Why I founded EDquity at the Margins, and what families can expect from our work.
I am Dr. Reba Clarke-Wedderburn, founder and Executive Director of EDquity at the Margins. I want to take a moment to tell you why this organization exists and what families can expect from us.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act guarantees every eligible child a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. That mandate has never been evenly enforced. School districts arrive at IEP meetings with teams of professionals, evaluators, and administrators whose command of specialized terminology and procedural rules creates a structural disadvantage for families who lack equivalent training.
For Black, Brown, economically disadvantaged, and non-native-English-speaking families, that disadvantage is compounded by documented patterns of racial and economic disparity in special education identification, placement, and service delivery.
I have lived this work before I named it. I am a 21-year educator, a neurodivergent mother of a twice-exceptional son, and an advocate who fought for instructionally substantive special education for my own child from individual IEP meetings all the way to the director of schools. I have coached pre-service and in-service teachers in graduate licensure programs. I have built standards-aligned curriculum grounded in disability advocacy and special education policy. And I have watched too many families walk into IEP meetings unprepared, outnumbered, and without anyone in the room whose job is to represent their child.
EDquity at the Margins translates institutional special education practices into plain language so families can engage with schools as true, empowered partners. We provide two free services:
We serve families nationwide via virtual delivery, and both services are free. Access is the point, so families never pay to understand or enforce their child's rights.
I will use this space to share practical advocacy guidance, updates on our work, trends we see across the families we serve, and the policy context behind the day-to-day fights families face. If you want IEP updates, resources, and event announcements delivered to your inbox, you can subscribe in the footer of any page on this site.
I want every child to have a "ME" fighting for them. This blog is one of the ways I am working to make that happen.
Dr. Reba Clarke-Wedderburn
Keep reading
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Proving the district broke a rule is not the same as proving your child was harmed, and federal law tells the hearing officer to look for the harm. Knowing that changes what belongs in your folder.
A due process hearing sounds like a courtroom where the district holds every advantage. Federal law gives both parties specific rights at the hearing, and it reserves a few for parents alone.