The icy rain pelted the windshield as Maribel Gardea followed the school bus carrying her three-year-old son to his first day of school. Her boy had cerebral palsy, ate through a feeding tube, couldn’t speak, and had multiple other disabilities. “What are we doing?” she thought. “I’m barely getting to know my son and his needs, and now I have to leave him for the day with people who don’t know him?” When she arrived at school, the teacher pulled her aside with a confession that would change everything: “I am terrified to take care of your son.” Maribel’s honest reply? “Me too.” That moment of shared vulnerability launched a journey that would transform not just her son’s education, but an entire community’s understanding of parent power.
Meet Maribel
Maribel Gardea is the Executive Director of Mind Shift Ed, a parent-led nonprofit in San Antonio, Texas, that she’s led for five years. A mother of two boys, including a 14-year-old with multiple disabilities, she’s built an organization that teaches parents the skills they need to advocate for their children — especially those with special needs or language barriers. She’s a facilitator, organizer, content creator, and fundraiser who manages a team of three mothers who are graduates of her own program.
The Journey
That terrified teacher became Maribel’s first ally, calling her after school with insider tips: “I know you’re trying to get this service — here’s how you can say it.” But when Maribel suggested expanding resources to help other children, she hit her first wall: “Their parents need to show up for them. You only speak for your son.”
So she became PTA president, thinking that would be her path to helping more families. Wrong again. With only seven to ten parents active in a school of 600, the PTA focused on “carnival tickets and turkey raffles” rather than the academic and policy issues that really mattered. “I realized it had to be outside of the school. It had to be independent,” she says.
Early advocacy efforts felt like banging her head against a brick wall. Board meetings with seven parents accomplished nothing. Even when they brought thirty families (complete with pizza dinners and children exploring the boardroom), district leaders tried to shut them down. A board chair became a gatekeeper, “schooling us on what we shouldn’t be doing instead of listening to us.” Although the board meetings didn鈥檛 bring the change the parents sought, they didn鈥檛 give up. Over four years of persistent effort, they infiltrated district councils and offered solutions rather than just complaints, and gradually grew their influence. The district became more responsive to their demands, and last year, the unthinkable happened: the district offered Maribel鈥檚 organization a contract to provide advocacy workshops to other parents.
Looking back, Maribel wishes she could tell her younger self not to be intimidated. “I felt very powerless. I felt small,” she admits. Despite having a college degree, she’d leave principal meetings crying because she “didn’t have the answers or the right questions.” That powerlessness shaped how she now teaches other parents, emphasizing that “you have to know that you got yourself when nobody else has you.” Her transformation is captured in a simple phrase shift: “I used to say, ‘I’m just a parent,’ and now I say, ‘I’m a parent.'”
Making a Difference
Maribel’s lightbulb moments with other parents often happen during the most challenging situations. Recently, she accompanied a mother to a meeting about her son’s behavioral plan. The school’s “support” consisted of two options: in-school suspension or sitting in the principal’s office. The child had already spent ten days in suspension without his mother’s knowledge for no documented reason.
“I realized that the mom was suddenly understanding the impact on her son, thinking it was normal to go to in-school suspension and then maybe juvenile court,” Maribel recalls. The mother had an awakening: “I never thought that this could hurt him, and he could end up in the pipeline to jail. Oh my God. I have made it okay. They have made it okay. This is not okay.” That mother filed grievances, got the case dismissed, and even shared her story on television news.
When asked about a win from her parents鈥� collective advocacy, Maribel cites the new translation services. The district now offers translators through a program called Language Links, providing access to dozens of languages. “Even though we didn’t get what we wanted at the board meetings, we didn’t leave and we infiltrated the district in multiple other ways,” Maribel explains.
Her programs — Academy of Powerful Parents (18 hours over four months) and the year-long Cuida project for special needs families — focus heavily on storytelling. Parents craft three-minute stories that harness their love for their children and identify what they need from their community. “We help them understand that if they share, it’s actually giving to the community, because they understand that there’s a connection and a power to it.”
Words of Wisdom
“Don鈥檛 doubt yourself. Self-confidence is key in advocacy, and you have to know that you鈥檝e got yourself when nobody else has you.” Maribel’s message is clear: your story matters, your voice has power, and being “just a parent” is actually everything you need to create change.
Get Involved
Mind Shift Ed operates in San Antonio, Texas, providing advocacy training for parents navigating the education system, with specialized programs for families of children with special needs and language barriers.
