President’s Statements
Statement from President Areva Martin on Autism Rates
The distressing new findings by Rutgers University researchers that autism rates have tripled over the past 16 years are made far grimmer by their conclusion that, once again, children in underserved communities are not getting the same access to resources as their...
Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee: Areva Martin Testimony
I would like to thank the members of the IACC for allowing me to offer testimony today. I am speaking to you as the Founder and President of Special Needs Network, as a civil rights attorney, and as the mother to a child with an autism diagnosis. You are aware that...
SNN Calls for Resignations of Martinez, Cedillo, de León and Herrera
Leading child advocacy group cites damage of Council President’s racist, violent comments and colleagues’ complicity. Los Angeles, CA –Special Needs Network demanded the immediate resignation of Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez, Council Members...
President’s Statement on the overturning of Roe v Wade
The aftershocks of today’s SCOTUS opinion overturning Roe vs. Wade are already rippling across the country, as many states have trigger laws withdrawing the established right to abortion. This devastating decision is happening despite that documented fact that a...
President’s Statement on Texas School Mass Shooting
The numbers are impossible to fathom. Nineteen Texas school children and two teachers dead in yet another devastating act of unspeakable violence, just 10 days after the mass shooting targeting Black people shopping for groceries in Buffalo…
Special Needs Network’s Response to COVID-19, ABA Telehealth and Free Mental Health Resources for Families
Dear Special Needs Network Families and Friends, At the end of December 2019, the government in Wuhan, China, confirmed the detection of a new disease and treatment of a handful of cases. On January 11th, 2020, China reported its first death from the novel respiratory...
Statement on the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Last Friday, the world lost one of the most iconic, inspirational, and motivational women we have ever known— Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A feverish defender of civil rights and a true visionary for gender equality, the late justice Ginsburg was a woman who was ahead...
The passing of iconic Civil Rights Leader Vernon Jordan
It is with great sadness that I and Special Needs Network mourn the loss of Vernon Jordan. For over fifty years, Jordan was a social justice pioneer focused on combating racial segregation and advancing civil rights legislation. A graduate of DePaul University and...
PRESIDENT BIDEN DECLARES JUNETEENTH A FEDERALLY RECOGNIZED HOLIDAY
As others have said, this legislation is an important step forward in acknowledging that for Black Americans, freedom did not come in 1776. It did not come in 1862, with the Emancipation Proclamation. It only came two years after the signing of the Emancipation...