convergence around issues of special needs, the failure of SCC, how history is taught in public schools, bullying and other issues – if we ever converge across the many diverse communities whose needs are inadequately addressed by public schools – we can increase our impact around issues that concern all of us.

It also demonstrates to the Statehouse and the NJ DOE that we have the wherewithal to hold our ground on behalf of our children.

How you can help:

Our goals are to distribute the newspaper by handing it our (for free or for small donations) at events, organizational meetings, in communities – but also through snail mail.  In order to get the issues out there and maximize the potential the paper provides – we need help with distribution.  We also need finances to recover the costs of printing and postage.  While getting 10,000 papers into the hands of people that need to know is quite a tall order, our abilities are unlimited when we converge, organize, exchange ideas, etc.

Specifically:

1. If you can make an outright donation toward the publication – please make checks payable to APIECE, PO Box 1214, Belle Mead, NJ 08502.  No donation is too large or too small – be it as much as $100 or as little as $1.  We have fronted the cost of printing out of pocket but hope to recover at least part of the expense.
2. We can send you a bulk of copies for the cost of $.10 (ten cents) apiece plus postage.  We hope that you will make the effort to get them out at your support group meetings, at the bus stop or wherever you believe sympathetic parents or supporters are.  Follow the payment method above.  If you are in the Montgomery / Princeton area or passing through this area and want to get more papers and save on the shipping, call 908-881-5275 or write advocate@studentadvocate-NJ.org to arrange to pick the papers up.  You might want to get a stack for your office location, to keep in your car or brief case or readily handy to distribute to clients, colleagues, friends, relatives, etc.  Whenever you move the paper, you are promoting the rights of your children.
3. Any donation of any number of postage stamps is welcome.  If you send us one stamp, we will send you a copy of the paper.  If you send us a few or many, we will use them to mail more copies to petition signers and others.  If you send us several stamps and a list of addresses of folks you would like to get the paper to, we will mail it to them.  Send the stamps to the above address (see #1 above).
4. If you can not afford to contribute to get a bulk number of papers out but will commit to their distribution to appropriate recipients, let us know how many you need by calling 908-881-5275 or writing advocate@studentadvocate-NJ.org .
5. If you know of events where it would be appropriate for us to table at and / or speak at to promote the paper and the petition, please contact us at 908-881-5275 or advocate@studentadvocate-NJ.org .
6. If you want to organize an informational session with petition signing, letter writing, paper distribution and preparation for hearing input, please contact us at 908-881-5275 or advocate@studentadvocate-NJ.org .
7. If you want to include our paper in a mailing to your membership or constituency and you can donate the cost of the mailing, let us know how many you need and we will get those to you.
8. If you have other ideas as to how we can get the paper into the hands of as many of the 225,000 special education parents as possible, please let us know.

If you take any of the above steps, including mailing support to us, please contact us as well by calling 908-881-5275 or writing advocate@studentadvocate-NJ.org .

Our organization APIECE has a slogan: We Can!  We Will!  Together!

Let us all get busy!

For Our Children,

Bob Witanek

http://StudentAdvocate-NJ.org

http://APIECENJ.org

908-881-5275

advocate@StudentAdvocate-NJ.org

apiece@apiecenj.org