Cuts, economy threaten many parents’ choices

In a tiny classroom, children of few words trace the alphabet in shaving cream, flinging globs of white foam onto their clothes and hair. Their squeals and grunts show the promise of early language skills.

The teacher rewards their baby steps.

Across the yard, kids once labeled with behavioral disorders sit calmly around an art table sharing supplies, bumping elbows, drawing, pasting with no blowups.

The teacher praises their work ethic.

At Special Needs Schools of Gwinnett, where class sizes are small and every teacher has at least one or more assistants, the enrollment has doubled without any investments in glossy advertisements. Once Georgia parents were offered school choice for their special education kids, the Lawrenceville school began to grow.

Now, school choice for many hundreds of parents is being threatened by state voucher funding reductions. Parents of special needs kids who counted on the money to help pay for private school in a weak economy are finding they may not be able to afford it after all.

“I have a large amount of parents who have lost their jobs and may not be able to make up the gap in tuition,” said Elinor Trotter, director of Special Needs Schools, which has 40 kids from nine counties. “We are going to find a way to help them.”

About 1,600 students statewide receive vouchers under Georgia’s Special Needs Scholarship Program, up from nearly 900 in 2007-08, the program’s inaugural year. Although the enrollment has nearly doubled, the funding, which is based on a student’s diagnosis and individual educational plan, hasn’t. The average voucher rose slightly to $6,331. And those allocations were subject to the same 2 percent reductions passed on to school districts because of the state’s budget shortfall.

“The enrollment that we have is slightly larger than we budgeted for,” said Dana Tofig, a state Department of Education spokesperson. “There is nothing that the state can do.”

Metro area private institutions like The Howard School in Atlanta and The Cottage School in Roswell are beefing up financial aid so finances won’t limit school choice for needy families.

Approximately $100,000 will be available at Cottage School, which sits on 23 acres and offers a mainstream middle and high school experience for special needs kids complete with prom. Currently, 53 of the school’s 185 students receive vouchers, ranging from $2,000 to $9,000. The school tuition is almost $20,000.

“Parents have to come up with more than half of the tuition of their own,” said Jacque Digieso, executive director of the school, which boasts a college placement rate of 90 percent. “We feel like we just have to help. “

If there are any more voucher cuts, North Georgia mom Shannon Moss, who travels 112 miles each weekday chauffeuring her two kids to separate private schools, may not be able to afford the investment. Tuition at many metro Atlanta private schools is rising.

Her 9-year-old Brian, who has autism, receives a voucher that pays for full tuition at Special Needs Schools, which costs $6,900. Her 11-year-old Brandon, who has social-emotional disorders, gets $2,700, to help with his $18,500 tuition in Sandy Springs.

“If it weren’t for the voucher that Brian gets, we wouldn’t be able to do it,” said Moss, a stay-at-home, mom. “We are doing this on one income. We are stretched thin.”

Moss said she had to drive outside her neighborhood to find the right school to suit her children’s needs. And now that they are progressing, she doesn’t want to move them. In public school, Brian used to wail, crawl under desks and stick his head in his backpack when agitated. At Special Needs Schools, he learned coping skills that help him focus. The school, a network of tiny cottages and trailers, groups students together by grade level, not disability, so they can coach each other to strengthen weaknesses in academics and social graces. “We are seeing a lot more eye contact, fewer meltdowns,” Moss said. “He is much happier.”

Special Needs Schools has an arrangement with the Gwinnett Arena that allows parents to work off some of their tuition balances by manning beverage booths during special events. Administrators also are planning events to raise funds for financial aid and the construction of a new building to serve kids on the wait list. “We never say can’t here,” Trotter said. “I have had parents collapse crying when they saw their child walk in a school play and they were told they would never walk, or read a speech when they were told they couldn’t talk. These kids deserve to be challenged.”

SPECIAL NEEDS SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

Students receiving scholarships in 2007-08 …………………899

Students receiving scholarships through November 2008 ……..1,596

Private schools enrolling scholarship students in 2007-08 ……115

Private schools enrolling scholarship students in 2008-09 ……139

Median scholarship in 2007-08 ………………………….$6,088

Median scholarship in 2008-09 (based on 1,605 recipients)….$6,153

Average scholarship in 2007-08 …………………………$6,260

Average scholarship in 2008-09 (based on 1,605 recipients) ..$6,331

Total scholarship payments for 2007-08 ……………$5.41 million

Projected total scholarship payments for 2008-09 …..$5.99 million

GET INVOLVED

The following fund-raisers will be held to help these metro area schools support special needs students:

> A golf tournament benefit will be held at Sugarloaf Country Club today to raise funds for Special Needs Schools of Gwinnett. Tickets are $250 per player. For information, call 678-442-6262.

> Glitter Under the Stars auction and sock hop will be held on April 18 at The Cottage School. Tickets cost $75. For more information, call 770-641-8688 or visit www.cottageschool.org.