Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts
~The money is going to go to Parents who have REJECTED FAPE???
Are you kidding me?
What most Parents of Students with Disabilities want IS FAPE!! Parents prepare as best they can to go to IEP meetings prepared to help their Child get the Support & Services they know their Child needs, then the FIGHT BEGINS!!! Parents have to learn how to Advocate and do a quick-study to be almost like a lawyer for their child at what begins the gut wrenching IEP meetings. Expecting and hoping to just get a well written IEP that MAKES SENSE!! Especially for our Children with the most significant learning challenges.
I WOULD NEVER REJECT A FREE AND APPROPRIATE EDUCATION for my Children!!!...but the District can FIGHT ME TOOTH AND NAIL at every meeting! Just t FIGHT ME in Due Process, State Complaints and OCR Complaints and say that these Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts will be going to those Parents that REJECTED FAPE at their Public School.
Public Education for ESE across the State should stop playing the absolute pure nonsense games and trickery that goes on at too many "THE IEP TEAM" Meetings. Schools need to provide Parents and the students rights to IDEA....without so much fighting and fussin and going to court over...oh goodness this stuff makes me angry!
As an Advocate for 12 years, listening to way too many phone calls from hurt and frustrated parents calling to tell me what was or wasn't happening to their child and what is going on at their child's school
What happened to me personally, as a parent wanting to help my daughter get a good education.~
~ I didn't reject FAPE!!!
~ I rejected the LOW EXPECTATIONS from staff and teachers at her new Middle School.
~ I rejected the BAD PLACEMENT the school wanted for my child.
~ I rejected the idea of EXCLUDING her from ever sitting in General Education Classroom again.
~ I rejected DENYING her right to her STEM Class, which they all knew was her FAVORITE CLASS!
~ I rejected the schools out-dated practices.
~ I rejected the IEP TEAM that seemed to have the Districts Blessings to PUSH & BULLY me thru 10 IEP meeings in a 7 month time span!
~ I rejected their idea to FORCE my child off receiving a Standard Diploma at Graduation!
~ I rejected the STRESS it was causing to our entire family.
~ I rejected the hurt it caused to my daughter.
~ I rejected the PURE NONSENSE and the unfriendly staff that was out to TAKE AWAY from my daughter's education.
It's really sad when families feel they are being forced out of the Public School System and "FAPE", because IDEA is NOT always provided! So if it's not being provided anyway...if a family decides to homeschool or enroll in a Private school, what are they walking away from...really? The McKay Scholarship has been a GIFT for us to find a school where we felt welcomed and my children feels VALUED & RESPECTED!
There are schools that provide a RICH QUALITY EDUCATION that provides for the Whole Child and that includes the Family too! Making families feel welcomed and including them in educational decisions shouldn't have to be a fight.
If we hadn't filed for our INTENT to use the McKay Funds during a certain time period then the PLSA/Personal Learning Scholarship Account would be available. Not all Parents can access the McKay Funds for whatever reason. So the PLSA's are going to help those children.
Parents want to TRUST Schools & Teachers to do the right things and provide IDEA at the very least.
Quoted from:
JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK, TIMES STAFF WRITER
Blog: The Gradebook
Special education advocates offer different perspective on Florida voucher plan.
"However, on the last day, many of the terms recommended by CEES that had been included in the vastly different versions of this voucher bill for the entire Session evaporated in one amendment placed on a totally different bill. The new bill (SB 850) would greatly benefit some parents and students while potentially injuring the ability for others to receive the services they deserve and leading to predictable fraud and abuse. A total of $18.4 million was allocated to provide these new services, primarily to students whose parents had already rejected receiving FAPE through their public schools. More than six times the “new” money was allocated for these vouchers than was provided as an increase for the ESE Guaranteed Allocation."
http://www.tampabay.com/resources/documents
The organization had other concerns, not often heard, on issues including funding, diplomas and testing.~ Read the full summary here./2014/06/Final_CEES_2014_Session_Report__3_.pdf
SESSION OVERVIEW
http://www.tampabay.com/resources/documents/2014/06/Final_CEES_2014_Session_Report__3_.pdf
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