Most people can imagine that the parents of kids who have special needs lead busy lives. Between appointments with specialists, doctor’s visits, making sure siblings aren’t lost in the mix, and keeping up with daily life, these families have added challenges (and joys).
With all of these added dimensions in their lives, families have enough on their plate without having to fight for their child to receive an appropriate education.
But many do spend valuable hours, days, and years fighting to convince skeptical schools that their kids with dyslexia can learn, they just need to be taught differently. Fighting to secure services they know will jumpstart their kids’ learning. Fighting to ensure that their kids with developmental delays have a chance to live independently.
Parents of students with autism have a way out of the fighting. It’s the Ohio Autism Scholarship, the first of its kind in the nation.
This tax-funded scholarship is a form of follow-the-student funding touted by education reformers nationwide. Parents can direct $20,000 (a fraction of the roughly $30,000 designated for these students in public schools) to the private education services they prefer. They can combine early intervention services, private schools, and cutting edge therapies – in other words, parents are empowered with options.
What difference has it made? Public schools step up their game, kids aren’t stuck in a holding pattern, and innovative ways of teaching kids with autism are expanded. Ohio is becoming known as an “autism-friendly state,” and parents are free to focus their energy more on helping their kids and less on fighting to get the services their child needs.
Shouldn’t this same opportunity be available to students with other learning differences and special needs?
Want to help this solution become a reality? Read up on the proposed special education scholarship legislation we mentioned last week, share your story with us, and tell your state legislator about it. Let’s all be a part of the solution.
- Sarah Pechan
