MS Legislature Considers Special Needs Bill in Education

Governor Phil Bryant is throwing his support behind the Mississippi Special Needs Bill. The bill would give a voucher to families of children with special needs to allow them to attend a different public or private school with programs to better serve their needs, even if it means sending the student to another school district. Bryant says, "We must do everything we can to help these children, and if that means allowing them to go to another school, in another county or somewhere 10 miles down the road that may have a special assistant that can help that child, we ought to do everything for it."

Governor Bryant believes the Special Needs Bill will ensure no child falls through the cracks, but many superintendents think the bill is like a wide paint brush, leaving many streaks, whereas individual school districts, like a thinner brush, are more precise and can deal with individual issues. Glen East, Superintendent of the Gulfport School District, says, "In an IEP world, it’s not just a teacher and a child. There may be occupational therapists, there may be physical therapists, there may be school nurses that are more involved, everything from wheelchairs to diapers to teaching math, science, English, and social studies."

Superintendent East says when any special needs child enters a Mississippi school district, parents meet with staff to come up with a refined plan to address all the student’s needs. Parents can appeal to a hearing board if they feel their needs are not being met, but Governor Bryant says the numbers speak for themselves. He closes, "Only about 24% of these children today graduate from high school. We have the last portion of segregation we have from this state is special needs children."

The Mississippi Senate will be weighing both sides of the issue this week as they deliberate the future of special needs education. Many superintendents believe the system in place already handles the special needs issues of Mississippi and an additional program would simply be a waste of tax payer dollars.