The V.O.I.C.E. Strategy

Turning Parent Voices into Student Victories

I am stepping forward to be the next SECAC Chair for Prince George's County Public Schools. As a mother of three children navigating this district, I know the realities, the roadblocks, and the triumphs our families experience daily. My background as a technical writer equips me with the structural expertise to navigate complex policies and special education advocacy, but at my core, I am simply "That Parent." I am the one who refuses to accept the status quo, and I am fiercely dedicated to ensuring every family has a seat at the table to lend their voice to the discussion. ~Theresa

The Blueprint:

To execute the vision, I am bringing a comprehensive, 5-pillar strategic framework to the SECAC-PG Executive Board. This is how we will work together to build a community, not just a committee:

🔍 V – Visibility 

• Architect Unified Messaging: Drive a consistent, high-level visibility strategy across all platforms to ensure the needs of children and existing policy gaps remain inescapable

• Direct Local Representation: Formalize SECAC representation at targeted town halls and district-specific events to capture, quantify, and elevate localized citizen voices directly to decision-makers

• Establish Executive Briefings: Institute regular "state of the district" briefings from SECAC to district leadership regarding special education

• Integrate a Mental Health Lens: Ensure all policy directives, educational frameworks, and student safety be elevated through a mental health lens, prioritizing the emotional well-being of children
  
  

🌐 O – Outreach

• Architect a Centralized Resource Hub: Develop a clear, accessible digital resource hub to triage and direct families toward appropriate day-to-day advocacy support channels 

• Operationalize Peer Networks: Establish carefully structured peer-to-peer networking opportunities to facilitate organic resource sharing and ground-level intelligence gathering

• Targeted Community Integration: Direct proactive outreach campaigns to underrepresented districts, ensuring true geographic and demographic parity in SECAC participation

• Cultivate Strategic Alliances: Build formal relationships with local community organization leaders to amplify the advocacy network.
  
  
  

🤝 I – Integrated Collaboration

• Audit Governance: Conduct a comprehensive review of governing documents to systematically dismantle inadvertent institutional barriers

• Embed Strategic Partnerships: Transition SECAC from a passive advisory role into an active partner with the Board of Education, ensuring advisory recommendations are formally integrated into the district's macro-level strategic goals

• Support Critical System Transitions: Cultivate structural partnerships with community resources to specifically guide and support families navigating systemic transitions, particularly the critical shifts from Infants and Toddlers programs into school-age services, and secondary transitions out of the district into adulthood

• Drive Preventative Compliance Integration: Champion the repositioning of the district’s compliance office role from a reactive enforcement arm to a proactive, collaborative resource

• Lead Cross-Functional Coalitions: Forge structural alliances with other disability advisory councils at the county, state, and federal levels to standardize best practices and pool policy influence
  
  
  

⚡ C – Citizen Empowerment

• Deploy Structural Toolkits: Architect an enterprise-level advocacy toolkit that demystifies COMAR and federal IDEA guidelines, transforming parents into confident, subject-matter experts

• Institute Formal Advocacy Training: Cultivate partnerships with leading educational rights organizations to establish a district-specific advocacy training series, elevating parents from meeting participants to formally trained advocates

• Drive Legislative Readiness: Equip citizens with the precise structural knowledge required to safely and effectively engage with executives and state legislators to drive actionable parity legislation

• Train for Oversight: Empower families with the specific language and protocols needed to demand implementation fidelity for their child's IEP, and moving beyond IEP paperwork into systemic accountability
  
  
  

📊 E – Effectiveness & Metrics

• Implement Data-Driven Reporting: Establish concrete, verifiable metrics for digital engagement, specifically tracking month-over-month growth in web traffic, resource downloads, and meeting contirbutions

• Standardize Closed-Loop Communication: Ensure that community feedback is formally tracked and that outcomes or administrative responses are explicitly reported back to the community, establishing trust through transparent oversight

• Quantify Strategic Initiatives: Document and analyze the impact of formalized, joint initiatives hosted alongside partnerships

• Track Policy Adoption: Institute a rigorous tracking system for SECAC policy advice, measuring the operational fidelity of district promises versus the actual, ground-level outcomes for families

💬 Connect with Me!
Building a true community requires all of our voices. I am here to listen, to collaborate, and to drive actionable policy for our district.

• Facebook: Join the conversation in "The Listening Circle"

• Email: yesthatparent@gmail.com