2025 Impact
A Year of Community, Impact and Inclusion
In 2025, the Haring Center community showed up with strength, compassion, and purpose. From classrooms where children with and without disabilities thrive, to research partnerships and multilingual inclusion tools reaching far beyond our walls, your support helped demonstrate educational settings where every child belongs.
Together, we celebrated a record-breaking auction, launched new professional development resources and furthered partnerships that provide inclusive education services. These milestones reflect a shared commitment to advancing inclusive education and embracing joyful learning that empowers every child.
Thank you for being part of this movement. Your support allows us to continue making a meaningful impact.
Letter From the Director
Dear Friends and Supporters of the Haring Center,
As we reflect on 2025, we are filled with gratitude for the ways our community, including you, showed up for inclusion, for children and families, and for each other.
This year brought real challenges. National rhetoric questioned the value of inclusive education. The Department of Education faced threats. Educators were asked to defend their expertise and commitment. And yet, through it all, our community remained steady. You showed up, and your support made a difference.
Thanks to you, staff retention at the Experimental Education Unit (EEU) is higher than ever. That stability matters. It means children and families experience consistent, nurturing care. It means educators and adult learners are supported in a vibrant, values-driven environment. And it means we continue to center children by building systems around them, rather than asking them to fit into systems not designed for their success.
Our Professional Development and Training Team launched new inclusion models this year, and they’re already reaching far beyond our walls. Families share them with afterschool programs. Multilingual resources in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese are helping more communities engage.
The Haring Center’s commitment to community, discovery, and accessibility began in the 1960s, and it continues today. Despite a shifting special education landscape, our researchers, faculty, and graduate students are working to reimagine and improve education systems.
In 2025, we surpassed $1 million at our annual auction, a first in our history. This success directly impacted our ability to increase staff salaries, retain talented educators, and meet our contractual obligations. Your generosity made this possible. As we prepare to celebrate 25 years of the auction, we know our community will continue to show up.
Together, We are Rising to the Challenges.
Our community is made up of professionals, families, alumni, advocates, partners, and friends. Together, we supported one another, strengthened the Haring Center in uncertain times, and celebrated inclusion with joy.
Thank you for your partnership, your belief in our mission, and your continued support. You are an essential part of our community, and we are so grateful you showed up.
With Gratitude,
Kathleen Artman Meeker
Director, Haring Center for Inclusion Education
Impact Snapshot
180
Serving 180 children annually at the EEU School (Experimental Education Unit)
33,000
Delivering professional development services to more than 33,000 education professionals by Haring Center staff
47
47 Professional Development and Training Partnerships across the state
Impact in Action
EEU: Where Kids Thrive
At the Haring Center’s EEU, children like Svea, who lives with a rare genetic condition, thrive in a classroom where every ability is embraced. Thanks to donor support, educators meet each child with empathy and creativity, building inclusive systems around their needs, not the other way around.
Research: Community Based Research Partnerships
Haring Center research projects are on the forefront of inclusive education for all children birth through 12th grade. One of the community-based projects is the partnership between doctoral candidate Chi Baik and Open Doors for Multicultural Families to create meaningful opportunities for children, families and UW students to attend early learning playgroups, parent education seminars, and grow in community.
Professional Development and Training: Haring Center Inclusion Modules
We’re excited to share that the Haring Center Inclusion Modules are now live. These online trainings from our Professional Development and Training team are designed to make inclusion doable for everyone, offering multiple language options for subtitles and practical tools to help create communities where every child belongs.
From Uncertainty to Inclusion: The Winfield Family’s Journey with the Haring Center
Alison and Kirby Winfield’s story shows how the Haring Center transforms unexpected challenge into hope. With inclusive education, compassionate support and a strong community, the Center guided their family forward, and inspired them to give back.
In Seattle, the Haring Center for Inclusive Education’s EEU is deeply woven into the community. “Everybody knows someone who has been through the EEU or Haring Center… It’s impacted the city quite a bit and very broadly, even for people that don’t have a child with a disability.”
