Parents urge clearer discipline policies and guaranteed access for prescribed ABA therapy

At the Horry County Schools board meeting, parents and advocates urged the district to update discipline policies and to ensure students can access medically prescribed therapies in school, saying current practices jeopardize due process and federal civil-rights protections.

The comments matter because they address the district’s handling of student discipline and access to medically necessary services, areas that parents said carry legal rights under state and federal law.

Leah Hornberger, a parent whose child attends Myrtle Beach High School, told the board she had raised due-process concerns earlier and found the district’s published policy manual out of date: "Your own website doesn't even have the most current parent student guide posted for reference. It has the 2324 version. That's just careless." Hornberger said state law changed on May 21, 2024, and that related provisions for expulsion hearings were not reflected in district policy; she asked the board to revise the manual so that parents and administrators share a clear process and students receive "fair and consistent discipline." She specifically referenced South Carolina law governing expulsion hearings and the district's need to align policy with statute.

David Warner, a long-standing parent advocate for children with disabilities, focused on access to outside applied behavior analysis (ABA) providers that families arrange and pay for as medically prescribed therapy. Warner argued denials of access may violate federal civil-rights statutes: "Denying a child access to their ABA therapist is no different than denying a service dog... Schools do not get the right to choose or pick which accommodation they actually like." He told the board that when medically necessary therapy is delayed or denied, children can lose developmental progress and the district risks legal exposure under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

A parent who identified himself as Robert Erbencic described scheduling conflicts between required therapy appointments and school attendance and urged the district to adopt policies that avoid creating truancy for children who must attend medically necessary out-of-school therapy.

Speakers asked the board to work with parents to revise the policy manual and to develop procedures that ensure administrators supply required investigative records before hearings, allow outside medically prescribed providers to deliver services on school campuses where appropriate, and avoid penalizing students for appointment-related absences. The board listened during public comment but did not take policy action at the meeting; subsequent steps or formal responses were not recorded in the meeting minutes.