Scholarships for disabled are a hit (GA, voucher program)

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/2007/07/11/voucher_0711_2DOT.html

More than 3,200 families have applied for a new Georgia scholarship to send their special-needs children to other public or private schools this fall. But state officials say that with only about 120 private schools willing to accept the tuition voucher, many might be turned away.

...

Families may opt out of the program after they discover how much private school tuition the scholarships will cover. That amount — based on state funding used for the child's education in the public school — could run as high as $15,300, Gagne said.

Department officials put a special calculator on their Web site Tuesday allowing parents to see the estimated aid for their child. Duluth mother Donna Scowden wants to send her daughter, Angela, to The Cottage School in Roswell, which works with learning disabled students. But Scowden learned Tuesday she could get about $5,700 from the scholarship — well short of the $9,000 lawmakers touted as the average award and the school's $18,750 tuition.

More at the link. The article doesn't mention that private school participating in the scholarship program are under no requirement to reevaluate special needs kids on the three-year timeline required by IDEA, serve them in the least restrictive environment, or even provide any kind of special education services at all.

Department officials put a special calculator on their Web site Tuesday allowing parents to see the estimated aid for their child. Duluth mother Donna Scowden wants to send her daughter, Angela, to The Cottage School in Roswell, which works with learning disabled students. But Scowden learned Tuesday she could get about $5,700 from the scholarship — well short of the $9,000 lawmakers touted as the average award and the school's $18,750 tuition.

"You always sort of hope that you will be close to the estimated average, which it's not, so I don't know," Scowden said. "I've basically got to figure out if I can come up with $13,000."


No, Ms. Scowden, you really don't--that's what a public education is for... :eyes:

Gotta accentuate the positive, after all. :)

telling me that my two kids who receive sped services can apply for vouchers. What a joke. There isn't a single private school in this area that offers specific special education services, so anyone trying to use the vouchers will have their kids thrown into regular ed. I am a public school teacher, and my kids go to the school I teach at, so the point is moot for me. Still these people who think that their special needs students will get more attention from a private school are really in lala land.

What, are you crazy? And miss the chance to get your kids out of the godless government schools?

(assuming I don't need the sarcasm tag...)

God I'm hoping what with this and the opening of the new Strong Rock Academy (All Jesus All the Time) that the school I teach in will become a lot more godless.

if the schools are under no legal obligation to provide special needs education or services. Wow.

I see so much potential for abuse here. :scared.

120 private school have applied to be in the program, and a bunch of them are religious schools. I suspect that they're startups with little if any idea how to serve special needs kids. They'll take the money, though.

IDEA is federal law, right? So any parent who takes the money loses the protection of a federal law?

The wording is awful, but as with so many things RRRW, I know it's designed to put a hole in the safety net, right?

Parents have always had the right to refuse services under IDEA - this law just makes it possible, even likely, for them to do so without even realizing it.

I know it's designed to put a hole in the safety net, right?

That, and to protect "Jesus camp" schools from having to follow the laws to which public schools are accountable. Also, if a parent wants the child to take the state test, the public school to which the child would have gone has to administer the test. "Accountability" my ass.

I was talking to my principal yesterday about the fact we didn't make AYP because of our special ed. scores. She was distraught. We had well over 80% of our regular ed. students pass the mandated test and yet we still failed to make AYP. I told her that requiring special ed. students to pass the same test as regular ed. students is a way to get schools to identify less students for special ed. services. They're doing all they can to weaken IDEA to the point where it will eventually go away.

This was in the days when children were "sent away" but he worked for normalization.

If he could see what's happened to this country in the 4 years since he passed on, he would cry--something I'd never seen him do.

Thanks for the work and the advocacy. It is appreciated. :toast:

When IDEA was up for reauthorization back in 2003, the House version of the bill was an absolute atrocity. It basically rolled back the rights of disabled students by 25 years. The Committee on Education and the Workforce refused to hold public hearings despite the outcry of hundreds of interested advocacy groups. They then rushed the bill to the floor of the house for a vote on the first day of the Iraq invasion, I guess hoping that people wouldn't notice.

John Boehner of Ohio was the chairman of the committee that wrote the bill. I talked to his education staffer and I was shocked by the guy's attitude. In more than a decade of advocacy for the rights of disabled children I've NEVER come across an attitude as cold and heartless as this guy's.

Two of my three children have Asperger's Syndrome. I helped start a special needs support group 5 years ago in my community to advocate for special needs students. I highly recommend parents doing this. Our group has grown quite large and includes a legislative liason (I served in that capacity for two years until I started to get flack from my former principal for "conflict of interest" since I am a teacher in the district where I started the group). People have no idea how important it is to advocate for their kids.

Those bastards!

"in case your blood pressure was too low this morning..."

We have a strong voucher group here in MO. I expect this nonsense to hit here soon.

Seems that they're starting in the south - we ought to be having a nationwide discussion on this now.

so if you accept the scholarship the school is not required (and parents have no recourse against the school) to follow the IDEA?

As I understand it, even if you accept the money to send your child to a different public school out of zone, you've opted the kid out of special ed services.

:thumbsup:

and have been. i am glad my opposition has not been found unjust.

the No Child Left Behind act needs to repealed. throw the frickin' thing away and start again from the beginning. this is an open attack on public education by the religious right.

proponents of the program will argue that the program ensures educational standards are met, and if they are not, alternatives are available- public education fails send them to a private school. but it is clear and has been for some time that the voucher program undermines educational standards. where is the oversight of the schools? there doesn't appear to be any. and no, collecting test scores does not count as oversight. :mad:

it made schools pay attention to special needs kids and how they're taught. She does have a point about that, but there are better ways to do it without having a law whose true intention is to privatize the schools wholesale.

It gives the APPEARANCE of choice, and still manages to keep "undesirables" out of the elite private schools.
False hope to poor people, a dose at a time. The voucher is probably ONLY usable by a "school", so watch for more and more 'store-front Jesus' schools to pop up so they can claim those vouchers.

NCLB requires that all public school teachers be "highly qualified" in their field - for me, that means certification in special ed, *as well as* demonstrated proficiency in the core content areas I teach, which I have. Really, I should be dual-certified.

Yet now, we're going to give public monies to store-front Jesus schools (I'm going to pinch that phrase, btw :) ) whose teachers aren't required to be certified in any damned thing at all.

:kick: