On the heels of Governor Roy Cooper's decision to cut back on the Opportunity Scholarship program, otherwise known as the school voucher program, children all over North Carolina who have a qualifying disability are being denied for the other two programs coming out of these education funds.

These programs such as The Disability Grant and the Education Savings Account Scholarship Program offer students with qualifying disabilities grant funds to use in a non-public educational setting. Many students, like my autistic son, are being let down immensely by the lack of education and training in the public school setting and are in dire need of non-public options such as The Epiphany School in Charlotte, NC and The Halton School in Huntersville, NC which serve children on the Autism Spectrum who struggle with social interactions, sensory sensitivities, asynchronous development, and executive functioning skills. Many of these students are extremely bright however require more attention than a public school teacher can give them, yet they are denied special services in public school because they are intellectually able. As of 2019 there were 168,980 students enrolled in public school in North Carolina who qualified as disabled under the IDEA Act. That is around 12.5% of the entire North Carolina public school population. Out of those qualifying students, the children on the Autism Spectrum or considered "Other Health Impairment" which is what most Autistic students are classified as in public school account for around half of those students. Keep in mind most public schools do not recognize Autism as a qualifying educational disability so often children qualify under their co-morbid disorders such as ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder, Emotional Disturbance, etc. So the number of Autistic Students is well above what is listed.

The Opportunity Scholarship in 2018 awarded $28,056,136 to students within low income households. These awards were mostly used to send low income children to charter and private schools that may have been out of district or cost too much money for the families. The public sentiment surrounding this specific scholarship is that it is taking away from the public school funding where it is sorely needed. The other scholarships that were awarded from the same education funds were the Disability Scholarship and the Education Savings Account. These grants are used for students with qualifying disabilities to gain access to private special needs schools, adaptive equipment such as laptops for nonverbal students, and also can be used for private tutors and needed therapies not usually covered by insurance like Occupational Therapy. This program only received $8,521,141 in 2018 and was awarded to only 1,260 students across the whole state. To put this in perspective, the average Autism School in the greater Charlotte, NC area is around $22,000 a year. The median household income for the Charlotte, NC area is $53,274. With this information it is clear that we demand Governor Cooper redirect his education efforts to increasing the Disability Grant Program and The Education Savings Account so that our Special Needs children can obtain the educational services that are the least restrictive for them and allow them to thrive in the correct educational setting. This is not about taking money away from the public school, it is about the disabled students, such as children on The Autism Spectrum who need a different kind of educational setting, where they can be truly being served. Our children are not typical learners so they need opportunities for alternative learning solutions. This is not a debate on the public school's special education services. This is a request to help those special needs students who CAN BE HELPED somewhere else but need help accessing these schools. 

Please sign this petition and share! Let North Carolina know that it is unacceptable that out of the 168,980 North Carolina children with disabilities, only 1260 disability grants were awarded. It is a great injustice to our students who need a different education setting or extra services that the public school is just not equipped to provide. Thank you.