Ricki Sabia, JD is the parent of an adult son with Down syndrome and the Senior Education Policy Advisor for the National Down Syndrome Congress. Her work over the past two decades has focused on increasing state accountability for academic performance and improving educational opportunities and post-school outcomes for students with disabilities, especially those with Down syndrome. To achieve these goals, Ricki has worked on increasing access to quality inclusive education and the implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). She founded and chaired the National UDL Task Force and is a member of the National UDL Council. In addition, Ricki has worked with a number of federally-funded projects on alternate assessment and access to the grade-level general education curriculum. Currently, she is the parent liaison to the TIES Center. This center is focused on inclusive education for students who take alternate assessments