After years of learning at home, my 10-year-old son, who has Down syndrome, was finally given the chance to go to a regular school. He was happier than I’d seen him in years. But just five days after he started, I got a phone call from the principal that left me shaken.

Jonah and I worried about everything. Would the other kids be kind? Would the teachers understand him? What if he got left behind? What if he got hurt, and not in a way you could see?

But when we finally asked Milo if he wanted to go to Briar Glen Elementary, his whole face lit up.

“Wait. Really, Mom? A real school? Like the other kids?”

“Like the other kids.”

He hugged me so hard I almost fell over.

The Sunday before school started, Briar Glen held an open house. Milo wore his dinosaur T-shirt and carried his Field Notes. His new teacher, Ms. Tran, knelt down to his eye level and told him she’d heard he knew more about fossils than she did. He’d glowed.

Near the cookie table, a tall woman in a cream blazer introduced herself. Celeste Rowan, PTA president. She had a gold hummingbird brooch on her lapel and a smile that never quite reached her eyes.