Court Says Public Schools to Pay for Private

When a child with special needs is not getting what they require and deserve at their public school, what options do they have? Homeschooling, private school, or simply live with it. However, for many families, these are not easy options to work with. Now the courts are seeing this problem and giving these parents some light at the end of their tunnel.

Court says public must pay for private special ed

By JESSE J. HOLLAND
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court has ruled that parents of special education students who opt for private school instead of trying the public system cannot be barred from seeking public reimbursement for their tuition costs.

The court ruled 6-3 Monday in favor of a teenage boy from Oregon whose parents sought to force their local public school district to pay the $5,200 a month it cost to send their son to a private school.

Federal law calls for school districts to reimburse students or their families for education costs when public schools do not have services that address or fulfill the students' needs. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the nation's special education students are entitled to a "free and appropriate public education."

To read the rest of this AP Story, click here

Economy Makes Life Even Harder for Some

The downturn in the economy can make any family or individual struggle. People are looking for ways to cut back spending, increase savings, and up their income. Sometimes it works and other times, it does not.
Families with autistic or other special needs' children are also facing hard times...possibly more than other people. Getting treatment and education should not be something added to those stresses, but unfortunately, it is. An article in the SeattlePi portrays the struggles one family is experiencing during this turbulent time. Their 6 year old son suffers from autism and the family has had to cut back on the expensive treatment he was receiving. Notes from his teacher showed multiple orange circles, indicating that their son was repeatedly acting out.
"I feel that Aaron is more affected by this than anyone in the family," Renee Ott said as she sat at her kitchen counter. "Why I cry at night is because of him."
What if...they could send their child to a specialized school instead of the school he currently attends? Perhaps, they wouldn't need all the extra treatments and could get everything in the school. Why shouldn't they have the option to send their child to a school, private or public, that could handle every need of the little boy?
Children from all walks of life, from all cities and states around the U.S. would benefit from programs like these. It would not only save the parents money, but it would also help the schools that are no doubtingly spending thousands on just a handful of children. The children could attend a school that can educate and treat effectively and efficiently.
With special needs children, comes many obstacles, why shouldn't they at least have one thing going smoothly?

Who Will Help the Children?

As a young mother, I worried about quality naps, diaper rash, developing fine and gross motor skills, hitting the developmental milestones at the right time, proper nutrition, and of course happiness of my children. These were all things I would try to control, (although no one has total control of these issues, but I gave it my best). Now, as my children are leaving 'my nest' and entering kindergarten, I must relinquish many news concerns to teachers, at least for part of the day.

The problems with the public education system are not new and you would think people would try new things to fix them, not keep trying to same failed policies.
Recently, gubernatorial candidate, Kenny Hulshof announced his plan for education in Missouri. His plan includes more charter schools in Kansas City and children gaining access to scholarship tax credits. His opponent Nixon, however, wants to keep the status quo, the same plans that have been and will continue to fail our children.

Nixon even has the audacity to criticize Hulshof for accepting political contributions from another school choice advocate, Rex Sinquefield. Nixon says " I have never accepted money from Mr. Sinquefield or any of his Political Action Committees, and I certainly never will. Mr. Sinquefield's pro-voucher agenda undermines our public school system and as a product of Missouri's public schools, I believe we must strengthen our school system, not weaken it."
Two points here: Nixon would NEVER be offered money by Sinquefield, secondly, its Nixon's plans that will keep our schools failing, not Sinquefield's. Nixon's plans will simply keep things the way they are...broken!

Education reform plans, such as those by Hulshof and Sinquefield, are plans that intend to strengthen the schools, grant good education to all children, and stimulate growth and change within the entire program.

Congratulations to Hulshof for taking a stand against failed systems. I can only hope Missourians will make the right vote, the vote for change.

Empowerment

Any parent of a child on the Autism Spectrum will tell you life is not easy and definitely not something fabricated. Life with a child with autism is a challenging life, one with obstacle after obstacle. Families need to be empowered to stay strong and fight for their child's rights. Unfortunately, some people are naive about the truths about life with autism. The reality is that 1 in 150 children are diagnosed with autism. While Missouri has improved in many ways, such as increasing funding for diagnosis and treatment, there are still ways to improve.

The Blue Ribbon Panel on Autism was created by Michael Gibbons to figure out the best ways to help families affected by autism. The panel consisted of 16 people, including lawmakers, educators, parents, doctors, and health officials. From the discussions in the panel, the recommendations were brought to light. It created the Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders, which helps advise the government how to implement the best models brought about during panel discussions. Also created was the Office of Autism Services, which serves as a medium to help families navigate through the various services, resources, and care services available.

Missouri has made these advancements in Autism early diagnosis and treatment, but there are still many more things to do to help. Not only do people need to be aware of the condition and make treatments available, they also need to make sure children are receiving the education they need. Early detection helps children enroll in special needs preschools, but unfortunately, after that, many children are without access to those schools. Many public schools are simply not equipped to properly educate and treat children on the spectrum. Those children should be granted access to the schools that are capable of properly educating. Autism awareness is a stepping stone to this problem, an important one, but it is time we look beyond what we now know and look to changing how special needs education is delivered.

Key Elements

Teaching children with special needs takes an extra talented teacher to know what the child needs. There are special steps in order to make sure the child is getting the education he/she needs, which can be hard to perfect in some situations. Unfortunately, not every public school can provide the child with that type of teacher. This is not to say that private schools can always provide that either. While it may be easy to know what needs to be done, it is harder to actually implement those plans.

According to Education.com, there are several key elements to effectively teaching special needs children:

• A teacher who sets high expectations for the child and who encourages peer interaction and mentoringas appropriate.
  
• Special and regular educators who collaborate in instruction and who have a sense of ownership in the process.
  
• Individualized instruction with decisions based on careful collection and analysis of data focused on measurablegoals and behaviors
  
• Special services are brought into the classroom to facilitate generalization and to prevent stigmatization
  
• A collaborative team approach -including regular and special educators, school administrators, supplemental school personnel, and parents or guardians -is employed to set goals and to evaluate progress of the IEP
  
• An assumption that all children can acquire skills if instruction is modified to help the child succeed
  
• Adapting the school environment by extending school hours or the school year and coordinating with home caregivers.
  
  When children are forced to attend schools (by geographical location or lack of funds to attend others) and not receiving the education they require, they are missing out on windows to their future. Education is the first step in life....from the day you are born, you are learning new things. If a child's brain is not encouraged to grow and grow correctly, it will stagnate and the child's life will forever suffer. Here the scenario changes...there is a private school down the road that has excellent special needs teachers...but the parents cannot afford it. Or the neighboring school district has the best special needs teachers around, but the family lives just outside the borders. Guess who is ultimately negatively impacted by this? The child! Now, imagine if the parents and the child had the choice...wouldn't that be nice?