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Finally A Chance To Help Students With Learning Disabilities in Kentucky

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

If you have a child with learning disabilities, you are probably familiar with the bureaucracy and red tape that is involved in trying to obtain a good education for that child within the public school system.  I remember those days, as my daughter was rapidly changing from a happy child to one who cried every day, and I was struggling to deal with her and the school at the same time.  It was almost overwhelming.  That was many years ago, and yet I still found myself getting choked up as I tried to describe my experience to a group this past week.  That group is trying to offer a new opportunity to families whose children have learning disabilities – the ability to spend their state education dollars anywhere they choose. 

As I tried to explain our experience from years ago, when your child is quickly going down the tubes, you do not have years to wait for “education reform” or for hearings and appeals and lawsuits.  You need to be able to make a change very quickly in order to save that child.  Being able to take your education dollars anywhere you want would make a tremendous difference.

In our case, even though we were in what was supposed to be the best public school in the state, and even though we were well-educated and were good advocates for our daughter, we realized the only way to help her was to get her out of that school as quickly as possible to find a situation in which her needs would be met.  Fortunately, we had enough money to send her to a private school that was able to help her, but I have often thought how difficult it must be for parents who are not as well educated, who are in a bad school, and who do not have the money to pay twice for their children’s education.  A parent of a learning disabled child has enough problems; at least he should be able to direct the resources that have already been allocated for that child to the place where they can do the most good. 

There will be another meeting of interested people on September 7 in Lexington, Kentucky.  A notice of that meeting is included in this week’s issue of Jefferson Review.

The new bill will be introduced in Frankfort in the Rotunda on September 14 at 11 a.m.  People who care about giving a better chance to children with learning disabilities should be there to support it.  I’ll be there, and I hope to see you there, too.

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