The Implementation Years: Second Generation Mothers

Abstract

I am defining this second historical time frame as the years between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s in which implementation and compliance become the focus of special education, an era in which both schools and parents test the limits of the law. In this chapter, I include two mothers introduced in chapter three, Cosette and Lindsey, whose later narratives cross into this time frame (see appendix E). I introduce five mothers whose children, born in the 1980s (with the exception of one older sibling who does not figure extensively into her mother’s overall narrative), were of school age during this period and labeled learning disabled (LD): Rosemary whose daughter Rebecca was born in 1981; Marie who has a daughter, Tia, born in 1979 and a son, Gregory, born in 1982; Chloe who has two daughters, Jessie born in 1982 and Ashlyn born in 1988; Sue whose son Evan was born in 1984; and Dawn who has a son, Shawn, born in 1985 and a daughter, Brittany, born in 1988 (see appendix B). All of the mothers are White, but represent a range of socioeconomic level. Two mothers identify as middle to upper class, two mothers identify as middle class, and one mother identifies as lower-middle class (see appendix C).