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Cedars AcademyCedars Academy

Cedars Academy is a private school just for children with ADD, ADHD, NLD, or Asperger's. At Cedars, children with Learning Disabilities achieve academic and personal success in an environment where students are rewarded for positive, appropriate communication and interaction.

Parents of Children with Disabilities More Likely to Use Private Schools

Public school districts are bracing themselves for an increasing number of parents to ask them to fund private schools for their children with disabilities.

The reason is a recent court decision. The US Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling in favor of Tom Freston, a New York father who enrolled his handicapped son in a private school without first trying out public school programs. Freston's public school district must pay for his child's private schooling. By letting stand the lower court decision in Freston's favor, the Supreme Court did not make a definitive ruling on this matter, which will no doubt keep coming up again in the next few years.

The Individuals with Disability Act requires public schools to provide free and appropriate education to all children. If a school district does not have an adequate program, parents may enroll their children in private schools with public schools funds. The problem is often the definition of the word "adequate." For example, in an important ruling by the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta, the court sided with the public schools. In that case, parents enrolled their deaf child in a private school, which experts testified as superior to the public program. When the Circuit Court ruled that this public program was "adequate," the public school district did not have to pay.

Only about 88,000 out of six million children in special education are in private schools at public expense, but that number is expected to go higher. The court ruling as well as a trend for children to be diagnosed with problems before they enter kindergarten is accelerating the trend toward private placements at early ages.

Kim Sweet, director of the non-profit Advocates for Children, told the New York Times that "Most of these parents are simply desperate to get their children in a placement where they are not simply going to languish."

Learn more about schools and programs for children with learning disabilities at LearningDisabilitiesInfo.com

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