New Op-Ed: Why Private Schools Matter for Students with Disabilities

I have a new op-ed out at The 74 on a topic close to my heart: school choice for students with unique needs. I’ll share some additional thoughts here.

As the parent of a child with autism, I’ve experienced the urgency of finding a school where he’s welcomed, supported, and understood—where he can grow academically and socially. These are deeply personal goals for families like mine, yet they’re too often dismissed in debates dominated by bureaucratic rules and regulations.

I’ve written about the topic before (like here), and I fear I’m destined to write about 100 times in my lifetime.

My op-ed is in response to this opinion piece, which essentially said charter schools work for students with disabilities, but private schools (the thousands of them) don’t. That came on the heels of another 74 article that asserts “Amid Explosion of School Choice, Report Spotlights the Marginalized Families Left Behind.” That article frames up the problem through the story of a family who, as far as I can tell, was not being served in their public school, entered in the ESA program, are now homeschooling, but tried a music therapy program that didn’t work for them.

So the public school didn’t work, they experienced a problem with a single provider, and are using their freedom to homeschool until they find an option that does work? What am I supposed to take away from this, that they shouldn’t have these freedoms?

In that article, a researcher from CRPE asserts that “Policymakers should make it so there aren’t any really bad choices. That’s priority number one.” Ok, sign me up — that sounds great. How do we do that? Are we talking about eliminating that therapy class because it didn’t work for one student? Shutting down the public school that couldn’t serve the student? We already have a sector of highly regulated, credentials-filled public schools who regularly face scandals of abuse of students with disabilities within their walls. If policymakers can’t even “make it so there aren’t any really bad choices” within the schools they already regulate, do we expect them to have a greater degree of success in new sectors of schools?

Critics of private schools often default to a technocratic mindset, leaping to conclusions about the ability of thousands of schools to serve students. They ignore the lived reality for many parents who turn to alternatives because the current system simply isn’t working for their kids. Do federal regulations ensure a child feels safe, forms friendships, or bonds with a teacher? Do they comfort a parent when trust has been broken with a school? Do they prevent horrifying incidents like a non-verbal 11-year-old left writhing in pain on the floor for hours, or an elementary child with digestive disabilities cruelly being fed hot sauce by teachers?

Such failures aren’t exclusive to public schools, but schools are not a monolith. As I argue in my piece:

"The world doesn’t run on generalities—it runs on the lived experiences of individuals. Some schools do better than others, and some adults do better than others."

There’s this strange permeation through education elites who believe their job is to create a utopian option that works for all kids, alleviate families from having to search around for options, and essentially just hand their kids off to someone else who will make those determinations. I cannot tell you how horrible of an idea that is. The story of the family who was “failed” by ESAs is actually an example of why options are necessary. There won’t be a perfect option, but parents can find more-perfect options better than anyone else.

Programs like ESAs and vouchers simply give families more options to find what works for their children. No distant policymaker or bureaucrat can design a better solution than a parent who knows their child best. If that truth makes some uncomfortable, it’s worth rethinking the priorities behind their critiques.

You can read the full piece here: Private Schools Can Give Students With Disabilities the Flexibility They Need.