Catiana Muniz Turns Personal Struggle into Community Impact

Sharon Sedlar | October 29, 2026

I met Catiana three years ago when she posted to Twitter: a mom literally begging for help for her son, David. One story turned into another, and today Catiana is our Latino Family Support at PaFEC. (Hear Catiana tell her story in her own words on PaFEC’s Empower Hour.)

In these three years, one thing has become painfully clear: Latino children in Pennsylvania aren’t getting the education support they need. Pennsylvania has the 11th largest Latino population in the country, yet only 27% of Latino adults have an associate degree or higher, compared to 46% of White adults (Excelencia in Education). Statewide, barely half of kids (49.9%) are reading at grade level on the PSSAs, and just 32.4% of English learners are hitting their language growth goals (PA Department of Education). Now pile reading difficulties, learning differences, or autism on top of that. Dyslexia alone is way more common than most people realize: as many as 20% of students contend with it (PaFEC Article: Children Continue to Slip Through the Cracks). When language barriers exist, it’s tough for a family (or a school) to tell whether the struggle is the language or something more, and kids lose precious time while adults sort it out.

Those numbers might interest people in academia or policy, but families like Catiana’s live them, and they know exactly how insufficient attention turns into years of education holdback. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. At one IEP meeting I attended, Catiana (who speaks English and Spanish) reported that the translator wouldn’t translate appropriately. At another, a special education teacher looked straight at Catiana and said, “It’s not my fault – it’s your fault.” I was flabbergasted when I witnessed it.

David’s story, which I wrote about in Children Continue to Slip Through the Cracks, shows how long families can wait: Catiana suspected autism when he was in kindergarten, but the school assured her he was “fine.” He wasn’t diagnosed until 3rd grade, and as a 5th grader, his own IEP noted he was reading at a kindergarten level. And when the district refused to help David with reading, Catiana didn’t wait: she hired an online tutor from Texas to fill the gap. David’s reading improved by leaps and bounds, but it took hard work and determination.

That’s why attention to this community matters so much. When Latino kids get the right support early, whether it’s reading help, an evaluation, or someone who speaks their family’s language, they get years of learning back.

Catiana is leading the way. She is still one of these families, raising twin babies, a 3rd grader, and a high schooler while navigating the school system herself. Every day she turns her own fight into help for other parents, giving them a voice and getting their kids the support they deserve.