Note: The latest round of legislation dealing with Florida’s newest educational choice program has once again drawn powerful testimony from parents of children with special needs who have used Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts to pay for therapy and other educational services.
When a bill cementing the expansion of the program came up last month in the House Education Appropriations Committee, Lydia Burton described its impact on her four-year-old son.
The legislation, which makes the education savings accounts available to younger children, students with muscular dystrophy and more children with autism, is set to be heard by House and Senate panels today and tomorrow, respectively.
Step Up For Students, which hosts redefinED, is one of two scholarship organizations that help administer the accounts.
Here’s Burton in her own words, lightly edited for length and clarity.
[Our son] was diagnosed with autism in November of 2014. At that time … he’d never spoken a phrase that he hadn’t heard before. It was all just echoes. He had never participated in any play with peers.
I knew there was more to my son, and I knew he was in there. He was just stuck.
Thanks to the changes to the PLSA program that were made in the budget last year, my son is able to participate in the program this school year. …
Like most families who have a child with special needs, we do not make important decisions about [our child] alone. We have a pediatrician, a developmental psychologist, a speech-and -language pathologist, an occupational therapist, and a behavior analyst. This team not only comes together to help us decide what [our son] needs, but how to make that happen.
Between therapies, curriculum and other services, it’s a lot, and it’s not cheap … Without the PLSA, we could not continue to provide these therapies that [our son] vitally needs. They’ve changed his life, and the entire trajectory of his life.
To see the progress that my child has made in the last 12 months is just incredible. He now speaks meaningfully for the first time. I’m able to have conversations with my child. He’s able to tell me about his day, the things he’s learning, and his interests. I feel like know my child in a whole new way. He’s learning to read, and for the first time, my child has friends.
My brother is autistic, and recently turned 19 years old. He went through the entire public school system in the state of Florida, and it was an amazing experience for him. He received the services and the attention that he needed, and it really just could not have gone better. Unfortunately, the traditional [exceptional education] preschool program was just not good fit for my child … We needed the option the customize [our son’s] education at home, and the PLSA has given us that opportunity. …
Every child is different, and their educational environment should reflect that.
Every parent should have a right to choose the best learning environment for their child. They are the ones who know their children the best!
Good job Lydia. My story mirrors yours. My son is 5 with autism diagnosed about a year ago. SUFS has allowed access to therapies and services we would not have gotten otherwise. Thank you for speaking up for all of us out here fighting the good battle for our kids.
SUFS is doing the good work of helping families protect their vulnerable kids and get them the help they need.