The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/12/06
ATHENS — A Republican state lawmaker filed legislation Monday that would grant scholarships for disabled children to attend public or private schools of their choice.Go to our legislative section to see the full text of this bill.
"I want the state to give scholarships to any disabled student, whose parents are dissatisfied with their assigned public school, the ability to attend the public or private school that best fits their needs," Senate President Pro Tempore Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) said in a prepared statement.
Modeled on Florida's McKay Scholarship for Students with Disabilities Program, the scholarships would be equal to the cost for children to attend their assigned public schools or the private schools they want to attend, whichever is less. To qualify, students must have an Individualized Education Program.
Florida's scholarship program helped 17,300 students attend private school there during the 2005-2006 school year, according to a Florida Department of Education Web site. And the average scholarship was $6,927 for that year, with 751 private schools participating in the program.
"In a recent study of Florida's scholarship program," Johnson said, "findings show that parents are pleased, class sizes are smaller, the children are victimized less and there are fewer behavior problems."
12 comments:
What a tremendous idea! We battled our school district through Due Process and an OCR complaint. We "won" every time. But realized our public school system didn't have the help our child needed and would fight for their right to have our child fall through their cracks. Fortunately we were able to afford private therapy that revolutionized our child's life and found a private school whose attitude was "is there anything else we can do to help your child?". Most kids with our child's disability graduate from high school reading at a 5th grade level and spend their school days segregated from the rest of the kids. Our child has always been fully included and is now an honor student in high school and a VERY typical teen who happens to have a disability.
Although I love the Public school my daughter now attends, it seems every year I have to reeducate the teachers on the way she learns. She has an above average IQ but the CRCT test shows her struggling. I don't want her held back because of Georgia Standards.
Atlanta
Right now there are no choices in Georgia. This bill could provide choices. Here is an article that just came out about the Ohio Voucher system for children on the autism spectrum. It talks about the growth in private placements and choices for families.
Program helps families with autistic children
CLEVELAND (AP) - A two-year-old state program that offers financial aid for families seeking help for their autistic children has created a new industry in Ohio - private, specialty schools that focus on treatment for the neurological disorder.
The growth of autism programs that get funding from the Ohio Autism Scholarship Program is occurring as the number of children diagnosed with autism surges. The program offers parents up to $20,000 for services outside public schools.
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Autism, a brain disorder with no cure, is a term used to describe several impairments in a child's ability to process information and communicate.
More than 120 private providers have registered with the state under the program in two years, according to the Ohio Department of Education, which does not track the number of private autism schools.
New private programs are popping up statewide, though. There's the Monarch School in Shaker Heights, part of Bellefaire Jewish Children's Bureau, that opened a $3 million autism school this fall and also started a preschool.
The Cleveland Clinic has an autism school that has grown from six to 73 students since 2000 and expects to serve 100 students when a new wing opens in February 2008. The school has a waiting list of 70, director Leslie Sinclair said.
About 500 families had joined the state scholarship program through July, and about half the children are 3 to 5 years old.
The education department says between 5,400 and 6,000 school-age children in Ohio have autism, numbers that have tripled since 2000. Because standards used by public schools to diagnose the disorder vary, a state task force studying autism says the numbers may not tell the whole story.
Still, an increased focus on the disease and early recognition has spurred more parents to seek help outside public schools, including programs that offer therapies aimed at developing language skills and improve behavior problems.
Eight-year-old Jacob Dimick has improved since using scholarship money to attend a new autism center in the Cleveland suburb of Willowick, ACE Academy, his mother, Jennifer Dimick, said.
Before the treatment, "If I would point to something he would look at my finger," the mother said Dimick. "He had no idea what I was saying."
The growth in private treatment programs is giving parents more choices, but also can be overwhelming since different centers take different approaches, experts say.
For example, some use intensive, one-on-one therapy that uses rewards to encourage desired behaviors.
Another common therapy is called "floor time," which focuses on emotional development by following the child's lead to encourage interaction.
I think this a wonderful concept and I believe that it will assist families of childrens with special needs in making sure that their children get the best quality education possible. I hope that this bill passes
I think this is a great idea. However, this does not solve our problems with the public schools. The public schools may not have the help they need, but this does not give them the right to abuse their positional power. By this, they do not help the parents with the problems their children face with learning. They do not follow the laws already in place to have a fair and honest system.
