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Chapter 1: How did a mother's fight for her son lead to a movement?
My child had autism. I didn't want him stuck in a corner coloring while they taught the other kids to read. And then they informed me that they wanted to retain him. And I'm like, well, that's news to me. From that point on, I started taking all of my legal education to keep my law license, I knew that I was going to have to fight for my kid.
Kelly Neal is a compassionate, purpose-driven attorney and the founder of Neal Student Support Advocacy and Disability.
Chapter 2: What challenges did Kelly face in the education system?
Drawing from her journey as both a legal advocate and parent, she empowers families to navigate education and disability systems with confidence, helping children access the support and opportunities they deserve.
How you are empowering the disabled.
I started with my son. My daughter's got dyslexia. So, you know, you had to fight through all that. And I'm just thinking, you know, people really need help out here. I've written these self-help books because people can't afford attorneys. So I really would like for people to have those tools in their hands so they can help their kids.
It spans the globe like a super high school internet. Elvis! Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone. It's not over until I win. The Living Your Legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy.
Chapter 3: How did Kelly's legal background influence her advocacy?
That's extraordinary. The impossible. Oh, that is sensational. Open. Chicago was the lead. Usain Bolt is the fastest man on the planet.
Welcome back to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast. For Inside Success, I am Ray Gutierrez. Joining me today on this lovely Friday is a powerful woman, literally finished filming her episode with our man Kofi here, April Kelly Neal. I actually have my show notes, A.KellyNeal, but now I've been told that it's April. Welcome to the show. Well, thank you. It's good to be here.
Should I call you April? No, just Kelly.
Just Kelly.
All right, just Kelly. Yeah, just Kelly. Just Kelly, what are we to learn about you in your episode?
Oh, well, you're going to learn that I had kind of a rough upbringing in Wrightsville, Georgia. Then you're going to learn about how I went through law school and that whole thing. And then now, how I've gone through things with my own kids and their learning challenges to writing some books, which I never thought I'd be doing.
And just trying to help other families get through the public school experience. The public school experience. Which can be so delightful.
Oh, so delightful. Coming from an inner city school, Mamie Senior High, where we're all designed to fail, we were always a D school. So trust me, we had to make sure we had to fill out our lunch form so we can get that free lunch. Yes. Or the government would just not look at us because, you know, public funding.
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Chapter 4: What resources did Kelly create for parents navigating education?
Of course, as we speak of the government shutdown. But that's a different podcast for a different time. Yes. Ma'am, where do you begin? Is it pain? Is it awesomeness? Where does your North Star begin in your journey?
would have to say this whole journey that I'm on right now basically started on a good Friday which I intended to go to church but I did not because I had to go to a meeting for my son who was in the first grade this was in March and then they informed to me that they wanted to retain him and I'm like well that's news to me like what's going on and I know that sounds like I'm not a very informed parent but
But I think a lot of parents get ambushed. Like back when I was in school, the grades were A, B, C, D, E, F. Well, in first grade, it was like M, S. I don't know like how to decode this. And the teachers kept telling me, you know, there's some things he's not great at, but things are going to be fine. But then at the end of the year... They wanted to retain him, and then I was just like, no.
What was going on? What was happening?
Well, we later learned that my child had autism, and so he learns differently, and so we just kind of had to deal with that. But from that point on, I started taking all of my—
legal education to keep my law license in education law because I knew that I was going to have to fight for my kid because I knew that this grandmotherly looking first grade teacher who I thought was so nice was really just like not great.
You were going to go that far. Wow.
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Chapter 5: How can parents empower themselves in special education?
Good for you for just like, uh-uh, you do not mess with my legacy. Not like this. What did you learn from that experience? What was the outcome?
Well, the outcome is you cannot trust schools. I don't care how nice they are. You just can't do it. Don't don't do it. And schools are always talking about how, you know, we need to collaborate and and trust. Well, I can collaborate with you just like I can collaborate with my ex-husband.
Yeah.
It's kind of on that level. Yeah. But I'm never going to trust you.
Yeah, I figured out the school system was a joke. I think Mr. Trujillo's class in sixth grade. I never went to class. I always went straight to computer class, the art school. And all my teachers figured it out. Like Ray's a little different. He's doing way better in computer class that he never leaves. He's there from 6am to 6pm.
