Fighting for Special Needs Families: Lola Greene on Budget Cuts, Disability Rights & Grassroots Action

📄 Buzzsprout Podcast Description:

In this powerful episode of The Color Between the Lines, host Esther Dillard speaks with Lola Greene, founder of Urban Indigo and the first Special Education PTSA in Georgia. As a passionate advocate for children with disabilities and their families, Lola shares personal insight into what’s at stake as budget cuts and federal policy changes threaten vital services like Medicaid, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and transitional support.

Lola doesn’t just highlight the problems—she brings solutions. From launching parent advocacy fellowships to partnering with foster care experts and urban leadership programs, she’s equipping families to protect their rights and raise their voices in halls of power.

🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How proposed federal and state budget cuts may impact IEPs, 504 plans, and special education programs
• What families can do right now to prepare and advocate for their children
• Why community, housing insecurity, and disability are deeply interconnected
• How Urban Indigo is empowering parents and future grassroots leaders
• Recommended books like Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy and Black Disability Politics by Sami Schalk

This isn’t just policy—it’s personal. And Lola Greene reminds us that no one is coming to save us—we must save ourselves.

📣 Whether you're a parent, educator, policymaker, or concerned ally, this conversation will move you to act.

🔔 Subscribe to the podcast for more enlightening talks and join us in exploring how historical narratives shape our future. You can also watch it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@thecolorbetweenthelines