I fought with my daughters school to provide her a program that would offer her a graduation curriculm. I would be told, "we can't do that, it would hurt her." They were just assuming and would not give it a try. I was labeled and they retalliated against my daughter. Now she does not have a high school degree, does not have a job, and does not have any self confidence to pursue her high school degree. I paid taxes for the school, the federal government gave the school system funding for her and now the school system wants to send her to get her GED free. OH, DOL has not even contacted her! I also want to know what happened to her transition plan that the school district was supposed to ensure that occured.
Great idea for the scholarship so that others do not have to go through what my daughter did. This is a start.
Our son has spina bifida, has a fairly high IQ and is placed in rigourous classes in a public school system. He has had support, but I have often wished we could send him to a private school because attitudinally he gets lost, has crises, and sometimes wishes he could be placed in a private school for learning in other ways, rather than just competitive ways. He is always complaining about stress and shuts down rather than enjoys life with work and balance socially. Private schools also can be rigourous, competitive, etc, but being able to choose might help him feel in charge of his life, and not so doomed to failure. He is finding it hard to measure up, and I think he gets lost in the system because he has some strong points but also some very weak points that are part of his disability (sequencing in Mathematics, initiative and organization.) He develops a low tolerance of himself because he can't seem to "measure up". We don't want to water down things, we know life will expect something from him, but we need to help him transition with successful strategies. Katharine Charles
Impart, I think that this is a good idea for children with disabilities to attend these private schools. However, If this is going to lead to lest public participation of those who can't attend private schools. If that's true, those who can't attend private schools will create discrimination of those that are slow in education achievement.
Legislation that redirects funding for special education students to attend private schools or public schools of choice is an excellent idea, but it is also a pandora's box. The "money follows the child" idea will likely spill over into general education. Are we ready to deal with the reshaping of our public education system?
I am a special education teacher in a public school and the mother of a child who receives special education services at a public school. I've been frustrated as a parent dealing with IEPs that have not been implemented after meeting three hours to discuss accomodations and create goals. Some schools think the only solution is self-contained classes and don't go through the process of collecting data to determine the least restrictive environment.
I've been frustrated as a special education teacher because I am expected to understand the specific disabilities and strengths and weaknesses of each child, develop lesson plans and teaching strategies for individual students, manage case loads of ten or more students, write IEPs, collect data, and manage my classroom to prevent my children with learning disabilities from being victimized by my children with emotional behavior disorders. I don't get any extra planning time or extra pay to do magic. Being a special education teacher is a labor of love, especially in inner city schools.
In some cases principals make decisions that do not make sense for our students (like block scheduling in middle school). Others do not value our students the same (they get placed in the trailers). Although we are considered professionals, funding to attend conferences, seminars, and other valuable training is not made readily available by principals.
This bill will help parents to hold teachers and schools accountable. People tend to pay attention when money is involved. When public schools lose dollars because parents choose private schools or better special education programs at other public schools, they will be forced to take a look at what they are doing and make improvements. Like any good business that wants to please a customer, public schools will begin to cater to the needs of the student rather than fit the student into what they have available. They will be forced to hire highly trained special education teachers and pay them what they are worth.
Public schools will be forced to use dollars wisely, seek resources, update technology, and do all the other necessary things that a competitive business would do to keep customers coming back.
I think it is a grand idea! I wish I had the option years ago before I started homeschooling my children. It would have saved me a lot of time. I did not want to have to homeschool, but the amout of time spent arm wrestling some schools were wasting their valuable time while they continued to age. I had to do something, and quick.
The sooner children get into the appropriate schools or programs that work for them, the more they will be able to learn. This proposal simply makes sense and is cost effective. How and why could anyone say no?
I feel that this is a great idea for the education of disabled children. Being able to choose a private school may help with the childs ability to learn. Many disabled children need the extra attention and smaller classrooms allow for that. Great idea! Too long in the making...
Overall I like the idea. Parents may find a better fit for educating their child. I do have some concerns. This is promising for people who live in urban or metropolitan settings where there is a lot of school choice. But what about families in rural or small town areas where there are no private schools or the ones that exist are not prepared to deal with special needs kids?
We have been battling Forsyth COunty schools for a year and a half only to end up having to remove our daughter and place her in a private setting. We love the private school, but the cost is not in our budget. Now we're forced to become a family with 2 working parents to fund our daughter's education.
The public schools have failed our kids as they've become obsessed with following the letter of the law without regard to the intent. Underqualified teachers, unsupportive administrators, and an atmosphere of EXclusion are not what IDEA was all about. It's time we have the right to use our tax dollars to truly educate our kids.
I totally support this bill!
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