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If you had to pay for all the costs of your child's education that were over the 'average spending per pupil', how would it affect your family financially?
Basically I want to know what would happen to your family (financial collapse, belt tightening, nothing, etc) if your local school district simply cut you a check (i.e. a "school voucher") for exactly the amount of the AVERAGE student spending ($6,000 - $10,000 typically) and anything else you were made to be financially responsible for (or would forgo instead).
PS, (and this is so people don't flame me or ding me rep) although special needs children cost more, my personal view is that to refuse any spending more than average would be akin to denying a lifesaving operation to someone because it would spend more than average on them... in other words crazy, inhumaine, and stupid.
OK, think I "get it" now ... LOL. Sorry about that.
We went to due process with a small school district in Jersey ... their plan seemed to be wait us out. They had more money, resources, etc. They were simply waiting for me to run out of stamina. Not such a bad plan, most parents inevitably go away. As a result, my boy missed a full year of school. We were nowhere near closure when we moved out-of-state, partially due to the stress of the legal battle against this school district in Somerset County.
My boy has multiple dx. He was floundering, being picked on, even the teachers admitted he didn't belong there, he needed a higher level of structure, more skilled personnel, much smaller classes, etc. We were fighting for him to be moved from the home school to a private publicly funded school for children with special needs. We toured three of them and feel in love. Felt our son could actually prosper in an environment where he was not made to feel like a bad person. The people at these schools understood how difficult the transition is from school to home or class to class. They understood stimming, etc.
Anyway, the tuition at these schools averaged $25-30K/year. It's a major undertaking for a smaller district, guarding funds like a hawk. Intellectually, I understood that but on a personal level, I was going to fight them to the bitter end. They told me could get into one of those schools if he "failed" and I don't mean academically. He was already doing that. They wanted to bring about behaviours that were just as likely to land him in juvenile detention — what I was trying to avoid! He had to fail, and fail miserably. It was all so emotional. They were killing his spirit. Most of the children in those schools ended up there because they were in state care or, their parents drained their resources financing the child's education.
We didn't have that option. We didn't have that option. We needed to be able to put food on the table too. It was such a painful experience.
I find that having children with special needs is very costly. Insurance companies don't even want to pay for the therapies that could truly make a difference in your child's life. Then there is usually one parent who doesn't work because of the multiple medical appointments, disruptive behaviours at school, etc.
We'd be living in our cars (or car?) and eating at soup kitchens.......NO WAY we could afford to pay the cost of my DDs education above and beyond the "normal" education.....for starters she requires a one on one aide all day, wheelchair transport, therapies etc. Plus, I still cannot work due to multiple appointments, bad days (like today) when she just can't seem to wake up and go to school come too frequently for me to hold a regular job...........
My youngest daughter is currently ten years old and is considered severely autistic. She spent several years in the public school system without seeming to learn much of anything.Every other month we had a new issue with them, and eventually she developed sensory integration issues that prevented her from being able to board a bus for school. At first we did not realize what was causing the problem and tried several ways to try to coax her onto that bus to no avail. She would scream in terror. This was not normal behavior.
Behavioral specialists were sent out by her school to "help" us.One she did not like right off the bat.He apparently decided that we were being over indulgent parents and she was just being spoiled trying to get her way and did not want to go to school. We were told not to "make it fun" for her to stay home (which I did not, we just went about our days as we did before).Altogether she went to school about six weeks last school year. Every day we tried to get her on that school bus and every day she screamed in terror. She has self injurous behaviors that manifest themselves when she is under stress. We EMPHASIZED this to her school.
They did not believe us. They flat out stated that they believed that my daughter was just trying to "get her way" and they were going to "force the issue" with her. No matter what we said they just did not believe us. They totally discounted everything her Dad and I said as if it did not matter. We were also basically told that if we resisted her absences would from then on be considered unexcused.What was left unsaid was that this would result in another investigation from Child Protective Services.We have had issues with them before (all unfounded) and they are NOT pleasant to deal with.
