About 900 disabled students left Georgia public schools this year seeking better educations on private and religious campuses using new state-approved vouchers to offset tuition costs, according to a report released this week by the state Department of Education.
It is Georgia's first foray into controversial school vouchers. Last spring, state lawmakers created the special-needs scholarship to offer public school families a choice for educating their mentally, emotionally or physically disabled children.
More than 5,700 families applied for the scholarships, which allow eligible students to enroll in a participating private school and qualify for the renewable state voucher. The vouchers can be worth from $2,000 to $15,000 annually, depending on the child's disability.
Heavily represented among scholarship winners were kids from metro Atlanta's largest school systems: Fulton (122); DeKalb (111); Cobb (98); Gwinnett (88) and Clayton (57).
Pupils in grade 5 were the largest single number of scholarship winners (158). Seventy percent went to males and 45 percent minorities, predominantly black.
Private schools taking the most kids were Frederick J. Furtah Preparatory School in Acworth in north Cobb (42) and the Bedford School in south Fulton (41).
The timing of the program � which was not fully operational until mid-July � may have prevented some scholarship hopefuls from taking advantage of the vouchers this year. Most private schools had filled their classes by then.
On Wednesday, state Department of Education representatives and state Rep. David Casas will hold an information session from 7 to
8:30 p.m. at St. Mary's Catholic School in Rome to answer questions about the new Georgia Special Needs Scholarship.
Lawmakers and state education officials will be talking to private school providers and parents to let them know about the scholarship program for 2008-09.
"Because many private schools start taking applications in winter and spring, we want to let parents know how the program works and what they need to do to sign up," Casas said.
The state has certified 117 private school to participate. Information about the scholarship is at www.specialed
options.com.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/10/07