Episode Description
An IEP is not a limitation on student potential—it’s a tool that opens doors to college readiness and career success. In this episode, Jared Bissen, Director of Special Education at Gem Prep Schools, challenges the harmful myth that students with individualized education plans have lower ceilings, sharing how his charter network has helped students with IEPs graduate as valedictorians, earn full scholarships, and pursue associate degrees. Discover how reframing IEPs from restrictive labels to service delivery mechanisms transforms parent expectations and student outcomes.
Noteable Quotes
- “It’s more of a tool to help them access what they need so they can explore college.” [00:03:55]
- “Special education is a service, it’s not a place for students.” [00:06:56]
- “We’re just there to help give them the extra practice they need.” [00:07:26]
- “All students when they walk through a building are our students to educate.” [00:06:41]
- “Relationships are key—really getting to know the student and forming those connections.” [00:12:23]
Full Podcast Transcript
Jared Bissen [00:00:01]
Well, Janet, thank you so much for having me and it’s a pleasure to be here.
Brighter Together [00:00:06]
Thank you. So we’re laughing because I I I’ve been on vacation. I told Jared I’ve been on vacation and this is just reality, right? And I I just feel like I have vacation brain, Jared. I just am like two days back to work and I can’t even get a name correct. So I appreciate your your grace with me as we go through that.
Jared Bissen [00:00:28]
Hey. I’m glad you got the vacation in.
Brighter Together [00:00:31]
thanks. Okay, so tell us, Jared, a little bit about your path to becoming a special education director, and then tell us a little bit about Jem Prep.
Jared Bissen [00:00:44]
Sure. my path. It was a fun path. I didn’t know there was ever a path in special education for me for a long time. I started as a volunteer for the Special Olympics when I was in high school. And yeah, and just kind of really enjoyed helping kids and volunteering, working with the sports and doing things like that. But if you would have asked me, like teaching and special education was my career at that point, or it was even in my mind, it wasn’t. And
Brighter Together [00:00:57]
mean.
Jared Bissen [00:01:15]
And then I years later, I got a job working for a self a group home for girls. They were looking for a male staff to kind of balance things out, and I was working the day that would work the dacius for them. And they offered they had a private alternative school where we had contracts with districts that would send their students who they’ve gone through the processes before and they just weren’t working. So then they came to our private alternative school, day team day teoreth program.
And they offered me a job there and I was a little taken aback because I had no I’d never taken an education teaching class in my college career or post college career and that’s how it started. got to work with some really amazing kids in a self-contained classroom and that started to be on this path towards special education and where I’m currently now as special director of special education.
Brighter Together [00:02:07]
Wow, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. God God God never know we never know where God’s gonna take us in our lives. It just is it’s always such a an interesting journey. I didn’t know I was gonna be a special I I I wanted to be a teacher of the deaf and hearing handicapped. That’s what I started out as and I never did that. I ended up being a speech therapist, so I mean I still was in education, but yeah. But I but I didn’t even do that. I was in the medical.
side w after grad school I went and I worked in skilled nursing for quite a bit of my initial career. So you just don’t know. You just don’t know. Yeah. So and tell me about Gem Prep. How long have you been there and and tell me you you were telling me it’s it’s a network. It’s not just one or two schools. You have eight, I think you said schools.
Jared Bissen [00:02:57]
Yeah, we are opening up our n our eighth school. our school year starts tomorrow, August twelfth. It has been a whirlwind of summer getting the new school up and running. But yeah, we’re a network of charter schools in the state of Idaho. Our schools when we open a new school, like we’re opening Gemprep Idaho Falls tomorrow. It has it’s the first day. This is our first school we’re opening as K9. Usually when we open a in the past when we’ve opened a school, we start them as K five and we grow them. Our goal is to continue to grow them and until they’re all K-12.
Brighter Together [00:03:18]
huh.
Brighter Together [00:03:26]
Right.
