State education board to vote on Georgia Special Needs Scholarship rule

By D. Aileen Dodd

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The state Board of Education will vote Thursday on new rules for providing vouchers to students with disabilities who want to transfer to other public or private schools.

The policy was crafted to clear up confusion about application criteria, parent notification and qualifications for private schools receiving students in the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship Program.

Some parents and education officials, however, say the measure doesn't go far enough in providing special needs' families with abundant school choice and should have been developed sooner.

“We needed some time to take in, analyze and get some data about how well the program was really working,” said Matt Cardoza, spokesman for the state Department of Education. “Based on that, we were able to develop a stronger rule with guidance that can clarify the procedures for all involved.”

Currently, some 2,100 students receive the scholarships, nearly 640 more than the previous school year.  The vouchers, which averaged $6,331 last school year, are awarded annually to students ready to start new schools in August. The program is in its second year.

To qualify, the new proposal says special needs students must be currently enrolled in a Georgia public school for at least one year; have a parent or guardian who has resided in the state for at least a year and have an active individualized education plan outlining academic expectations and the accommodations needed, among other things.

Parents can choose to transfer their kids to other campuses in their districts or move to a school in a different district if there is room.  Most scholarship recipients opt for private school. Districts must now notify parents of the transfer option at least 10 days before the end of the school year.

Ben Scafidi, executive director of the Center for an Educated Georgia called the rule a "step in the right direction."

"We need to change the law to allow for more opportunities for special needs children to enroll in private schools during ... the middle of the school year," he said. "Florida does this.”

Georgia also excludes some special needs students if they are home schooled, in juvenile justice schools or in residential treatment facilities.

“The most egregious of the provisions goes beyond the statute to exclude students in residential treatment facilities," said John Zimmring, an attorney who represents special needs students.

Lawrenceville mom Tina Holt said the new rule won't help her. Holt withdrew her son Matthew from a Gwinnett middle school without knowing about the scholarship's enrollment criteria. She home schooled him for the rest of the year. “He was being bullied and could not keep up with the rest of his class,” Holt said. “He has a speech impediment and people were making fun of him.’’

Holt said she tried to enroll him in the Special Needs School of Gwinnett but learned she didn’t qualify for the state's special needs scholarship. The school helped her find a private scholarship this year, but she doesn’t know what she will do next year.

“He’s getting straight As,” Holt said. “When I first started this process ...if I had known that … he could not qualify I would have not home schooled him. A lot of parents are just like us, they had no idea.’’