Families navigating schools, hospitals, and systems are constantly asked to justify what should be obvious. Why does my child need that support? Why isn’t this working? Why are you doing it that way? The answers exist — in research, in law, in lived experience — but finding them, organizing them, and presenting them concisely in a meeting or appointment is exhausting work. Why Sheets do that work for you. Free, editable, and open-licensed, they put the evidence in your hands in a format you can actually use.

Advocates are always expected to explain themselves. The status quo doesn’t need justification — it just gets assumed. That asymmetry is a form of power, and it wears families down. Why Sheets push back. Each one concisely makes the case for a practice, a right, or an approach that families and educators shouldn’t have to defend alone — but often do. Download them, edit them, share them without restriction.

---

---

Our Why Sheets

Our why sheets concisely explain why some education and parenting practices are good and others bad. They explain using formats like selected quotes, bulleted lists, and one idea per line.

Our Why Sheets, so far:

• Neuroqueer Learning Spaces
• Hoodie
• Behaviorism
• Positive Greetings at the Door
• Queer and Neurodivergent Liberation are Entwined
• Alternatives to ABA
• Cavendish Space
• Eye Contact

Our Why Sheets are also available in GitHub as Markdown documents.

---

What Are Why Sheets?

“Why Sheets” are free, editable, open-licensed documents that help students, families, and caregivers advocate for themselves in schools, healthcare settings, and other systems. Each sheet concisely makes the case for a practice, right, or approach that shouldn’t require justification but often does. They are designed to put the research and reasoning families need directly in their hands, in a format they can bring into a meeting and actually use.

Chomsky uses the term concision to discuss the way mainstream media outlets respond to power. Having concision means that ideas which align with forces of power in our society need no explanation and those that do not align with those forces of power need significant explanation. This allows the narrative of the “state religion” to be told across the media, because it’s quick and easy since it needs no explanation. However, opposing viewpoints which need explanation take too long for a standard news segment or, in the current era, TikTok, and therefore do not get heard.

Think Traditional Education “Works”? Prove it

Now, the kinds of things that I would say on Nightline, you can’t say in one sentence, because they depart from standard religion. If you want to repeat the religion you can get away with it between two commercials. If you wanna say something that questions the religion, you’re expected to give evidence, and that you can’t do between two commercials, so therefore you lack concision so therefore you can’t talk. I think that’s a terrific technique of propaganda. To impose concision is a way of virtually guaranteeing that the party line gets repeated over and over again and that nothing else is heard.

Noam Chomsky, Noam Chomsky – Conversations with History – YouTube

“Concision” puts advocates at a disadvantage. We have to define all our terms. Thinking differently often requires speaking differently, so we end up sounding like we’re “from Neptune” (to reference Chomsky’s anecdote). That’s one reason we have the Stimpunks glossary. Each entry starts with a concise definition but then piles on the context.

For our Neuroqueering Learning Spaces project, we started creating Why Sheets as suggested by Alfie Kohn.

I imagined a set of handouts, each consisting of a single (double-sided) sheet that responded to a common question. The idea was to lay out the case briskly, making liberal use of bullet points and offering a short bibliography at the end for anyone who wanted more information.

One of these “Why Sheets,” for example, might explain a teacher’s decision to create a curriculum based on kids’ questions. Or for setting aside time each day for a class meeting. It might defend helping students to understand mathematical principles rather than just memorizing facts and algorithms. Or it might lay out the case for avoiding worksheets, or tests, or homework, or traditional bribe-and-threat classroom management strategies.

The Why Axis – Alfie Kohn

In short, any practice that’s constructive yet still controversial would be fair game for one of these punchy handouts.

The Why Axis – Alfie Kohn

Why Sheets feel like a good balance of concision and explanation.

Students and families battling behaviorism and school induced-anxiety and systemic exclusion need whatever resources we can give them.

---

Why Why Sheets?

Advocates are always expected to explain themselves while the status quo gets assumed. That asymmetry is exhausting and a form of power that wears families down. Families navigating IEPs, medical appointments, and hostile systems often have the knowledge and lived experience to know something is wrong, but lack a concise, evidence-backed way to make that case in the room where decisions are made. Why Sheets matter because they do that organizing work in advance, putting research, law, and lived experience into a format families can actually use. They’re free, editable, and open-licensed, meaning anyone can take them, adapt them, and share them without restriction.

