We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Raja Marhaba. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Raja below.
Raja, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.
The Jonathan Foundation for Children with Learning Disabilities (TJF), and beyond, serve the underprivileged communities. Families do not have the financial resources to pay for assessments, hire advocates and attorneys to fight the good fight in obtaining services and placement for their children. Many times, parents are denied assessment plans to assess the child in all suspected areas of disabilities. School districts buy time by initiating Student Study Team (SST) meetings with teachers and parents to see what accommodations can be put in place prior to assessing. Once a parent requests an assessment plan it should be provided to the parent within 15-days of the ask, and if the school provides the assessment plan, then the parents have 15-days to sign and return it to the school to commence testing. Most school districts don’t have the budgets to do the right thing but the law, Individual Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), is federal and governs over the Individual Education Plan (IEP). IDEA is underfunded and because of that some school districts do the right thing, and others do not or cannot. With that said, it does not give the school the right not to assess or delay assessment. The law is the law and no matter what the budget is the schools must abide by the law.
The above is only the beginning of what happens with the special education industry. Once the assessment plan has been signed and submitted, the school has 45-days to test in all areas of suspected disabilities, hold an IEP meeting with the parents and school staff to review the psychoeducational assessment report. Don’t think just because the school does the testing that the child will be made eligible for special education. Sometimes the test results fall into a gray area, and unless parents are well versed with psychoeducational assessments, they will be placed at a disadvantage during the IEP meetings.
Making the child eligible is one part of it. Once the child becomes eligible for an IEP it creates a legal contract between the school and the child represented by the parents. Now the fun begins, getting services and placements. The cost of services and placements take place during an IEP meeting. That is where the budget comes into play. What does the psychoeducational assessment report say and how much service is the school willing to provide? These services come with a cost attached to them. For example, the school district has to pay for a speech and language therapist, one-on-one aid, occupational therapist, educational therapy, residential school placements. These services, at times, can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yes, they are free to the parents and the school has to make sure they have the budget to fund all these services. This is not the parents’ problem, it is a school problem, but the domino effect hurts the child by providing minimal services or none at all. In addition to the above some schools do not have enough psychologists, speech therapists, professionals, etc. on site to provide these services. If that happens those professionals may only be at a school site once or twice a week, not all week servicing hundreds of thousands of students at one school site.
The aforementioned matters because there is always a child born autistic, with down syndrome, developmental delays, ADHD, learning disabilities, medical conditions, intellectual disabilities, have speech deficits, fine and gross motor skill deficits, require assistive technology, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and/or need residential placement for various reasons, and the list goes on.
The school has the affirmative obligation to find, seek, assess children in all areas of suspected disabilities and provide services. The law is very clear about the definition of a “child with a disability” as noted below. The schools doing the right thing for these children in a timely manner; well, that is a whole other challenge.
https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/a/300.8
Sec. 300.8 Child with a disability
Statute/Regs Main » Regulations » Part B » Subpart A » Section 300.8
300.8 Child with a disability.
(a) General.
(1) Child with a disability means a child evaluated in accordance with §§300.304 through 300.311 as having an intellectual disability, a hearing impairment (including deafness), a speech or language impairment, a visual impairment (including blindness), a serious emotional disturbance (referred to in this part as “emotional disturbance”), an orthopedic impairment, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairment, a specific learning disability, deaf-blindness, or multiple disabilities, and who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am just a mom who did not set out to be a special education advocate nor establish a nonprofit. That was not on my list of endeavors. When I graduated college, I wanted to work in the financial department at a fortune 500/1000 company. I married at the age of 21 and commenced living the “American Dream” with my husband. We did not have much money, and my husband wanted to be a self-made millionaire by the age of 40. The one thing we had in common is that we were both driven at a very young age. Life never stopped throwing us curve balls from the day we married until the day we divorced. We were not provided a “book on life” to help us navigate the unexpected.
In the beginning things were moving along beautifully. We could not afford an extravagant wedding, but one thing for sure he wanted to live in a house not an apartment. I moved to California from Brooklyn, NY and always lived in apartments. I came from very humble beginnings as did my husband. His mom helped us out with the down payment for our first house which we purchased in Simi Valley, CA. I believe the house cost around one hundred thousand dollars. Imagine that price? You would be lucky if that amount will be a feasible down payment for a medium-priced house in California these days, without an astronomical mortgage payment.
