The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Home-schoolers can also have special needs, parents plead
Eleven years ago, lawmakers decided families of children in special education needed broader options so they approved what was essentially a targeted voucher parents could use toward private school tuition. Now, parents are telling legislators their kids require broader options.
At a legislative hearing earlier this month, parents described educational, medical and mental health challenges that transcend not only what public schools can offer but also at times what private schools can provide. Some parents and legislators support expanding Georgia’s Special Needs Scholarship Act so home-schooling families can benefit.
State Rep. Scott Hilton, R-Peachtree Corners, sponsored a bill this year that would permit state funds to pay for private tutoring, transportation, online learning, occupational, behavioral, physical and speech-language therapies and computer hardware or other technological devices. A study committee was created to consider the proposal with a focus on the plight of families in rural areas where no private school options may exist.
The scholarship can only be awarded now to a child with an Individualized Education Plan enrolled in a public school for a year. Statewide, 272 private schools accept the voucher, which averages $5,700 a year per student, a pittance, according to parents, when a child needs complex interventions.
The other problem, according to parents, is that some special-needs students are better served outside conventional classrooms. A former Gwinnett teacher now home-schooling some of her seven adopted children said they could benefit from a range of therapies, including speech, physical, occupational and equine. The kids face multiple struggles related to
the chaos of their early lives and, in some cases, fetal alcohol syndrome, dyslexia and visual impairments.
An Atlanta mother told legislators she pulled her bright daughter with autism out of a big public middle school because the girl grew anxious and overwhelmed. Her daughter’s therapist recommended home-schooling to alleviate the stress. The mother’s intent is to homeschool and then enroll her daughter in a small, flexible high school. She asked lawmakers to drop the requirement that students only qualify for the voucher after a full year in public school.
But there were calls for caution from Garry McGiboney, state Department of Education deputy superintendent for external affairs. McGiboney said DOE routinely examines programs and provides recommendations to the Legislature, noting the agency recently offered 31 recommendations on school safety.
However, McGiboney said DOE only had one recommendation on the special-needs voucher: “We ask the Legislature to please be careful in altering the special-needs scholarship statute. It will jeopardize the funding and the effectiveness, and could disrupt the lives and education of children benefiting from the program.”
While it’s assumed the special-needs scholarship is a success, Angela Palm of the Georgia School Boards Association said the state lacks hard evidence. She also noted the largest demographic remains white families with boys. According to DOE data: Of the 4,553 students served in 2016-17, 68 percent were male, 54 percent were white and 35 percent were black.
DOE doesn’t now track what special-services students receive in their private school after leaving the public school or their academic progress. That’s become a worry for the low-income parents she counsels through her nonprofit EdConnect, said Danielle LeSure, explaining, “What I have found sometimes with private schools is they are not letting parents know about the progress of their students.”
The legislative push to broaden the program reflects a growing consensus in the Legislature that education is less a public good than a private consumable, hence Rep. Hilton’s bill rebrands the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship Act the “Georgia Individualized Education Account Act.” Before lawmakers rename it and increase its scope and cost, they ought to confirm it’s working.