You see,when those specialists tried to coax her on the school bus my husband would put a stop to it when her terror level got too high.They did not like that. They said that we could not stop just because she screamed. Well she was screaming and crying in TERROR.
After being accused of being over indulgent parents we simply could not take it anymore. We pulled her out of school cancelled the IEP, continued her private OT,PT and ST, and began officially homeschooling her late last school year. She is doing SO MUCH BETTER!!! Her speech has improved, she is learning to read whole word style and nowadays rifle range protective earmuffs help with her sensory integration although she still has difficulty tolerating loud noises (like a Big Rig or a bus).
She receives SSI and Medicaid which pays for her therapy three times a week.If she were to lose these it would absalutely ruin my credit. We count on that money as part of our income since my husband is physically disabled and unable to work (he is trying to get approval for his own disability income). We live in a small town where we have to drive 40 minutes to get to her therapy appointments. We rent to own a mobile home that is owned by my parents who live in another state.they only charge us for the payment but the place needs a lot of repairs. It is a strain.
She could still receive services from the school district but I have refused them. I never want to have to deal with those people ever again and so I have total control over her curriculum and EVERYTHING. I no longer have to answer to them and am very happy about that. This year we are doing reading, spelling, writing and kindergarten math.i use the Dick and Jane books for her reading curriculum and those can run from five to seven dollars for the newly reprinted ones up to quite a bit for the many older editions on ebay. For spelling we use a free online curriculum that is from another homeschool mom and we use Saxon Math along with all the required math manipulatives which is expensive but you can pay for the manipulatives as you go.
As you see the costs of her education as far as materials go can vary widely since I have total control over what subjects are tought.I still have to buy basic school supplies. Saxon Math retails for about $96 for a new curriculum, but so far I am very happy with my choice.
I get it and I dont get it ......... the district I live in ........... is out of control on expenses - I think that would be the first place to look at ........we pay a foot ball couch with NO Teaching Degree - 80K per year .........
I think if we can pay a foot ball coach this much then we can afford to educate our children!
Now where would we be - we would be somewhat 3rd world ...RIGHT?
I would be looking into home schooling! Before I gave a cent more to the district!
FYI I do teach for a living so dont flame me .. Im referring about my district .......... which we pay for books and all extras here .......... but we do pay way out of control for things like foot ball coaches ............and a few other things .. Our district parents are taking them to court now.
Yes, that was perfect (although I would much rather you had a 'good' experience)
Was that experience in North Carolina or New Jersey?
NC has been kinder to us although I am familiar with a lot of disturbing stories here too (just not personal experiences). We were in due process in Bound Brook, NJ.
I pay $18,000 a year for private LD school. I have also paid several thousand for private speech therapy, about $6000 for private occupational therapy and about $6000 for private reading therapy.
I could have gone "free" with the public schools - and did for 3 years - but no matter how much the school spent on "educating" my son during his 3 years there, he left there in 2nd grade a total non-reader. Due to the private LD school, he reads on grade level now.
How much money should someone spend in order for their child to read? What is the ability to read worth to people? If an institution spends $7500 a year towards teaching a child to read and the child doesn't learn how to read, what's the point of it all? What changes should be made?
If you had to pay for all the costs of your child's education that were over the 'average spending per pupil', how would it affect your family financially?
Basically I want to know what would happen to your family (financial collapse, belt tightening, nothing, etc) if your local school district simply cut you a check (i.e. a "school voucher") for exactly the amount of the AVERAGE student spending ($6,000 - $10,000 typically) and anything else you were made to be financially responsible for (or would forgo instead).
PS, (and this is so people don't flame me or ding me rep) although special needs children cost more, my personal view is that to refuse any spending more than average would be akin to denying a lifesaving operation to someone because it would spend more than average on them... in other words crazy, inhumaine, and stupid.
I figured it would have cost an extra $200-$250K to pay for the additional cost associated with my handicapped child, assuming an 18 year education process (plus special supplemental services). Since my wife stayed home with the kids, she would have had to work, and that would have caused some more expenses, for child care.
It would have been difficult, to say the least.
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