The 74

Jenny Thamer had low hopes for the meeting called by the superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District to hear from families of autistic students. From her experience, such so-called listening sessions are often pro forma events, staged more to assuage parents than to actually brainstorm change. This one had been called hastily, after a handful of caregivers had complained about persistent problems in their children’s classrooms. The meeting was scheduled for the day after Memorial Day, after the end of the Colorado district’s 2022-23 school year. Many families would likely have already left town for summer vacation. Worried no one would show up, Thamer and a couple other parents put together an anonymous online survey they could present if attendance was low. They need not have feared. Some 50 district parents came, cautiously optimistic that Superintendent Rob Anderson would hear their pain. “I have to give him credit,” says Thamer. “He listened to every single caregiver story without interrupting, without rushing people. Like, he was there for it.” The meeting was scheduled to last an hour, but went on for more than four, as families described repeated phone calls from school staffers demanding they pick up their child midday, kids too anxious to go to school, trauma caused by punishments — and, in nearly every case, schools’ lack of interest in parents’ ideas…