The Advocate...

[factsoflife]

Rachel Griffiths (Brothers and Sisters, Six Feet Under) stars in this heart-wrenching new series as Catharine Whitlock, a 37 year old mother of three (two boys, Jeff, 16, Cory, 13 and One daughter, Carly, 4) all of whom have various special needs. Catharine works as a social worker at a local children's hospital where she frequently comes into contact with children who have special needs and who are beign negletced or abused... This weighs heavily on her and she decides to do something about it... Her husband, Richard ("Rick") works as the manager of a local bank branch... The focus of the series is Catahrine as she not only fights for children's rights in her job as a social worker, but she also fights for the rights of her own children, against the local special education system which is currently not providing her children with the proper services... Jeff, is 16 and is currently in the 8th grade at Oakfield Middle School, Jeff has a moderate case of Attention-defict disorder as well as a rare neruorlogical disfunction called Motor Dyspraxia, which affects his ability to process numbers, his fine motor skills and his level of retention... he is currently in a self-contained classroom, with children who have disablities much more sever than his. Catherine knowing all the special ed laws after having taken a series of classes on the subject is fighting the school system to get him mainstreamed... Cory who is 13 years old is currently in 4th grade at Oakfield Grammar School, and he has a sever case of Down Syndrome which affects everything he does and puts him far behind his peers. He is also in a self-contained classroom and the problem he is facing is constant taunting from his peers nad even some of his teachers who refuse to teach him and want him removed from their classroom and have even allowed students to call him names like "******"... and lastly thier is 5year old year old Carly, who has yet to begin walking yet and who cannot speak in whole sentences yet, this along with extreme mood-swings has her parents concerned and so they are bringing her in for testing from doctors... at 4 she is so behind her peers that she has been held back and is still in pre-school... Also featured in the series is Monica, Catherine's 17 year old step-daughter from Jeff's first marriage to his now deceased ex-wife Connie... Monica attends the same school as her step-brother, Jeff and is very bright, in fact she is in the Advance Placement Classes and is considered to be one of the most popular girls in school; however her constant embarrssment over her step-brother being in speical ed causes her to mistreat him... Currently she is involved in a heavy and potentially dangerous relationship with long-time boyfriend Tim Rolland, who among other things pressures her to have sex and verbally abuses her. Catherine's savior in many ways is her best friend Cindy Pickens, a neighbor whose 2 children, Parker (15) and Ben (13)both go to school with Jeff and Cory... Parker suffers from the same conditions that Jeff has, and Ben who is Cindy's youngest child is seemingly "normal", he doesn't suffer from any learning disabilities... Ben spends most of his time playing with other kids his age who do not have disabilities but is often guilted by his mother and Catherine into playing with Parker and Jeff... Catherine and Cindy do just about everything together and even work together on the board of the local Special Olympics team that Jeff, Ben and Parker all participate in. Causing havoc for both famalies is Marsha Williams, the local superintendant of schools who is from an old-time mentality and does not believe that special education programs are of benefit to the schools and is seriously considering cutting the budget and support for the programs... She also heavily leans on the princpals of the schools to make sure that special education students get the brunt of the blame for any behavorial issues that arise... This series also takes a look at the affects that raising special education children has on the fathers, who are more often than not in denial about their children's sitaution and who leave most of the work to the mothers... We will see how marriages are affected and how family dynamics play a role, as well as the way other parents and neighbors view speical education famalies.

Starring:

Rachel Griffiths (Brothers & Sisters, Six Feet Under) as Catherine Whitlock
Peter Gallagher (The O.C) as Richard "Rick" Whitlock
Unknown Actors as Jeff, Cory and Carly Whitlock
Sherry Stringfield (ER) as Cindy Pickens
Unknown actors as Parker and Ben Pickens
Unknown actress as Monica Whitlock

and...

Holland Taylor (Two and A Half Men, The Practice, Ally McBeal) as Marsha Williams...