Jared Bissen [00:03:27]
And we have this kind of college prep focus in our schools where we want our we want our students to explore college, and we have a goal of 60% of kids graduating with an associate’s degree that Gem Prep pays for. Yeah. So it’s exciting, and we’ve been really trying to work on helping students who have individualized education plans or IEPs.
Brighter Together [00:03:41]
nice. Nice.
Jared Bissen [00:03:55]
In our programs and helping parents understand, like that is not a ceiling for them just because they have that piece of paper. It’s it’s more of a tool to help them get the accommodations and the sports they need to access what they need so they can go on and explore college and dip their toes into that or get that associate screen if that’s what they prefer.
Brighter Together [00:04:17]
Wow. So how did that come about? Like how did how long has has Jim Prep been there and and give me give us a little bit of their history?
Jared Bissen [00:04:28]
Yeah, Gem Prep has been around since 2004. We started originally. Yeah. Originally we started as a charter school that focused on in Idaho, there’s a big homeschool population. And so we focused on bringing the homeschool population into more of the public education setting. And over the years we were getting good success. We kept changing the program, making it more rigorous, really kind of more trying to align a
Brighter Together [00:04:32]
Twenty two years.
Jared Bissen [00:04:57]
Idaho State standards and make that education more meaningful. And we got to partner with the Albertsons Foundation. And they wanted to take what was good working well in our online in kind of this like charter school that was kind of an online charter school and take it into a brick-and-mortar school because they wanted to increase the brick and mortar seats in Idaho. And so we partnered with them and we started a pilot program in Pocatello at, I think it started at K1.
Brighter Together [00:04:59]
Okay.
Brighter Together [00:05:13]
Mm-hmm.
Jared Bissen [00:05:25]
and kind of taking the best parts of our online program and then mixing and matching and turning into a brick-and-mortar school. And it worked and we’ve continued to grow from there.
Brighter Together [00:05:32]
Wow.
So do you as the director of special education are you over all eight of those schools then?
Jared Bissen [00:05:42]
Yes, I am over all eight schools.
Brighter Together [00:05:44]
Wow, wow. So you’re a busy, busy guy.
Jared Bissen [00:05:48]
Yes.
Brighter Together [00:05:49]
I’m sure. I’m sure. So but you were talking about let’s talk about the IEP not being a ceiling. I love this. Give me some background about what like where that came from and and how you’re implementing that and educating parents that an IEP is not a limitation. An IEP is just a plan for the students. And I don’t think that that parents, I mean it’s they feel like it’s a label, right?
Jared Bissen [00:06:19]
Yeah, I think it’s just kind of come about from the amazing group of individuals I get to work with on a daily basis. We all have kind of a shared focus that all means all, all students when they walk through a building are our students to educate. And if they want to come to a jump prep school, we look at it as like they want what we’re offering and so how do we help them how do we help support that? And it just comes from I think a firm belief that it’s not I don’t look at it as it’s when I say it’s
Just a piece of paper. It’s not just a piece of paper. It is a contract between parents and a school. Yeah.
Brighter Together [00:06:51]
Right. It’s a legal document. We get that. Yes. Absolutely.
Jared Bissen [00:06:56]
But at the same time, it’s doesn’t mean this is all they can do. It’s just special education. There’s a great little comic or picture out there that I like to use with my staff. That’s it’s special education as a service, it’s not a place for students. And really helping support. And once we kind of get that going, once we kind of work on that piece, it really helps everyone understand: like, yeah, it’s just, we’re just there to help give them the extra practice they need. So when they’re ready for game day, that they’re ready to.
Brighter Together [00:07:24]
Mm-hmm.
Jared Bissen [00:07:26]
They’re ready to perform and can do what they want to do.