Our journey began and God blessed us with two incredible sons. My husband worked in the construction industry as an electrician. As time went on, he decided to establish his own construction company. Eventually he asked me to join him in the business, which I did. We were chugging along doing our thing, living, building, growing and working hard to meet our goals. Around the age of 28 my husband sustained a life-threatening electrical fire accident that became the turning point in my life, or I thought it was. Leaving me with two toddlers and a husband in the hospital fighting for his life. New challenges kicked in and building that “American Dream” was threatened. I did the best I can to weather through these storms, and with the Grace of God got through them.
Starting over and re-establishing the construction company were the next steps as we were coming out of the darkness into the light. We made new goals and set our path to push through. This time we managed to grow our construction company and things were moving smoothly. In 1996, my son Jonathan’s teacher told me he needed special education at the age of five. He and his brother were enrolled in a private school, and I had to transition them into the public school system to obtain services that the private school could not provide. As time went on, I learned that Jonathan has dyslexia and Omar, my older son, struggled with writing and vocabulary deficits as well as depression. They were both diagnosed with ADHD and had superior gifted IQs yet learning challenged. My journey began learning about the national broken special education system. I had no idea what pile of “shit” I stepped into until I commenced this uphill climb. Navigating special education is not simple. Too many rules, laws and regulations are involved. Trying to understand assessments, scoring and what it all meant was a huge learning curve for me.
Through both my son’s eyes I saw their struggles and their pain became mine. I found myself pleading to our Blessed Mother Mary “Oh Maiden See a Maiden’s Sorrow, Oh Mother Hear a Suppliant Child, Oh Maiden Hear a Maiden Pleadin.” From the song Ave Maria by Celine Dion (which became one of my favorite songs). I will never be worthy to walk in my Blessed Mother Mary’s shoes, however, I felt a “glimpse” of her suffering. It pierced my heart every time I personally saw the pain in my children. I could not help but think how our Blessed Mother suffered over her own son’s Jesus’ suffering. The connection was so strong that it bought me to my knees; the pain was unthinkable. Feeling lost as a mother trying to help her children and not seeing a way out no matter how hard I prayed and tried. It was the first time I truly understood a mother’s love for her children. Those words never left my mind as I grew stronger and learned how to advocate to save my children. I was obsessed with justice and helping my sons “learn” that is all I wanted to do was find a way for them to learn so they can be like every other typical child. You would think it is an easy task, and the schools should do the right thing and help a child learn how to read and write. At least that was my understanding.
As time went by, I began to learn of all the political red tape that goes along with navigating this national broken special education system, combined with budgeting and decisions the higher ups in administration dictate to the school level personnel. Who to give services and placement to and who to deny? The need for a parent to prove to the school personnel that a service is badly needed such as speech and language therapy or intensive education therapy. Finding myself in an Individual Education Plan (IEP) meeting with more than seven school personnel was extremely intimidating. As they would discuss all the strengths and weaknesses of my children. What they thought my children need and what I thought my children needed were not always on the same page. Getting the school to add an extra hour for reading or speech therapy for Jonathan seemed like an Act of God. Getting my son Omar transitioned from a 504 Plan to an IEP was like climbing an extremely steep mountain and finding myself slipping down with each step I took.
Getting the school to teach a child to learn should not be this difficult, but it was. I heard both my suppliant children’s cry as I pleaded to my Blessed Mother Mary, and prayed so hard for clarity, help, doors to open, solutions and resolve. Prayers take time to be answered if your faith is strong. Mine was and still is. I initiated two due processes on behalf of each child, which were amended into four due processes per child because the school continued to deny a Free and Appropriate Public Education for my sons. As this was going on my husband’s dream to become a self-made millionaire was diminishing as the due processes took all we had. Turns out the second largest school district in the nation took us to 9th Circuit Federal Court and there I was in a hearing for my son Omar. This put a tremendous amount of strain on the marriage, my husband’s future plans, goals, and our boys were left on hold until there was resolve. Eventually Jonathan’s case was settled. Omar’s case was settled too, but in an unusual manner. You would have to read my book “Unstoppable”, A Parent’s Survival Guide for Special Education Services with an IEP or 504 Plan on amazon to get the full story on my special education journey. The emotional and financial burden was extreme, the marriage eventually failed, and, in the end, I managed to save my children but lost my marriage.
