Jenny Arndt

I attribute my success to persistence and taking things one day at a time, especially during the most challenging periods. When I went back to school after 30 years during the pandemic, I found myself at home, locked in the house with my children, going back to school, and then helping them try to navigate online school because they couldn't go in person. I look back today and I'm like, oh wow, that was a lot. How did I get through that? But it was just one day at a time. I couldn't focus on anything past the week ahead, just so that I could get through. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and you have to stick with it. If you're committed to something, you can make it happen. I think a lot of people hold their tongue just because of cancel culture, but if your heart is in the right place and you're creating positive change, you need to shout that from the rooftops and be committed to it and keep pushing forward, because people will hear you and you're gonna get some momentum behind you. When my son was nonverbal for the first six years of his life, I fought to get him access to intensive behavioral therapy. I went to the county and said, how am I gonna get him to school every day? They wanted to put him in a cab by himself, and I said no you're not putting my three-year-old in a cab by himself every day. I went out and found a transportation company that handled medical transportation, and I went to the county and said, this is what we're gonna do, how are we gonna make it work? We had the senator come down and the state representative, and they said, you're not gonna ever have any problems with this again. Now southern Minnesota finally has medical transportation for children with special needs that need specific therapies. My son is now 17 and he won't shut up. I really relish in those accomplishments.

The best career advice I’ve ever received is, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” It taught me that persistence and speaking up are essential when advocating for change. If your intentions are rooted in doing good and creating positive outcomes, you must be willing to be vocal and keep pushing forward until progress is made.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Stick with it. If you're committed to something, you can make it happen. I think society right now, a lot of people hold their tongue just because of cancel culture. But if your heart is in the right place and you're creating positive change, you need to shout that from the rooftops and be committed to it and keep pushing forward, because people will hear you. You're gonna get some momentum behind you, and you're gonna look back and be like, wow, I really accomplished that. When my son was nonverbal for the first six years of his life and I was trying to get him access to therapy in southern Minnesota, I went to the county and said, how am I gonna get him to school every day? They wanted to put my three-year-old in a cab by himself, and I said no you're not. I went out and found a transportation company that handled medical transportation, and I said, this is what we're gonna do, how are we gonna make it work? From there, we had the senator come down and the state representative, and they said you're not gonna ever have any problems with this again. Now southern Minnesota finally has medical transportation for children with special needs that need specific therapies just so they can participate in their communities and in their school districts.

One of the biggest challenges is that there really is no professional accreditation, certificate, or degree for special education advocacy work, even though the systems are so complex. School districts operate from a business standpoint nowadays. They don't necessarily operate as a public entity anymore. They redline so much that they have to continue to cut here and there to make those tax dollars work. Teaching is a dying profession. It's so hard to find teachers that are willing and ready to go into the field. It's frightening because you wonder what's going to happen in 15, 20 years. The systems are so complex, and if you're not competent enough to understand the difference in simple assessment wording, it could mean thousands and thousands of dollars worth of therapy that your child isn't going to get. I had one client who struggled with reading for years, and the school district just said, oh nope, they're fine, they're pulling seats, they're fine. Well no, they're not, because they're not doing the best of their ability. Come to find out, all they needed was a dyslexia assessment, a reading assessment, to find out that their child actually had dyslexia. That is an affected disability, and specialized instruction needs to be given for children with dyslexia because their brain processes things differently. If they don't get the specialized education, they're never going to be able to reach the opportunity that's within them to learn how to read functionally and overcome their disability. What's most important to me is just making sure that people are aware that there are self-advocates out there, that there are professional advocates that are waiting around to help, and that families don't have to be alone. We're just a phone call away, or even an email or a text message.

The most important thing to me is making sure that people are aware that there's help out there and that they don't have to be alone. We're just a phone call away, or even an email or a text message. I remember when we first got our children's diagnoses, and I was lost. My husband and I kind of looked at each other like, what are we gonna do? We tried asking around, and no one even knew really what autism was. It was just like you hit a brick wall. We were like, oh my gosh, you have a child that needs help, and no one really knows what it is. What are you gonna do? Now it's great because you hear about it all the time, but still in the rural communities where I'm from, in the outstate rural communities, you have families that don't know about therapies or services or even how to access those services and supports that their child needs. School districts get kind of tricky because they don't ever necessarily tell you everything that's available. They don't go, here's the buffet of services that we offer, what's your child gonna need? You have to know their language. My goal is to make sure families know they're not alone and that there are advocates waiting to help them navigate these systems so their children can access the same education as their peers and reach their full potential.