[Abstract]
"This article frames the past and future role of the parents of children with disabilities within the context of special education. We highlight their past aspirations: to organize nationally to assert that their children could learn, to codify into law their children’s right to an education, and to foster trust-based parent–professional partnerships. Using the past as a prelude to the future, we then identify two aspirations for the future: to foster empathy, compassion, and dignity; and to “get a life” rather than just “get an education.” The theme of future aspirations is to develop schools and communities where empathy, compassion, and dignity abound and where, as a consequence, children and adults with disabilities can experience across the full lifespan the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’s outcomes of equal opportunity, independent living, full participation, and economic self-sufficiency."