Haley Lee remembers how difficult it was for her family to get her brother, Leon Ellis, on a Section 504 education plan in first grade to help with his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
While Ellis was a gifted student, Lee said, his disability made it difficult for him to focus in his classes at Caledonia Elementary School.
After getting put on the plan, Ellis received accommodations in classes, like reminders from teachers to stay on task during schoolwork and additional time on tests.
When he moved up to middle school, the plan and those accommodations vanished.
“(The school) said they lost his 504 (and) that he never had a 504,” Lee told The Dispatch. “… (My mom) had to get written testimonies from his previous teachers. … She had to get an advocate from Jackson to come. … The only thing that helped her get it back was that she found an old report card.”
Lee, 30, a former special education teacher, started the nonprofit Cicero’s Coalition in September to help local families navigate the complexities of obtaining and retaining a Section 504 or Individual Education Plan for qualifying students. She named it for her late father, who she said spent his whole life with hidden disabilities that were never diagnosed or supported.
A Section 504 plan provides classroom accommodations to help students learn in general classes, while an IEP provides more specialized instruction through accommodations and specific classes for students in need of intensive support.
Since forming, the nonprofit has assisted about 36 local students at Columbus Municipal and Lowndes County school districts receive accommodations and specialized classes.
Lee, a Caledonia native, grew up surrounded by teachers like her mother, aunt and grandmother. While she was inspired by their work, Lee said she initially didn’t want to follow in their footsteps.
After enrolling at Mississippi University for Women in 2014, Lee majored in legal studies with the idea of eventually becoming a lawyer.
“The whole time I was growing up, I always said, ‘I’m not going to be a teacher. I’m not going to be a teacher,’” Lee said. “But then I don’t know, it just started weighing on me.”
Something in Lee couldn’t kick the teaching itch that was ingrained in her family, so during her senior year, she decided to give a crack at substitute teaching at Caledonia Elementary School.
“I was waiting tables … while I was going to The W, and then I subbed during the day,” Lee said. “And so I did that to kind of see, do I really want to go through changing my degree?”
It was there Lee found her passion for teaching, though it was too late to change her major.
After graduating from MUW, Lee said she went straight to get her alternative teaching license through Ole Miss in 2018 before teaching special education classes for LCSD in 2019.
Hatching a plan
Over the course of five years teaching at New Hope and Caledonia Elementary schools, Lee said she worked with dozens of students who struggled because their IEPs did not adjust when they went to middle school.
“I would have kids who would leave me, and then the next year I would see they had discipline issues, or they were getting suspended,” Lee said. “… And a lot of it would come down to maybe their behavior plan wasn’t being implemented (properly), or there were accommodation issues, or they just were not working closely with the parent.”
In 2024, Lee said she left teaching after thinking all summer about the lack of support those students received.
About a month after resigning, the parent of a former student asked Lee to act as a mediator for her student’s needs during an IEP meeting. Lee said seeing the impact she had in that meeting served as the catalyst for Cicero’s Coalition.
“It was really eye-opening, how much more these kids should and could be getting that we’re just not giving them because (parents) don’t know enough about it,” Lee said.
Jennifer Briggs, the mother of two of Lee’s former students, said that without Lee and her work, she would not have known how to get the IEPs and other tools her children needed to succeed in school.
“She searched and searched and found a couple of different software programs that our kids used for therapy at school,” Briggs said. “And a couple of them didn’t work the first time, but she was pretty relentless, and we found one that did work. And one of my kids graduated from that program already and is reading at grade level.”
Lee said those kinds of successes are why she has already invested at least $3,000 in the nonprofit’s efforts.
Lee hopes to fundraise this year to expand the nonprofit’s work beyond awareness and advocacy to offer assistance through programs like dyslexia therapy and after-school tutoring to build on the work she’s already done.
“It’s been very meaningful and fulfilling,” Lee said. “… Most of the time, (parents are) very emotional about this kind of stuff with their kids. And if they’re contacting me, it’s because they haven’t felt like they were getting the support that they needed through the school. … And so it’s been very meaningful.”
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 39 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 39 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