Transcript

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In this edition of the Color between the Lines. receives in school, the occupational therapy that he receives in school, with budget cuts, I don't know how that's going to affect it. I speak with Lola Greene. She's an advocate and leader for parents who have kids with special needs and disabilities. She has some resources and advice for parents who are concerned about the Trump administration so called big beautiful bill that was signed into law. And she shares why this conversation is very personal to her. What? I'm Esther Dillard chatting with writers, authors and experts who offer an added perspective for listeners. This is the color between the lines. Thank you so much, Lola, Green, for joining us on the color between the lines. We really want to know, a little bit more about your organization. I know a lot about your organization, but others who may be listening may not tell us about it and what kind of work you do in Atlanta, Georgia, to help families with kids with special needs and disabilities. Yes. So thank you for having me. Thank you for having me back. I really do appreciate it. We appreciate it. So at Urban Indigo, we service families that have children with special needs. But, you know, we do it in a unique way, so we make sure that we include all, because that's what inclusivity is, including all. So we look at not just, you know, families that may have neurotypical children or a child that may need, physical support. We look into foster care. So we have a wonderful foster care specialist because she's our go to. Her name is Pamela Bruce. She's been really amazing on this journey and letting us know, educating the organization and others, about the challenges within the foster care system. She is a foster care parent, and she receives the. The children that other people give up on. So just a child being in foster care, we consider a special need. And outside of that, we also have children that do have special needs inside of foster care. So we want to make sure that we bring them in and support them, as well as the families that are facing housing insecurities. And with housing insecurities, we have a lot of families that are in motel situations, the extended stays, and they have children that have special needs, that have IEPs, that have 504s. And being in that situation is a special need. So we try to make sure that, we are able to support everybody. We can't do everything. We know that, but we want to make sure that we bring people into community and teach them what community is and make sure that as we are giving out and pouring into them, that they are pouring into the organization. Just by, you know, showing up, giving words of advice and lending their story to others. I know that. Help elevate. Help elevate those voices. Well, I'm sorry to cut you off. I know that, your organization, Urban Indigo, has also done a special partnership with other parents to create a special needs parent teacher organization in Georgia. I think this is the first one, right? The first and only. So, PTA just celebrated 125 years. Yay. And the first PTA was bought up in Georgia. I found that out. We had training in June, and, Yeah, so it's the Special Educations, Georgia Special Education, ptsa, and that's Parent Teacher Student Association. Because we want to make sure that the students are, you know, sharing their stories. We so many times advocate for our experience with our children, but our children that have the ability to communicate, however they're able to communicate, need to, you know, have their stories heard. We've seen that the Trump administration has proposed, budget cuts, with this big, beautiful bill that they supposedly signed up, that's what they call it, and this is going to affect many families, with children with disabilities. What specific concerns that do you have personally about these cuts, which may reflect what other parents are also worried about personally is. Is community. Because for me to sit here and tell you my personal story after being in this field for three years, just walking alongside of everybody, it's like their concerns have been. Became my concerns. What's going to happen with people that are on Medicaid, whether they're receiving Katie Beckett waiver, which exempts them, from having to pay for so many different things. To the parents that are on cmos. I had the pleasure of speaking to somebody from Peach State on Monday, and they said that from what they heard from their higher ups, that nothing's going to change. But as far as I know, that's only because they have a contract right now, but we don't know. So it was good to hear that nothing's going to change for right now, but we're just bracing for impact. We're trying to read up on everything, talk, to different organizations, and see what they're saying and keep up. It's so much stuff to keep up with. We have, like, four different organizations that we're working alongside with. But when it comes to my household and my family, the speech therapy that my son That my son receives in school, the occupational therapy that he receives in school. With budget cuts, I don't know how that's going to affect it. Here in Georgia, we've seen a wave of cuts throughout our schools already, and. Certain people aren't coming back. Here in Fulton County, I know that their transition services, office, they cut them. And that was maybe about three months ago. So it was somewhere between 17 and 20 people cut. And it's like, how are you going to support those families, those children that need transitional support services? We still haven't heard anything yet. M.M. and for those who have children on the spectrum or maybe, have other disabilities are, from what I understand, they've been told that they won't be affected if they need the help and that they have this new provision where you have to check in every six months or something like this. Is this something that is a relief or is it kind of a question? What do you make of that? It's like that Dum dum, the mystery pop. You don't know what you're going to get because you can say, oh, you know, it. Just check in every six months. We miss things all the time. And if you are truly in support of a person, families, communities that have special needs, people, not even just children. You're talking about people. We know that lifestyle is different. The average person's lifestyle is here, here, there, there. People are everywhere. And so to say, every six months there is going to be not, just a check in. It's from what we're hearing, you have to requalify. What are you going to do if you miss it? We're human. I miss things. You know? I mean, we can say, yes, everybody come hither and sync your calendars. Things happen. Technology is technology, and there are so many gaps. What are you going to do if somebody missed that six months? Are you going to say, hey, sorry, we can't support you? There's no clarity on that, and it's. It's egregious to even say, oh, you know what? You'll be fine. Every six months, just check in. Hey, if you're enjoying this conversation, be sure to hit the subscribe button and leave me a comment on what you liked and what you'd like to see more of. It really helps me with my creative process. Now, back to the conversation. For parents who are listening right now and feeling really overwhelmed, even scared, what do you recommend that they do to prepare to protect their children's access to therapy, Medicare, medical care, or, you know, special needs services? What we're suggesting as an organization. If you have questions about how this bill is going to affect your family and your Medicaid contact. Medicaid contact. If you have a CMO here in Georgia, we have Amerigroup, Peach State, care source. Contact them, contact your community representative, contact customer service, sp, speak with the schools. And more importantly, what we're doing at Urban Indigo, we've been kind of doing this behind the scenes and about to launch it. We are going to launch a fellowship. So it's going to be two different fellowships. One fellowship will teach parents, caregivers and community members that have a vested interest in IEPs and 504s. We're going to teach them the process. So it's going to be a four month fellowship. And after that, this is what we truly love. The, advocacy and policy Fellowship. So we're going to be teaching people why they need to vote. You know, how to educate yourself on becoming a well equipped voter. How to go to the Capitol, how to call up your congressman. I mean, anybody that's a, policymaker, putting yourself in front of them, put yourself in front of the school board, and hopefully raise some people that actually want to run and see change in the community. You know, that grassroots effort is really what's going to drive a lot of things right now, and I think people are seeing that. Well, the color between the lines often talks about books and authors and such so that people can empower themselves with good information. So what are a couple of books that you perhaps recommend that a, parent can perhaps access online or go to the library that might help them in this very tumultuous time? So right off the. Top is, rights law. So I, actually did some research and ordered some more books, to bring myself up to date and just get a fresh perspective on what's happening. So let me bring that up real quick. Rights Law From Emotions to Advocacy by Pam and Pete Wright. I know Wright's Law is amazing. A couple of us have taken their classes. When we get some more grant money, I'm going to make sure that everybody is taking their classes. And, yeah, so that's, that's one. And there's a really important book to me that I just ordered. It's Black Disability Politics by Sammy Shaw. Because a lot of times we are looking at the world through a, non black lens. Awesome. So how are your community organization, your community organizations, Urban Indigo and the PTA for special needs in Georgia, how are they, I guess, stepping up to make sure that they're helping parents, given some of the rollbacks that have been said that are going to happen and to support, I guess what kind of support or partnerships do you need to continue doing this kind of work? Yes. So thank you for asking. I'm going to put my presidential PTA hat on right now. Ptsa. So, speaking from the PTSA perspective, here in Georgia, we are keeping up with state PTA as well as national pta and following their lead. For our new charter, we anticipate having a meeting a month after school starts. So school starts August for most kids, August 4th. And so we're looking in September to have our first meeting. We're still waiting on paperwork to come from irs. But, we've been in talks with state about having the first meeting and what that looks like and just kind of like feeling out what everybody else's worries are. That way we can roll out our goals for the pta. So make sure it's in line with the community. That's one. Okay. And for Urban Indigo. For Urban Indigo, our answer is, through fellowship, through this training, because we have to stay informed. We have to make sure that we are training community leaders. And when I say community leaders, I'm talking about grassroots. The people that don't even know their leaders yet. It. You know, I get excited talking about it because I never thought that I would be in this position to even, you know, be on air with you. And it was another woman's, actually DeAndrea bird that was like, oh, no, you can do this. And I was like, no, I'm safe in my house. And it's like, you're not. You are not. No. Nobody's coming to save us. We have to save ourselves. So this has been, A beautiful creation. We're working. We have a partnership with ulf, so that's Urban Leaders Fellowship. The director is Christy James. And this came about from Tamira Samuels out of Texas regional, director. They have just been super amazing to Urban Indigo, getting us set up with, their fellows to make sure that we are on track with our fellowship and. it out in a timely manner. Finally, what is your message to lawmakers and decision makers who you know about what is at stake for a lot of kids that are on the autism spectrum or our special needs and adults, if these programs are dismantled or defended, My message is. It's kind of cliche, and we hear it all the time. Make sure you're on the right side of history. People are more informed now than they've ever been before. There are more coalitions now. People have fear, rage, and anger, and that's dangerous. And we want to create an environment where everybody has hope. No matter if you are a Democrat, Republican, Independent, Green Party, whatever. People should have hope and the basics. And people are in real fear that they may not have that, and it's not right. So just be prepared for the parents to feel empowered, for the caregivers to feel empowered and be at your door if you're on the wrong side of history. I, hope you have something prepared to stand in front of the people and explain why you voted against life. That's it for this edition of the Color between the Lines. If this conversation moved you, make sure you subscribe to the Color between the lines podcast on YouTube, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Esther Dillard.