Comments on: Why We Pulled Our Daughter Out of a Private Suburban School and Enrolled Her in Public School in New Orleans

By: Editor B

Editor B — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:35:24 +0000

Thanks, Alison. I don’t know much about disability policies, but “inclusion” seems to be an important byword at our girl’s new school. Racial, ethnic, economic — and disabilities. Or so I gather. Anyhow there is a kid with Down syndrome in her class. It’s my understanding that a lot of schools here simply ignore the less obvious disabilities. In other words, we may sometimes be inclusive by default rather than design. I suppose a lot of schools lack the resources to do inclusion right.

By: Alison

Alison — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 01:28:07 +0000

This is a really thoughtful post, and a good read. We’re struggling with similar questions for our daughter. Fortunately for us, she’s at a fantastic lab school on my campus right now, a school so good (and so reasonably priced) that we wouldn’t dream of pulling her out. I may, in fact, start a campaign to get schools like this more widely available so that other preschoolers can be there.

But in a couple of years we’ll have the public vs. private school question, and we’re grappling with the very issues you cite here, in addition to some others related to the integration of kids with disabilities. Public schools have a federal requirement to be fully integrated so that kids with disabilities are in the least restrictive environment. But many public schools completely ignore this and segregate virtually all their classes.

Okay, this comment is already far too long. It’s great to be reading your blog!

By: Lee

Lee — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 17:08:56 +0000

I’ll be facing a similar situation in just 3 short years myself. I feel the same as you B regarding our schools, and community.

There are many things that I’m simply appalled at regarding our public schools, yet I feel as if I abandon them, who will stay? Fortunately (or not) our public schools received the benefit of passing a referendum that gave the schools an extra financial injection. The vote was so split that even our household voted differently on the subject.

I for one am not the type to become a public figure in any way, shape or form but have considered running for the school board. Maybe during the next election cycle I will.