Brighter Together [00:07:31]
Mm-hmm. And and that’s another piece of it that I think we’ve talked, I’ve talked about it on the show before, about, you know, autism or ADHD or take your pick of labels. That is not the thing that defines who they are. That is a thing that helps us to know what where their struggles are, but that’s not the person. That is not that giving them the label of autism.
doesn’t mean that now they’re autistic and that’s the only thing that they are. And I and it’s it’s not even it’s not even who they are. It is some it is just a way for us to say these are the areas that they’re going to struggle with and these are the things we’re going to do to help them because they have those struggles, right? Yeah. that’s really, really cool. So so you have kids that that come in and you have kindergarten
Jared Bissen [00:08:17]
Yes.
Brighter Together [00:08:27]
All the way up to high school at some, but not all of your schools, right? Some of them are still kind of working up to that. so then how do you how do you implement getting them to whatever? I mean, what are what are your steps with the parents? Like kind of kind of walk me through a little bit of like you’ve got a parent who is new to your school, has thought all the time that this is all that this child their child is gonna do because they have this label.
What kinds of things do you talk to them about?
Jared Bissen [00:08:59]
Yeah, that’s great question. I mean, we really focus on we try and talk about what Gemprep is so they really understand. Cause sometimes do we do have parents come in, they’re just they’re looking for something different from the traditional local brick and mortar district. And so we try and talk to them, like we really explain what Gemprep is and what our focus is and how we want all kids to succeed. And that our primary goal is to partner with you. We’re not we wanna like, what do you when we ask the questions like what do you see
Brighter Together [00:09:10]
Mm-hmm.
Jared Bissen [00:09:28]
What do you want for your son or daughter? Because we can when we start getting that information out, it helps us kind of backfill or plan moving forward. Like, okay, this is what they want. How can we help them kind of get there? And we’ve had some parents who are very hesitant. They’re like, I don’t know, or I don’t think they might struggle. We’re just looking for something different. And over the course of yeah.
Brighter Together [00:09:52]
Mm. They can’t even define it, can they? Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jared Bissen [00:09:56]
And as we get to work with them, we’re really big on building those relationships and having that open door communication. And we’ve had some amazing success. We’ve had students with an individualized education plan walk across our stage for graduation as like valid Victorian of the school, graduating with, and some of these kids thought they could never go to college or get a college credit. And some of them are getting full rides to various institutions.
Brighter Together [00:10:26]
Love that.
Jared Bissen [00:10:26]
And parents are amazed at what can happen. And it really is that partnership and helping them understand like it is just like a tool that’s going to help us close the gap.
Brighter Together [00:10:39]
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And sometimes it’s just a matter of identifying how they learn and giving them the tools to be able to learn that way. I’m, you know, you hand me a manual. You hand me a manual for I for a car, for for whatever. Uh-uh. I’m not I’m not even gonna nope, nope, I don’t learn that way. I don’t I I hand it to my husband and go, okay, tell me how it works because I’m like, I love this new thing, this new toy I got, whatever it is, you know.
But I’m I’m not a learner. I’m not. I don’t sit down and read. I mean, I can read, obviously, but I don’t learn that way. I want to show me how it works, you know. Show me how to fix it. Show me how to make it better. Show me how to whatever. They laugh at me because, you know, I’m the owner and founder of Lighthouse Therapy, which is an online therapy company. We do teletherapy, right? And I’m a speech therapist and I know how to do all those things, but my family’s a family company, and my family loves to tease me and say,
You are a tech company owner and you are the least tech person, tech company person in the in the family. I’m like, well, you know, there you go. I’m a speech therapist. So it’s so I think that the point I was trying to make as I went down that rabbit hole is you can learn. You can. You just have to figure out how that child learns, right?
Jared Bissen [00:12:01]
And I think relationships are key, like really getting getting to know the student, getting to know the parents and forming those relationships. Cause without that, I wouldn’t say there’s a roadblock, but it makes things a little harder.
Brighter Together [00:12:08]
Mm-hmm.