I am very proud of writing my first book and establishing a nonprofit paying it forward to other families facing our trials and tribulations with the public schools.
To get a copy of the book:
(The book was written from a mothers and children perspective; my sons and I tell our story. It is raw and depicts exactly what goes on between families and school districts when it comes to obtaining special education services. It was written so that our story resonates with parents and empowers them as well as give a voice for the children.
Part of the solution to the problem was to form a nonprofit that would address the needs of special needs/neurodivergent children who have an IEP or a 504 Plan. The Jonathan Foundation for Children with Learning Disabilities (TJF), but not limited to was formed. TJF raises money for student assessments and provide advocacy services.
Go to the link below for more information on TJF:
There is a lot of work to be done and thousands of families that need support. TJF is holding it’s 11th Annual Fundraiser on May17, 2025 at the Sheraton Universal Hotel. Please join us and pay it forward by saving one child at a time.
For more information regarding tickets and sponsorship please go to the link below:
Ticket Information:
Sponsorship Information:
https://www.thejonathanfoundation.org/sponsorship-opportunities/
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
There is an old saying “honesty is the best policy.” I believe in being transparent and telling the truth. I have never marketed my advocacy services for TJF. I dig deep into the student’s educational records, create a report, analyze and break down every assessment that was administered on the student to connect the dots. An academic review tells the story of the student and all that was put into place, what was assessed, what needs to be assessed, where the red flags are, and what needs to be done for the student to access grade level curriculum. Once the above is completed I meet with the parents and the student. Via my academic review I am able to speak with the student and connect on a level that the student can relate to because “someone finally sees that student.” I explain to the student how his/her “Brain Is Wired”™ because that is what the tests reveal. After I meet with the student, I have a heart to heart with the parents explaining that some of their child’s behaviors may not have been defiance, but stem from an unidentified cause.
Something magical happens after this, the parents find a different way to communicate with their children and the children, in turn, commence to understand there is nothing wrong with him/her. It’s just that their brain is wired differently, and we need to find an alternative way to help them learn.
A person’s character speaks volumes. Trust needs to be established and maintained in growing relationships. If you say something mean it, if you offer to do something do it, and when you do a job perform it with pride, integrity and passion so that the end results are pure, and the outcome is the result you had anticipated with the family.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Resilience is a form of adaptability to never give up no matter what curve balls life throws at you. I have had many challenges in my construction business, marriage, and advocating for my special needs children. One story that comes to mind is when the lawsuits against the second largest school district in the nation became extremely difficult. The cost of attorneys, witness fees, assessments, and time off of work to attend hearings. Seeing my 11-year-old, Omar, testify in hearing against the teacher that bullied him in the sixth grade was more than I can bear. The bills were piling up, my marriage was failing, my sons could not get IEP services until the lawsuits were settled, causing them to continue regressing. Who said the system was fair? It most certainly is not! The national broken special education system drains a parent’s emotions, money, aids to conflict and eventually causing the demise of the family component. In order to have success with special needs/neurodivergent children the family component must stay intact at the school environment and home, not fall apart. Remember that saying “united we stand, divided we fall.” There is truth to it!
I felt defeated, and one day found myself in church and went to the tabernacle to pray. I got down on my knees prayed and cried my heart out to my Almighty Heavenly Father pleading for help. I made a pact with God and told him to take my soul, I no longer want to live, I raise my hands, just get me out of this seven-digit lawsuit and save my sons. As the hearing progressed, I received an order from the Judge to go back to the school, have the school administer a psychoeducational assessment on Omar, hold an IEP and have the IEP team make the final decision. Why would the Judge put the burden back on the school when it was because of the school we had gotten into court?
God does answer unanswered prayers, and you will need to read my book “Unstoppable” to get to the ending. I do not want to give a spoiler alert. The ending was emotional, spiritual and the unforeseen became seen. I told God that when my book gets published, I would sign it “With God All Things Are Possible”, and that is what I do today.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thejonathanfoundation.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejonathanfoundation/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheJonathanFoundation
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raja-marhaba-5a985b14/
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqixB5g4stU
Ignite Success with RAJA MARHABA of THE JONATHAN FOUNDATION FOR CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES
https://thenationaldigest.com/taking-on-the-nations-educational-system-to-benefit-children-with-special-needs-the-jonathan-foundations-inspiring-story-raja-marhaba/
Image Credits
Karim Saafir Photography
Villaframed Photography