What are your thoughts on this??

Question

I live in MD and recently a bill has been proposed that will have the public school system pay for the physical, occupational and speech therapies of special education students who are currently being homeschooled. I am curious as to what others...both in the special ed and home school community think.

As the mother of an autistic child, and someone who has done a fair amount of parent's advocate work, I generally discourage most families from homeschooling because in doing so they will loose all the ancillary therapy services they can get from the public schools. Few families are in a financial position to pay for these from private sources and insurance coverage for them is spotty. Also, special education budgets shrink every year, so the addtional cost is a factor.

As a homeschooler (of my other child) I feel that until the schools are willing to let my daughter join the drama club or play school sponsered sports, then no one group should be given special treatment.

Melissa asks if I equate my daughter's desire to be in drama (as a homeschooler) to another homeschool student needing speech. In some ways , of course not...the child with the disability has needs that must be met for him to continue to grow and progress towards the best quality of life he can hope for. BUT, in that in MD homeschooling is a choice made with the knowledge that doing so will leave your child ineligable for any and all support from the schools, then yes, if they open that door for the special needs children they should open it for all homeschoolers.

I have been truely blessed the my son has been placed in an outstanding non-public placement because the schools quickly agreed he would not be served in any of the settings they could offer. I am also lucky to live in an area where services for children with autism are plentiful, even to the level of transtionting to adult lives. We could not afford the level of services he gets if we tried to pay for them on our own.

And homeschooling for any child takes a lot of dedication and sacrifice. Many families are not in a position to loose the income the second parent may be bringing in. Their insurance coverage may not include things like speech, OT or PT for any more than they might get from the schools and usually for far fewer sessions. And while there are many parents who homeschool, all of them will tell you it is not easy on THEM and that homeschooling a special need child has more demands, takes more emotional and pysical stamina and there is no shame that many Moms may just not feel they can meet those needs in that setting, day in and day out. I know I could not homeschool my soon and still feel I was giving my daughter the attention she needs to work with her learning needs.

THis is a tough call. Yes, I admit I want it all..for all the homeschool kids. But I know that can't be. Thanks for all your inputs...

Answer 1

Take whatever you can get. Your paying for it. I think its wrong to exclude homeschool kids from any class or services. I don't think you should take an all or none stance. We all take advantage of the opportunities we can get. Besides you are paying for it all ready along with the education of other peoples children.

Answer 2

As the mother of autistic children, I don't want my kids to get therapy in school. While most therapists hired in schools are well-intentioned, they are generally not trained for every disability, not funded for products, and not supported fully in time. In schools across our state, children with autism get less than an hour of therapy a week. Some kids get 15 minutes a month. Often the therapists hired are brand new, out of college, with no experience and are stressed out. They stay long enough to get experience and move on to a private practice. Public schools have an unbelieveable turnover in resource teachers and therapists.

Knowing people across the country who are fighting to receive the appropriate services, I don't know anyone who actually ever achieves an adequate amount of therapy from any school, and as a parent liaison for a local autism advocacy group, I usually support parents who choose to homeschool because the one-on-one that a child can receive with their parents and in social programs that are private, are usually far more appropriate than any type of therapy, special ed setting or mainstream that you could receive in public schools.

And to say that there is no difference between a child with autism receiving therapy from a school and a child wanting to be in drama...is like saying that paralyzed people shouldn't get wheelchairs until everyone can have one. WFT? There's a huge difference between the funding that schools get to provide therapy and the funding they get to provide extracurricular activities.

Answer 3

Well, in our state, homeschooled and private schooled students are allowed access to therapies if they qualify as special ed students, which I also think is appropriate since we are paying taxes as are parents of public school students. Homeschoolers are also allowed access to all extra curricular activities that you mention such as drama club, sports, etc. Florida is one of 10 states that by law allows access to extracurricular activities and sports.

I do have to admit though, that, our state is only 40th or 41st out of 50 in terms of funding for education out of the 50 states so even though we did receive services when we were homeschooling, they were pretty abysmal. My son was supposed to have speech therapy every week acc. to his IEP and they immediately reduced it to every other week because the speech therapist had 110 or 120 children that she had to see at different schools. Then after a few months of that, she stopped seeing him completely and offered several different excuses (had to proctor the FCAT, her dd's illness, an injury, etc.). So personally I think the ps therapies they offer are not that good anyway, and I certainly wouldn't advise someone to avoid homeschooling just because they might miss out on some of this kind of therapy!

At that point when she didn't show up again for about the 3rd month in a row, we complained to the guidance counselor, and the therapist left a nasty message on our voice mail because she said she had called to cancel her other appointments she had (but forgot to call us) like that should make us feel better? We felt at that point that my son's therapy or what was supposed to be therapy wasn't going to do any good for so few appts. & then stopping for months, so my dh signed the paperwork "discontinuing" it & the therapist seemed too busy and maybe some kind of problems going on in her life too.

I personally think homeschooling and obtaining private therapies, we've used our private insurance and the speech therapists and OTs have also taught me how to work with my son in our homeschool (when our insurance ran out) is probably an ideal way to teach many special needs children, esp. in a state that does not have much special needs funding like ours.

Answer 4

Since parents are still paying the taxes for public schools, it seems to me that this sort of service should already have been provided for special education students; after all, it's mandatory for them to provide it for their own students.

I also don't see clubs and such as mandatory provisions of a public school, so I can understand why they would not be legally forced to allow homeschoolers to participate. There's also the aspect that clubs and teams are part of furthering a sense of school community. I've never heard of schools here allowing kids from other public schools to participate in their clubs and sports programs and don't see why they should be legally required to allow homeschoolers (who technically go to another school) and not children from other schools.

Answer 5

I have no interest in being "included" in public school activities - drama club or whatever. With that inclusion inevitably comes lots of red tape, and I don't need that hassle. We are in NJ which is a great state to homeschool in, and our property taxes are sky high. I am not willing to trade my freedom for a school play!

Answer 6

This is an interesting website that might explain some of the govt. overinvolvement in our education.
www.schoolandstate.org