In Texas, a growing number of parents of children who have special needs have decided to opt-out of having their child attend the public schools. This is largely due to the sheer frustration that parents are feeling from their attempts to have their children’s needs met at the public schools. How do you choose which school to send your child to? This decision making process is one that all parents have to go through. Parents of children who have special needs in Texas are leaving the public school system. They are finding the lack of resources available to students who … Continue reading →

How do you go about figuring out what the best school for your child is? It is a decision that many parents can struggle with. Parents of kids who have special needs have additional criteria to use when choosing a school for their child. NPR released an episode of “Tell Me More” on August 21, 2012. The episode is titled “Choosing The Right School for Special Needs”. In this episode, Guest host Viviana Hurtado talks with three moms, each of whom have children with special needs. They talk about the challenges they faced while helping their kids do well in … Continue reading →

In Delaware, Governor Jack Markell signed a bill into law that will help parents of children who have special needs to be better able to advocate for them. The law requires schools that deny services to kids who have special needs to reimburse parents for the expense of proving that the child does have a specific need. The bill, that is now a law, was originally called House Bill 365. It was quickly passed through both the Delaware Senate and the Delaware House of Representatives. Once a bill passes through both the House and the Senate for a particular state, … Continue reading →

A brand new school year means that changes in routine will occur. This can be really stressful for kids who have certain types of special needs. School just started, but already, there are problems with the busses that transport Special Education students to and from school. Children with autism rely on knowing that their day will have a set, expected, schedule. In school, a student may be using a laminated chart that shows what will happen first, next, and after that, for his or her entire school day. Or, the chart could be a digital one that is on an … Continue reading →

The Louisiana Department of Education has been issuing private school vouchers to children who are part of the Special Education program. It is being done in a lottery type system. The result was that a child who has autism couldn’t attend the school his voucher was for because that school didn’t have resources to support students who have autism. A school voucher, according to Dictionary.com is: “a government cash grant or tax credit for parents, equal to all or part of the cost of educating their child at an elementary or secondary school of their choice”. It can also be … Continue reading →

There are two sides to every story. A Special Education bill in New York recently got vetoed by Governor Andrew Cuomo. He felt the bill would place an undue burden on taxpayers. The other side feels that this bill was “misunderstood”. Governor Andrew Cuomo vetoed a bill that would have required public school officials to consider the “home life and family background” of a Special Education student when making decisions about placement of that student into a school. Right now, federal law allows a student who is enrolled in the Special Education program of a public school to be assigned … Continue reading →

Governor Andrew Cuomo vetoed a bill that had to do with placement of Special Education students. He felt that the wording in the bill was too broad, and would place an unfair burden on taxpayers. Others feel the bill would have helped families to pay for placement in religious schools. In the United States, there is a constant battle going on within the education system. One one side, there is the interest in ensuring that a student who is part of the Special Education system is able to attend a school that can appropriately meet the child’s needs. On the … Continue reading →

Public schools receive a certain amount of state funding for every student that is enrolled and that is part of a Special Education program. When students move to private schools, the funding goes with them. This could potentially influence a school district to push kids back into public schools, even in cases where it is not the best placement for a student. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal law that is binding in all states. Part of IDEA calls for a free appropriate public education that will be provided at no cost to parents. In short, … Continue reading →

Most of the time, if a news article talks about Special Education, it is because the news is bad. It is incredibly refreshing to hear a story about a school that has an excellent Special Education program. A school in Elgin, Illinois, has been granted a very high honor by an important national organization. It seems to me that we hear three or four negative stories about things happening in Special Education before we hear one that talks about a positive situation. I’m not sure if this is because bad news, scandalous behavior, and words of hate, fly faster across … Continue reading →

Summer weather can include excessive, and dangerous, heat. In many parts of the country, the heat doesn’t dissipate just because a new school year has started. Does your child’s school bus have air conditioning? It is very important that parents find out the answer to that question. Last Summer, there were several parents in New York who were alarmed because their child’s school bus did not have air conditioning. The children were attending a Summer school program that was designed for students who had special needs. The kids were coming home drenched in sweat. The parents were upset because their … Continue reading →