Alison and Kirby’s daughter, Kate, was diagnosed with Down syndrome and Duodenal Atresia at birth, requiring immediate surgery. The experience was overwhelming. “This was all new to us. We had no clue what was going on,” Alison remembered. While Kate was still in the hospital, their community stepped in. Friends from high school, hobbies, and earlier chapters of life pointed Alison and Kirby toward the Experimental Education Unit (EEU), opening a path they hadn’t yet known was possible. “I still clearly remember the stress Kirby and I felt walking around the parking garage trying to find the Haring Center, and then the sense of calm and reassurance that we would be ok once we were in the building with staff,” Alison remembers. Kirby added, “we felt like it was the only place in the world where we had the resources we needed and the people who understood what we were going through as a family.”
As Kate grew, so did their sense of belonging. Seeing her thrive in the classroom gave them hope. “I remember when she started scooting… she was so proud,” Kirby shared. “And seeing older kids with Down syndrome walking and expressing themselves” inspired hope.
The EEU provided more than education—it offered peace of mind. “There’s just nothing like the relaxing feeling you have when your kids go to school and you know you’re not going to get phone calls. You’re not going to be asked to pick them up. They’re not going to be kicked out,” Alison said. For the Winfield’s, that peace of mind became more than personal; it became a reason to ensure other families could experience the same stability.
They also found connections with other families. Alison remembers meeting Emma’s mom, who offered her email and friendship. “All week you felt alone… then on Friday, I would go to the EEU infant toddler program and everyone was just so positive about Kate.” Their story illustrates how the Haring Center not only changes lives inside the classroom but strengthens the entire community through inclusive education.
Today, Alison and Kirby are deeply committed to expanding the Haring Center’s reach. “We don’t want anyone to feel alone when they have a child like Kate,” Kirby said. Now, they’re the parents offering guidance and encouragement, just as Emma’s mom once did for them. As board members—and through Alison’s professional role as Operations Manager on the Professional Development and Training team—they’re working to increase access to inclusive education, advocating for and supporting changes that impact schools and systems locally, regionally, and around the world.
This dedication runs across generations. Alison’s mother, Leslie Vollbracht, and her late husband, William “Bill” Vollbracht, built a philanthropic legacy that continues with the Winfield’s through Kate’s story. This powerful symbol of inclusion and hope is embodied in Kate’s Classroom, an Early Support Program classroom, where her early milestones continue to inspire a future of limitless potential. The Winfield’s dedication across generations has transformed personal experience into a lasting reminder of inclusion, learning, and limitless potential.
2025 Haring Center Auction: Camp Inclusion!
On May 10, 2025, the Haring Center community gathered under the “Camp Inclusion” tent for a powerful evening of generosity and purpose. With an ambitious goal of $775,000, supporters raised over $1,025,000—a record-breaking show of commitment to inclusive education. Because of the success of the auction, the Haring Center increased staff salaries, retained nearly all teaching staff, and met compliance requirements for school contracts.
As Director Dr. Kathleen Artman Meeker shared, “Your presence here, your support, your belief in this work is powerful. And it’s joyful. And it builds a better future for all children.” This extraordinary night reaffirmed our shared vision: a world where every child belongs.
Our commitment to our vision started in the late 1990s as a grassroots response to budget cuts has grown into a powerful tradition that brings families, educators, and supporters together to champion belonging for every child. As we prepare for the the 25th Annual Haring Center Auction, we celebrate the salmon dinners under borrowed tents, countless stories and speakers, and powerful tradition that brings families, educators, and supporters together to champion belonging for every child. “This event honors both where we’ve been and where we’re going.” The spirit of inclusion, joy, and community lives on in this next chapter. Read more about 25 years of love, community and supporting inclusive education in the feature in the UW College of Education’s Advancing Educational Justice magazine.