Writing in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, David Casas says a growing number of Georgia parents are using vouchers to get their children with disabilities into private schools. Almost 1,600 students used the “Georgia Special Needs Scholarships” this year, and an increasing number of private schools are participating.

Republican state representative Casas was a sponsor of the bill creating the vouchers, which grant students with disabilities partial tuition to private schools. Parents had sought the vouchers as a way to get their children out of low-performing schools or inadequate programs. It is estimated that some 200,000 students are eligible for the vouchers statewide.

An excerpt:

It is enormously challenging to be the parent of a child with special needs.

Hopefully the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship is bringing some sense of normalcy to children and their parents who are finding hope in smaller classrooms, different schools and happier educational environments.

See earlier posts here and here.

From the Washington Post:

The District’s top special education official testified in federal court yesterday that some school personnel ignore scheduled meetings with parents, contributing to the city’s failure to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities or behavioral challenges.

Richard Nyankori, acting deputy chancellor for special education, testified that the no-shows were sometimes caused by “willful” action by staff. In a subsequent interview, he also blamed the problem in part on “indifference.”

A spokeswoman for the Washington Teachers’ Union characterized Nyankori’s claim as “a lie, for lack of a better word.” The testimony came in a hearing about the District’s lack of progress in improving its services for children with disabilities. In 2006, the district was ordered to make changes after parents filed suit alleging that children with disabilities faced unreasonable delays getting services.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Seventeen-year-old Anne Jennings was selected homecoming queen at Libertyville High School north of Chicago earlier this month. She has Down syndrome.

“Before, I was just plain me,” said Jennings, selected by student vote out of 17 nominated girls. “When I was queen, it changed. It’s amazing. Everyone loves me. I love me.”

See earlier posts on a Texas homecoming queen here and here.

(Tribune photo)

Anne Sutton, writing for the Associated Press from Juneau, says programs and spending for children with disabilities “haven’t been a highlight” during Sarah Palin’s 21 months in office as Alaska’s governor.

The Department of Health and Social Services did not see its budget go up during her first year, although her second year brought a 6 percent increase.

The governor also pushed through an increase in education funds for severely disabled students, which rose from $26,900 to $49,300 per student this year. (The term “severely disabled student” was not defined.)

She approved the expenditure of $500,000 for diagnosing autism, and also $250,000 to train early intervention workers. But she cut in half a request for $550,000 for an indoor training facility for Special Olympics Alaska.

In an email interview with her hometown newspaper published September 30, Palin touted her record supporting children with disabilities.

“It is our hope that by providing the necessary funding support, we can touch more children with special needs who did not have opportunities before due to the prohibitive costs of providing the appropriate care,” Palin wrote to the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman.

Earlier post here: Factcheckers say many claims about Palin are false, misleading

In their last debate before election day, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama were asked by moderator Bob Schieffer about  the qualifications of their respective running mates.

McCain praised Sarah Palin as someone with strong expertise in helping “very special needs children,” and someone with more understanding of autism than “almost any American that I know.”

Obama countered that it will take increased funding — not an across-the-board spending freeze — to support programs and research for children with disabilities.

See also, from CNBC: Unanswered questions on special needs

Here’s the excerpt of the debate, as transcribed by CNN:

McCain on Palin: … She’ll be my partner. She understands reform. And, by the way, she also understands special-needs families. She understands that autism is on the rise, that we’ve got to find out what’s causing it, and we’ve got to reach out to these families, and help them, and give them the help they need as they raise these very special needs children.

She understands that better than almost any American that I know. I’m proud of her.

And she has ignited our party and people all over America that have never been involved in the political process. And I can’t tell how proud I am of her and her family.

Her husband’s a pretty tough guy, by the way, too.

Schieffer: Do you think she’s qualified to be president?

Obama: You know, I think it’s — that’s going to be up to the American people. I think that, obviously, she’s a capable politician who has, I think, excited the — a base in the Republican Party.

And I think it’s very commendable the work she’s done on behalf of special needs. I agree with that, John.

(more…)

From the Washington Post:

A school in suburban Maryland that serves medically fragile students with severe physical and cognitive disabilities has been put on a state watch list of underperforming schools, even though its reading and math scores were on target. The problem: poor attendance.

Experts say the dilemma of Stephen Knolls School in Montgomery County highlights the way students with disabilities can get caught in the politics of the federal No Child Left Behind Law.

The dispute offers “a classic case of how well-intentioned federal policy has gone awry,” said Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. “This district is earnestly trying to follow the spirit of the No Child law.”

Related story from the Houston Chronicle:

(more…)

From the New York Times:

Intense lobbying by parents has prompted the creation of Westbrook Preparatory School, a $2.5 million institution that will be New York State’s first residential school for students with high-functioning autism.

The new school is part of a statewide push to bring special education students back from out-of-state private schools by creating publicly financed alternatives closer to home.

Lacking local options for those students, school districts in New York state have traditionally sent students to faraway private residential schools at costs of up to $200,000 per student per year.