He's friends with the custodians and after school programs and he's on television. I got lucky. A lot of folks don't get so lucky because I had a grandmother that was fighting for me. I belong to a much worse school, you know, with an outer city school, if you catch my meaning. And I was clearly going to get my ass kicked because I'm a tiny dude raised by his Cuban grandmother.
And my grandmother fought for me because she knew a lot of folks don't get that chance. How are you fighting for folks that were on some sort of spectrum like I was, but sort of was discovered early on?
So you were on the spectrum too?
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Chapter 6: What experiences shaped Kelly's approach to disability advocacy?
I think so. I didn't start talking until I was five. I just looked at people like, well, huh? And I just, one ear out the other. If it's not visual, I don't remember it. I've already forgotten your name. Half the time when I introduced it, I already forgot how I'm producing you. Who are you? Within a second. And it's something I struggle with all the time. But I mask it as like a superpower.
But oh, man, I always struggle. I have these terrible like fits of rage because I cannot compute this reality to this one. And then it's just like a different person. And I've noticed that I'm... And it's because of speaking with people like you on this podcast. You can watch the growth and go, holy shit, I'm doing... It's part of my language.
I'm doing all of these things because of generational trauma, because I wasn't inspired because of all this. And it's just like... Wow. What a realization. So this is a, this is a real journey for me on these shows and listening to you speak. So I'm, I'm fully engaged and I'm a firm believer that I have a superpower that was misdiagnosed or as a matter of fact.
It's a good way of looking at it.
Which was never diagnosed. I have never spoken to a professional and go, yeah, you got this, you got that, you got this. And crap, if we would have figured that out 30 years ago, Ray, you would have been a billionaire by now. But you're going to struggle with your big old eyes until someone figures it out for you.
And until then, I'll keep podcasting until I speak to folks like you and go, yeah, Ray, you zig instead of zag. But I'm okay with that. That's why I host podcasts now and go on these rants.
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Chapter 7: How does community support play a role in advocacy?
I'll shut up now. Ma'am, all about you. Let's focus on your energy.
Okay.
Red, I love the colors.
Thank you.
Your logo. Talk about what you're doing today and how you are empowering the disabled.
Okay. Well, I get lots of calls from parents all the time. A lot less now, but I volunteered with the Georgia Legal Services Program, which provides free or low-cost legal help to families that are having education issues with school. So that's kind of where I started. I started with my son. My daughter's got dyslexia. So, you know, you had to fight through all that.
And I'm just thinking, you know, people really need help out here. I'm an attorney and I'm struggling with this, fighting with schools. So I started with Georgia Legal, basically started. I thought I knew a lot. But then I learned a lot more. And today, you know, I've written these self-help books because people can't afford attorneys. They can't.
And schools know which people can afford attorneys. They're not... you know, pushing those kids out of school. Oh no.
Oh, of course not. No.
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Chapter 8: What advice does Kelly offer to parents facing similar struggles?
Yeah.
Uh, $300,000 in grants is what my work got my studio and television production in high school. I was not taught by anyone in television. My TV professor barely knew how to program the VCR. But I picked up a camera and started filming. And within a year, he filled out grants and got $300,000 of school grants. And we digitized the entire studio. Ma'am, you know what I did?
Graduated from high school and went back to my high school to teach the kids how to edit digitally. Because no one was going to take care of Juan Carlos or Fernando. No, because they're designed to go and sweep houses and clean, right? No, they're not digital editors. There's a lot of suffering and there's a lot of folks out there. There is. They're not fighting.
Send the elevator back down because it is quite the ivory tower, you know, and it's our duty to sit here and go, oh, we're so great. We're great because we're sitting on the shelves of folks that need us, on the shelves, on the shoulders of folks that need us. Talk about your challenges, the challenges with your daughter. And I apologize for using the word challenges. Let's call them experiences.
What are the experiences like living with these superpowers and folks that have these superpowers like ourselves?
It's crazy because the world is not built for us, really.
We're not built for them.
And we're not built for them. They're not ready for us either. But with my son, I guess a lot of his, you know, I just basically had to learn how to educate him. And this sounds really strange, but educate teachers how to deal with my son and other people with autism. And there's this great movie called Temple Grandin. She's a real person with a Ph.D.
And so I would always give my teachers, my son's teachers, those movies so that they knew his potential because I didn't want him stuck in a corner. while they taught the other kids to read because my child has an average IQ. They always seem to look and treat him like he was intellectually disabled. He's not intellectually disabled.
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