About six months ago, on a bright spring afternoon, my otherwise predictable routine was shaken by a flood of texts from my oldest daughter, Josie.

Yesterday, as I was typing on my computer, the familiar email alert tone chimed. Instinctively, my eyes darted to the upper right corner of my screen, where a notification box flashed, revealing the sender—my child’s special education teacher. Instantly, my heart dropped into my stomach, and my breathing grew shallow.