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Parent urges expanded school choice for students with autism
Summary
During public comment, a parent described withdrawing her daughter from public school after she struggled on the autism spectrum, praised a special-needs school that improved her daughter's progress, and urged policymakers to preserve or expand parental choice for children with disabilities.
A parent who identified herself only as Speaker 1 urged officials during public comment to preserve and expand school-choice options for students with disabilities, saying her daughter ‘‘had a very, hard time’’ in public school before the family transferred her to a special-needs school.
Speaker 1 described the transfer as transformative: "we found a special needs school that's really just changed, and she's budded, she's just done fantastic," she said, attributing the improvement to the school's services. She argued parents need the ability to choose where their children receive services: "You're looking at families that will have the freedom to make a better choice for those kids."
The speaker also said the caseload of students with special needs is growing: "The numbers, a lot of the special needs numbers are not dropping, they are increasing," and added that many families and siblings are affected. She characterized parental involvement in choosing a school as essential: "the freedom to have the parent help them in the best way they can is priceless." No numerical counts or specific policy proposals were provided in the transcript.
The transcript records the comment but does not include any formal motion, response from officials, or follow-up action. The record does not specify which governing body was hearing public comment, any staff response, or whether the issue will be placed on a future agenda.
