Fulton schools busing fewer special needs students long distances

Fulton County education leaders are restructuring the district’s special-needs programs so students won’t have to be bused long distances to schools out of their neighborhoods.

Starting in 2013, Fulton’s Services for Exceptional Children department began to re-evaluate the location of special-needs programs across the district to ensure students were served in their home attendance zone.

Students with disabilities and their parents often feel disconnected to their communities when they have to travel great distances to school. In Fulton and other parts of metro Atlanta, some students with disabilities face riding a bus more than an hour to attend specialized programs at schools.

Fulton leaders released a report at a school board meeting Nov. 10 announcing the changes, which they began rolling out this fall. In the first phase, 50 students now attend high schools in their neighborhoods instead of being bused far away. Those schools are Cambridge, Chattahoochee, Tri-Cities and Langston Hughes high schools.

To find out when other schools will see changes, check out Myajc.com

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