Why Sheets reduce the burden that systems place on the people least resourced to bear it. Families who are already stretched thin shouldn’t also have to become researchers and rhetoricians every time they walk into an IEP meeting or a doctor’s office. By putting concise, credible, ready-to-use advocacy tools directly in their hands, Why Sheets help level a playing field that is systematically tilted against neurodivergent and disabled people and their families. For children with Intellectual Disabilities specifically, they can be the difference between a child being presumed incompetent and warehoused in a segregated setting versus being genuinely included, supported, and given the chance to grow. At their best, Why Sheets don’t just help families win individual arguments, they help shift what feels arguable in the first place.

---

Contribute to a Why Sheet

Why Sheets are developed in public, licensed CC0, and hosted openly on GitHub and the open web, meaning anyone from the communities we serve can contribute, adapt, and improve them without asking permission. The open signature process also invites parents, carers, and professionals to formally endorse sheets, further grounding them in community voice and credibility. Defaulting to open means that the people these sheets serve should have real power over what they say and how they grow.

Contributions welcome. These are licensed under Creative Commons CC0 so students and families can do what they want with the sheets.

---

Sign a Why Sheet

If you think this is valuable, please add your signature as parent / carer or professional to the Why Sheets to help endorse these documents and give even more weighting to them.

To be a signatory on a why sheet, visit the “Sign Why Sheet” form.

---

Why Sheet Ideas

Here are ideas for why sheets we want to create:

Education

• Why Homework — Why homework may not be the the most valuable way for your child to spend their time after a day in school when they need to regulate and recharge
• Why Movement Breaks — Why your child may need movement breaks in the day
• Why Presumed Competence — Why assuming your child can learn more than expected is the right starting point, and why low expectations cause measurable harm
• Why AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) — Why giving your child a robust communication system is a right, not a last resort, and why “they need to talk first” is a harmful myth
• Why Inclusive Classrooms — Why children with ID belong in general education settings, and why segregated placements often deprive kids of both learning and relationships
• Why Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) — What LRE actually means under IDEA, how it’s routinely misapplied, and how to advocate for it at IEP meetings
• Why Supported Decision-Making in Schools — Why teaching children with ID to make choices — even small ones — builds lifelong self-determination
• Why Sensory Supports in School — Why children with ID often have sensory needs that go unaddressed and how that affects learning and behavior
• Why Your Child’s “Behavior” Is Communication — Why restraint, seclusion, and punishment respond to the wrong problem
• Why Transition Planning Starts Early — What IDEA requires for transition planning for students with ID and why families need to push for meaningful goals, not just sheltered workshops

---

Healthcare

• Why Diagnostic Overshadowing Is Dangerous — Why medical professionals often miss real health conditions by assuming everything is “just the disability”
• Why Plain Language and Easy Read Medical Information — Why your child and family have the right to health information they can actually understand
• Why Supported Decision-Making in Healthcare — Why guardianship is often unnecessary and how supported decision-making preserves your child’s rights
• Why Pain Recognition Matters — Why people with ID are systematically undertreated for pain and what families can do
• Why Accessible Appointments — What healthcare providers are legally and ethically required to do to make appointments work for your child
• Why Mental Health Supports for Children with ID — Why mental health needs in children with ID are underdiagnosed and underserved, and what good support looks like

---

Systems & Legal Rights

• Why Guardianship Alternatives Exist — Why full guardianship is not the only or always the best option when your child turns 18
• Why IDEA vs. 504 vs. ADA — What each law covers, how they interact, and which one to invoke when
• Why Self-Determination Is a Civil Right — Why having a disability does not reduce a person’s right to make decisions about their own life
• Why Medicaid Waiver Waitlists — What waivers are, why your child may be entitled to them, and how to navigate waitlists
• Why Community-Based Services Over Institutions — The history and ongoing harms of institutionalization and why community inclusion is the legal and ethical standard
• Why Person-Centered Planning — What it is, what it isn’t, and how to make it actually mean something in your child’s life