Brighter Together [00:12:13]
Mm-hmm. What do you do with the when there’s a disconnect between what the child wants and maybe what the parents’ expectations are? How do you how do you how do you navigate that road?
Jared Bissen [00:12:27]
That is, I mean, that’s a great question. That is a tough navigation sometimes. we like to try and bring the student into all the meetings, especially when they start reaching a certain age, because ultimately these meetings and everything the team members are discussing is about them. And so we really help try to give them that voice. And once parents start seeing that their kid has their voice and their kid is their student is advocating for themselves.
They start like, okay, this is what they want. Let’s here’s the path that they’re choosing and let’s support that. Or okay, yeah, we can see we can see how what they want. Okay, let’s and then it kind of helps bridge that gap when their own student is now being the voice of what where the direction is taking the team.
Brighter Together [00:13:12]
Yeah. ‘Cause it’s important, right? It’s important that the kids have a voice for sure. Awesome. Awesome. so how about how many students does Gym Prep service in a school year? Like the whole network. Where how big are you guys?
Jared Bissen [00:13:29]
Each of our schools, when fully built out and fully enrolled, can handle five hundred and forty eight kids.
Brighter Together [00:13:35]
times eight. That’s over four thousand kids. That’s a lot kids. That’s awesome. So how many of your schools you had you said there are eight. How many of them have gotten all the way through to the twelfth grade?
Jared Bissen [00:13:36]
Yes.
Jared Bissen [00:13:49]
I’m gonna have to name them off and count them at the same time. let’s see. We have Gem Prep Nampa, Gem Prep Pocatello, Gem Prep Meridian.
Gemprep Murdian North should now be K-12. And I think Gemprep Merdian South is on the verge of being K12. And of course our Gemprep online school. So I’d say between five and six of our schools I’ve reached that threshold.
Brighter Together [00:14:14]
Awesome. Awesome. That’s exciting. That’s really exciting. So, so what would you say to a special education person that is interested in doing kind of what you do and what kind of advice would you give them? Like because you’ve been doing this for a while, you know, it wasn’t what you thought you were gonna do, but you’re doing it.
So a as sage advice, like what would your sage advice be to somebody who’s maybe younger who hasn’t gotten but is it’s kind of on that path.
Jared Bissen [00:14:52]
I mean, be humble. Special education is humbling. I mean, I’ll never refer to myself as an expert in the field. I’ve been doing it for a long time, but I’ll never call myself an expert. It’s I learn something new every day from not. Maybe it’s from my own teacher, maybe it’s from my behavioral coordinator, maybe it’s from the State Department or other things I do, but always try and be humble, be ready to learn, and be it like
Brighter Together [00:14:56]
Mm, mm mm.
Jared Bissen [00:15:21]
Work as a team. And if it’s really easy to have your vision and what you want to do in special in this field, especially when you become the director of such education, you kind of have you’re like, this is what I want to take my program to. but bring that team on, get people on board with you, bring them on that bus. the more people you have with you helping you, the lot easier the easier it is to get where you wanna go.
Brighter Together [00:15:44]
Yeah, especially when so geographically, like I mean, are you like central? Do you have to like travel a long ways? Do you do a lot of it from remote or how do you how do you I’m just I’m I’m I’m astounded by you, Jared. I really am. It’s like eight schools, director c constantly growing. my goodness, how do you I I’m just I’m I’m impressed, I’ll tell you. How do you manage it?
Jared Bissen [00:16:10]
Well th thanks. how do I manage it? I I love to get I’m a morning starter. I my family was originally farmers back in the day. They grew up my parents grew up on farms. I got to I got to grow up on farms as a kid working on so getting up early is nature is just part of my nature. I’ve been working from home for since before COVID hit. I got to do I was like fine I was pioneering it before COVID came around of working from home.
Brighter Together [00:16:17]
Okay.
