Twelve-year-old Lilah Goldstein has had a tough life, challenged by autism and other behavior disorders. When she returned home from her public school on multiple occasions with unexplained bruises, her mother, Emily, knew something dramatic would have to change.
In 2007, the Legislature enacted the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship Program for children with disabilities. Two years ago, Lilah qualified for a $7,700 voucher to pay for most of the $10,920 tuition at the Special Needs Schools of Gwinnett County that specialize in teaching children with disabilities.
“My daughter cried every morning and fought going to school,” said Emily Goldstein, a Loganville resident. “She loves school now because she feels safe there, feels smart and is rewarded.”
Lilah’s story is not unusual among pupils with disabilities. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported earlier this month that cases of abuses are popping up in Georgia and across the country.
For example, a Cobb paraprofessional was recently charged with misdemeanor battery after allegedly slapping a pre-kindergartner who has autism. A former Fulton County teacher was recently granted immunity after allegedly isolating disabled students in dark bathrooms, playing recorded screams into their ears and slamming them into lockers. Desperate parents in Georgia, Texas and New Jersey have put recording devices on their children to discover the truth as to how and why their special needs may be mistreated at school.
The U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Civil Rights issued a 2014 report that said students with disabilities represent 12 percent of the student population across the country, but 58 percent of those placed in seclusion or involuntary confinement in public school.
But for the Goldsteins and thousands of other Georgia families unsatisfied with the education offered their children, they now have greater educational choices. Prior to 2008, a parent unhappy with how a traditional public school educated their child with special needs had to find an enormous amount of money for private school tuition, or would have to sue the school to find a remedy — something costly or risky.
Today, Georgia parents can apply for a special needs voucher and transfer their child to one of 236 private schools participating in the program for 2014-15 academic year. Last year, vouchers awarded ranged from $2,196 to $12,803 based on the severity of the child’s disability; the average tuition was $13,152 at schools teaching children with special needs. Those primarily signing up for vouchers tend to be children with uncategorized health impairments, specific learning disabilities, autism, and speech language and developmental disabilities.
What’s most remarkable is the change parents see once their child transfers to a school more suited to their needs. Emily Goldstein says Lilah gets much more attention, and students want to help one another learn. An annual state Department of Education report on the voucher program found 62 percent of these children showed progress of one school year or more in math, and 63 percent showed progress of one school year or more in reading.
To qualify for a voucher, a student must have attended a public school the prior school year and received some special education services. The child must have been in the public schools’ enrollment count in October and March the prior school year, and his or her parent must be a Georgia resident. A student also has multiple opportunities during the academic year to transfer to a private school.
Beginning in mid-May, parents will be able to go to the DOE website and find the state’s calculator to determine the available voucher amount for their child for the 2014-15 school year and a list of private schools that will accommodate voucher students.
Some policymakers say the way to address the problem of abuse of students with special needs is additional training of education personnel, or cameras in the classroom. For some parents, that may make public schools work for them. But for others, what we’ve seen with school choice in Georgia is a model for the nation.
Educational freedom proves to not only relieve the parent and child of the stress of being in an unproductive classroom, but gives these children hope they can learn and grow. Vouchers give parents the freedom to leave any educational setting, should they deem it necessary.
“Having a child with special needs you know there is no one-size-fits-all package that works for your baby,” said Emily Goldstein. “Too many parents figure this is the way it is and don’t know it can be better. There is another way.”
