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"Our students deserve fulfilling, joyful, warm lives and should not have to exist on the sidelines," says Dr. Megan Johnson, the 2024 WEA Educational Staff Associate (ESA) of the Year. She considers equity and inclusion to be her core values when it comes to her work as a physical therapist for the Bellevue School District."Inclusion means including children with disabilities and giving them full access to the community," Johnson explains.

"Inclusion is not an educational or service model. It is a civil right."

According to Dr. Johnson, education is what changes communities.

"Inclusion starts with us. That's how it moves out into the world," she says. "When children of all abilities belong in their age-matched classroom communities, they create friendships and become valued members of their world. Other children learn the importance of having diversity in their classrooms. They learn empathy. They learn to include people of all abilities in their communities as adults."

"Inclusion starts with us," says Dr. Megan Johnson, Bellevue schools physical therapist and 2024 WEA Educational Staff Associate of the Year. "That's how it moves out into the world."

Dr. Johnson warns that the way her generation and generations prior were educated is no longer good enough. "We cannot repeat old cycles," she explains. "We can only create an inclusive world by aligning with evidenced-based practices and addressing students' needs. This means, allowing students access to every general-education environment so they can learn the skills they need."

This mindset drives Dr. Johnson in her work, teaming up with all staff at her work sites. "We must work together to address the barriers to providing students access to every single aspect of school," she says. "We must challenge ableism, racism, segregation and discrimination, because no child should have to prove they have a certain set of skills before they can be part of any general-education environment."

Dr. Johnson explains that students cannot be expected to master skills before they are exposed to them. "Full inclusion demands the understanding that learning new skills requires exposure to all of it in the classroom," she says. Dr. Johnson's work environment is just that. She pushes into classrooms and any other school environment that will provide students with access to learn the skills they need to engage in their communities.

She is intentional in her work and recognizes it cannot be done in isolation. Full inclusion and meeting the needs of every student requires the whole team. A large part of Dr. Johnson's job is to coach her colleagues. "I have learned to coach teams and empower them to have the capacity and understanding to accomplish interventions all week regardless of whether I am there," she explains. "When the whole team works on interventions, children are more independent as well."

Weekly check-ins are critical to the work. Dr. Johnson checks in with teachers and other school staff who work with her students to see how everything went during the week and to plan next steps for each student on her caseload. "Everyone is proud and loves it," she says. "Kids make really fast progress, and we can work beyond IEP goals."

Dr. Johnson credits the coaching model for this success. "We are recognizing progress and identifying where advancements are being made," she says. "A large part of coaching is problem solving with the adults who work with the student every day, modeling the intervention, and ensuring the adult feels confident implementing the intervention throughout the week. Coaching is about knowledge translation from the skilled physical therapist to the other educators on the team. In this way we empower other adults to take ownership of the student's gross motor development."

Celebrating success is also critical. The work is exhausting. Dr. Johnson often has to work beyond her contract hours and encouragement is critical. The sheer amount of work required to fully support inclusion calls for strong collective bargaining agreements and adequate funding. "Our contracts and funding must reflect what ESAs need to ensure our work can be effectively replicated by classroom staff to make full inclusion sustainable," she explains.

Dr. Johnson calls on decisionmakers to fully fund special education. "Inclusive practice is not a new concept but we need sufficient resources to truly put it into practice," she says. "We need funding for providers, to reduce caseloads and class sizes and we need time to collaborate across teams."  To dismantle ableism and racism Dr. Johnson highlights the need for increased staffing to put our words into action. "Funding should be based on staffing for building support and not only on caseloads and class sizes," she says.

Students are Dr. Johnson's true focus, immersing herself in the communities she serves even outside of the school day. It is the students who inspire her. Her strongest, most empowering message is to them: "You have the right to be educated the same as your peers and to have friendships and relationships in your community," she tells them. "You have the right to quality education and to be able to engage in your own way. Your unique way of doing things is a beautiful element of who you are as an individual."