The Author
Emily
Being a parent of a special needs kid is hard enough. Having your hopes and dreams for a school that will be a perfect fit taken away? That’s down right wrong.
I’ve been following the Voucher issues with Douglas County schools as a friend of mine is in the thick of it. She’s fighting in the trenches trying to help and protect roughly 500 kids from having their ticket to a better education taken away. Literally.
Karin Piper writes for many places, she most recently wrote about this issue on Your Hub. Below is the article…
Douglas County Schools and the Colorado Department of Education are being sued by ACLU, a group called TaxPayers for Public Education, and a handful of citizens. The plaintiffs are challenging the legality of the Dougco Scholarship program claiming school funding laws do not permit government funds to go to private schools.
The defense for Dougco schools has argued there are plenty of programs already in place where government funding is paying for private services.
This raises a few questions:
If the court scraps the Dougco scholarships, will the other programs need to go too?
Barb Likos is also a local writer and wrote about her take on her newly revamped site, Mom Off Track…
I’m mad. Hopefully, you will be mad too when you are done with this. Because it is about 500 kids getting caught in a political machine.
As a parent of special needs child myself, I’m worried. We are starting Brady’s first year of preschool now. The public schools in our area will not be a good fit for him come kindergarten and we are scrambling to find something that will. Yes, he’s only 3, but when you need and expect the best of the best for you children, you have to start as early as possible being an advocate for them.
I’ll be watching this story closely and posting here, to you all, what I find out. If you have any information regarding this story, are a family affected by this in Douglas County, or a media outlet wanting to share your thoughts, please feel free to email me at mom@ColoradoMoms.com
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I, too, have been following the voucher issue. I live in Douglas County, and am a taxpayer. My children graduated from Douglas County schools. One was a special needs child. He is now in college, thanks to the hard working teachers and staff at his alternative school. There are currently nearly a dozen charter schools and eight alternative schools in the district. Plenty of options for almost any child.
Out of the 300 children who had been accepted into the voucher program, only two or three were children with special needs. On the stand at the hearing, the DougCo school superintendent said, that in order for families with special needs children to get the help they need, they have to sue the school district.
The district, by law, is supposed to provide for all students. The district is now shirking those duties as tough financial times have resulted in budget cuts and teacher layoffs. The resources that were there when my children went to school have dwindled.
The bottom line here is not to delude ourselves into thinking that vouchers are the answer to the problems facing families. They are not. The school district’s duty is to provide a quality education for all children. The voucher plan was a way for them to get rid of the problems they didn’t want to deal with. And, even with vouchers, families were still facing paying thousands of dollars out of pocket to go to private school.
Our tax dollars should be spent to strengthen our public schools. And, those public schools are supposed to provide for all children.
Only until we, as parents and taxpayers, demand our rights from our elected officials, will we get what we’re paying for.
Actually 33 children had special needs. At the age and grade level of my son, 7th grade, and taking into consideration his disabilities, the district currently does not have a middle or high school to meet his needs. Not every child fits into the normal classroom or the speical ed classroom. For me to go to the district to fight for these things would take away current funding from the rest of the DCSD kids, funding we all know if at a critical state. For my personal situation the vouchers was the best option. It got us to a school that best fit my sons needs, and it cost the district no out of pocket expense.
I think it is so admirable that a district was willing to put its money where it’s mouth was in terms of giving parents choice. Colorado is a great place to raise a family and programs like this would only make it better
I have a son with Aspergers, Sensory Processing Disorder, OCD, and an Anxiety Disorder. He is entering 7th grade this year. No schools in DCSD are a proper place for him because of his sensory problems. With the program we found a school with 20 children in his combined 6-8 class. He would have only had one teacher, would not have had to switch classrooms AND his teacher has experience with children who have sensory problems. This was taken away from us on Friday. I am not anti public school, my other son in 8th grade will continue to go to public school. Please watch this video I made of my two sons. It shows why we needed this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOteAK2QOhk
I don’t live in Douglas County, but I do live in Aurora, which has the poorest performing schools in the state. I was excited to see a school voucher program in our state with the hopes it would come to our city. Special needs or not, all kids deserve a shot at a better education, no matter where they live.
Chris, many communities were hoping this program would open the doors for their’s as well. Unfortunately, we have hit a speed bump. Our Board Members have our kids best interests at heart. After the verdict was reached Denver School Board member Andrea Merida, congratulated the opposition on their win. So for those DPS mom’s who are for school choice, Andrea Merida is not.