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 →

Ohio has expanded its school voucher program to include all special education students. This means that parents of kids who have special needs, of any kind, can get financial support to put their child into a private school. The public schools may face financial difficulties as a result of the voucher system. According to Dictionary.com, a school voucher 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 may also be called an “educational voucher” or a “scholarship”. … Continue reading →

The Deer Valley Unified School District, in Arizona, has filed a lawsuit against a parent. The school district says that it should not have to pay private-school tuition for her child, who has special needs. The school district wants to overturn a state order that requires them to pay that tuition. The Individuals With Disabilities Act (IDEA) includes Section 504. This section requires a school to provide a “free and appropriate public education” (FAPE) to each student who has a disability and who is in the school district’s jurisdiction, regardless of the nature or severity of the person’s disability. Schools … Continue reading →

In just a few weeks, the school year will come to an end. Summer vacation can mean up to ten or more weeks away from the structure of a school environment. Children with special needs can lose many of the skills they learned over the school year during the unstructured days of summer vacation. Summer school can help a child retain those hard earned skills. Summer vacation can be a time of relaxation. Often, children look forward to being free from the responsibility of passing tests, doing homework, and attending school. This is a time for families to travel to … Continue reading →