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Monday
Jan252010

School Options for Your Disabled Child: Introduction

DateMonday, January 25, 2010

Where can I send my child with disabilities to school?  Monday, January 25th is the two-week open enrollment period for public schools in the Little Rock area, with many private schools also having admissions deadlines of early February.

Your best source of information remains other parents.  A school that's good for one child, however, may not work for your child. But the more your meet, call, and email other parents, the better your knowledge of schools. There are also a lot of open houses and tours of schools right now.

There will be a meeting on "School Options for Your Disabled Child" Saturday, January 30th from 2:30 to 3:30 at Easter Seals Arkansas, 3920 Woodland Heights Road, Little Rock, AR 72212 in the Sturgis Room. A panel of parents and school officials will give brief introductions then mingle with the parents to answer more specific individual questions about your child. Please contact Marjorie Greenberg at chenaltutor@gmail.com for more information.

**Easter Seals cancelled due to ice.**

**2011** Saturday, January 15 from 9-12:00 am there is a free conference to help parents make special education decisions. Evaluations, IEPs, mental health, dyslexia, and more will all be discussed at the Pleasant Valley Church of Christ in West Little Rock.  Please RSVP HERE for the free event.

CHARTER SCHOOLS

Charter schools come in two forms: open-enrollment and conversion.  Conversion schools are operated by public school districts. Open enrollment charter schools are operated by independent nonprofits under the supervision of the Arkansas Department of Education.

As charters the new schools can operate free of many rules and regulations of the district. You the parent do not pay any form of tuition and can still receive subsidized lunches.  Bussing and transportation, however, is not provided by the charter school.

Charter schools MUST accept your disabled child and provide full IDEA special education services.  Many charter schools subcontract their therapy services to outside providers.

Charter schools, however, typically have strict discipline codes that can quickly expel your child for behavioral issues.  Students who have been expelled from another school may not be allowed to enroll in the charter school. Suspensions at another school can also cause difficulties in charter enrollment. Be extremely cautious in agreeing to school discipline policies on the IEP.

Here's a link to the conversion charter schools of Arkansas.

In the Little Rock area, here are the following conversion charter schools:

Here's a link to all the open-enrollment charter schools in Arkansas.

Here are links to the charter schools in the Little Rock area:

DDTCS

Developmental Day Treatment Clinic Services (DDTCS) are preschools specializing in the care of disabled children ages 0 until 5, or when the child is eligible to enroll in public kindergarten.

Medicaid and TEFRA frequently pay for the preschool programs.  Disabled students are admitted for both specific medical diagnoses and for developmental delays but each DDTCS has different criteria for admitting students. DDTCS also admit typical students to help mainstream disabled children and can accept clients paying out of pocket.

Some schools also allow students to stay an extra year after the child is eligible for public kindergarten.

There are many DDTCS in the Little Rock area, including:

ARKANSAS SCHOOLS FOR THE DEAF AND BLIND

Arkansas has two publicly-funded residential schools which provide for students who are hearing and vision-impaired from ages 2 to 20. The two schools are active throughout Arkansas.

MAGNET SCHOOLS

Your disabled child can also enroll in district magnet schools and programs in the Little Rock area.  Only a child who spends 100% of his or her day in special education classes would be ineligible for magnet programs. Registration deadlines for magnet schools in the area are February 5th. There's a lottery to determine who gets into popular programs.

PCSSD, Click here for registration information.

LRSD, Click here for registration information.

North Little Rock District, Click here for registration information.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Private schools can be either standard private schools or special education private schools.  Private schools are not under federal laws guaranteeing your child's education. As a result the private schools can ask your child to leave at any time if he or she is disruptive. Even special education private schools have this authority.

Parents typically pay the tuition for the schools out of pocket, with tuition running in the Little Rock area from about $3000 a year to $11,000 a year. Compared to the rest of the U.S., Arkansas private school tuitions are relatively low.

There are two special education private schools in the Central Arkansas area. These two campuses will take the most disabled students. For these schools, the tuition for the school is not enough to cover expenses.  The schools recoup their financial losses by providing therapy services to their students.

Access Schools

Academy At Riverdale

The next group of schools has dedicated staff and programs to assist disabled children within the school. Most students at these campuses are typical children. These schools can accommodate children with moderate levels of disabilities, but their clients are usually not as disabled as students in the first two schools.  These special education services are available for additional fees.

Arkansas Baptist School System

Little Rock Christian Academy

St. Edward Catholic School

Standard private schools may also have milder special needs students in their classes. Also, your child is always eligible for some special education services from the public school system through child find.  The local public school district must help your special education student, even if he or she is at a private school.  The level of help, however, will be lower than for a child attending public school.

Much of your success with the private school will depend on your ability to compromise and work with the staff as well as your child's level of disability. At any school of these schools you'll hear from parents who were both pleased with the services or who were disappointed and felt ripped off by the school.

SCHOOL TRANSFERS

Is the grass looking greener in your neighboring school district? Students can shift between districts or assigned school zones thanks to several different transfer programs. Most of the school transfer programs in Little Rock School District have an application deadline of February 5, 2010.  However, secondary school students who are seeking transfers that do not have any provided transportation apply later, from March 8 to March 19, 2010.  Check the LRSD link above the the various transfer programs available to students. 

Disabled students can also try and use this method to transfer between districts. Legally, the disabled student should be treated exactly the same way as their non disabled peers. However, the receiving district must agree to the transfer.

OTHER OPTIONS

Other options are also available for Arkansas students with disabilities, including homebound services, institutional care, and home schooling. These options are not on a formal admissions calendar, however, but will be discussed in follow-up stories on the website.

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