Brighter Together [00:16:35]
Yeah, I know, me too. Me too. I w I’ve been doing teletherapy since twenty eleven, so I totally get that. Yeah. Yeah.
Jared Bissen [00:16:42]
a lot of it boils down to like I have a great group of people that I get to work with. I’ve that are coworkers, that are special education teachers, and technology has come so far to help me get into classrooms, to meet with people, and I’m still learning how to even better integrate myself. I do have some traveling, but over the years I’ve tried to cut that traveling down because technology is improving and there’s ways to get in the classroom so I can see what’s going on and
Brighter Together [00:17:11]
Mm-hmm.
Jared Bissen [00:17:11]
Help coach teachers that way.
Brighter Together [00:17:14]
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. That’s fantastic. So where do people go if they want to learn a little bit more about Gemprep?
Jared Bissen [00:17:24]
Yeah, our website is gemprep.org and it’ll list all our schools. It’ll list our upcoming schools that we’re we’re getting we’re working on our next school to open for the twenty seven, twenty eight school year and
Brighter Together [00:17:39]
wow, you’re already working on another one. You’ve got one opening tomorrow and you guys are already working on another one. Wow.
Jared Bissen [00:17:42]
Yes.
And another one after that. We’ve already got them in the plans. The goal is to get up to ten schools total and then we’ll kinda take a big step back and kind of pause and see what’s next on the plate.
Brighter Together [00:17:54]
Mm. Mm-hmm. So you’ve got number eight that’s opening twenty-six, twenty-seven, and then you’ll have nine, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, and then is ten, twenty-eight, twenty-nine. Wow. Wow. That’s amazing. That’s really amazing. And for those of you that are listening or that don’t you know, don’t know, gem is G E like a gem, like a diamond gem. So yes. there you go.
Jared Bissen [00:18:03]
Right. Yes.
Jared Bissen [00:18:18]
Idaho, the gem state. That’s where we got our name.
Brighter Together [00:18:22]
See, see, I wouldn’t have known that. I’ve never lived in I’ve never been in Idaho. I need to get myself to Idaho. It’s one of those areas, it’s like I’ve I’ve traveled a lot. I’ve been to a lot of different states. You know, I live in Texas. I’ve lived I was born and raised in Nebraska and lived in the in the northeast and been into the s the southeast and kind of been over to the southwest, but I’ve not made it to the northwest and I really need to make it over there. So I
Jared Bissen [00:18:46]
Well, if you ever come to Idaho, let me know. It’s a beautiful state. There’s a lot to explore here.
Brighter Together [00:18:51]
I I’m sure. I am absolutely sure. Well, it has been a pleasure, Jared, to have you on the show. And thank you for what you’re doing and thank you for partnering with Lighthouse. We’ve done a little bit for f with you guys and I look forward to hopefully being able to help you guys more in the future. And just keep doing it. I I love that the kids are succeeding with what you guys are doing and that is that it’s all about the kids, right? That’s we’re brighter together because we come together.
to serve the kids and that’s the best. So thank you for what you’re doing and keep up keep up the good work.
Jared Bissen [00:19:24]
Thank you, Janet, and thank you, everything Lighthouse is doing. It’s we’re looking forward to a continued partnership and growing that partnership.
Brighter Together [00:19:31]
Awesome. Awesome. I appreciate that. All right. Well, have a great twenty-six, twenty-seven. It’s here. We’re we’re we’re starting. It’s here. It’s like, okay, here we go. I gotta get out of vacation brain.
Jared Bissen [00:19:43]
I know, it’s it’s like I can’t believe our schools are opening. Like kids are back in the building last night for like running starts and meet the teachers and I’m like, wow, it is they come through the door tomorrow.
Brighter Together [00:19:50]
it’s here. Yep, it’s here. It’s here. All right. Well, thank you. And I’m sure I’m sure it’s gonna be a great year. So thanks again. Bye-bye.
Jared Bissen [00:20:02]
Thank you. Right.
