To Table of Contents the career staff , the political staff , the Secretary , are very invested in helping schools be open and safe and a place where kids are learning . I ' ve kind of been doing this for 30 years . Again , I feel very honored to have this opportunity .
Are there any projects upcoming , or projects that you ' ve worked on that you would consider major accomplishments in your career ? One of the things that is thrilling for me right now is being a part of the President ' s Build-Back Better Initiative [ which ] includes some historic investments in childcare and preschool services . When I was at Easterseals , we helped create an inclusive child care model program because many families with kids with disabilities couldn ' t find childcare to save their souls . There were childcare programs that were too afraid to take a kid with a disability . There were very few options . So we chose to create a new program . If we can ' t find it , let ' s build it ourselves . This model program has grown over the years . We now have this opportunity with the President ' s Build Back Better Initiative , where we are going to be able to increase not only the amount of childcare , but the quality of childcare so all kids can get an appropriate early education experience , whether in a childcare setting , or in a preschool setting . The way the program has been designed with my colleagues at the Department of Health , Human Services , and the Department of Education , [ is ] to be inclusive of children with disabilities from the start , not as an afterthought . They ' re not an add-on . It ' s how we do this right from day one .
I ' ve been working on inclusive early education for at least 20 years . And to see that , knowing that I have shaped the dialogue that has helped inform where we are today . When the President ' s proposal in Congress hopefully [ gets ] approved , what that will mean for kids and working families is just mind-blowing . I ' m very hopeful that the President ' s plan will become law , and we can start really working on making this real .
What are your future plans ? What do you think the Department of Education in terms of serving people with disabilities , or creating more innovation or technology , will look like ? The Department has a role to monitor how states oversee the implementation of the Federal Special Education Law . We are in the process of ramping up our monitoring so that states know they have a partner with us , but we expect them to meet the letter in the spirit of the law . Similarly , the Department and office I work in oversee the Vocational Rehabilitation Program , helping adults with disabilities get trained and placed in jobs appropriate for them . This is a place where we know we ' ve got a lot of room for more innovation . It ' s something I ' m really looking forward to digging into , in how we support the Rehabilitation Agencies to have more success in helping people be employed in their communities doing things that fit their skills .
One of the reasons I ' m such a huge early education advocate is because I have seen over the course of my career the different skill sets of someone who had access to early intervention , [ versus ] those that didn ' t . By having that delay , not getting services until the K-12 world , [ is ] a disservice and makes it more difficult to catch up . The more we invest in early education , the better outcomes we ' re going to have in employment when people leave high school or whatever it is that ' s right for them . All learning really does begin at birth , and we need to support families to help them on their journey so that everybody can have the life that they want .