Georgia expands scholarship program to more students with special needs

More students across Georgia can now qualify for a scholarship program. Georgia's Special Needs Scholarship was expanded by state legislators last year. The program allows parents to use money from the state so their child can attend a private school.

Fifteen-year-old Aidan Pearce is one student who has taken advantage of the scholarship.

Aidan's mom, Tiffany Pearce, told FOX 5 that her son is now thriving, but it took years to get there.

"He was diagnosed with multiple disorders from the autism spectrum disorder to bipolar to OCD," Pearce said. "He has had many challenges through his life to overcome some of those."

Aidan went to public school until he was 8 years old, but Tiffany said that's when things became difficult.

"He had a really hard time to the point where one day he looked at me and said, 'Mommy, I want to be in heaven,'" she said.

Tiffany made the decision to pull Aidan out of public school and get him admitted to a hospital. After a year, it was time to find a school that could help Aidan.

That's what led Tiffany to Core Community School in Woodstock. It's also how she found out about the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship.

"It allows children that have been in Georgia's public schools for one year and who have an IEP to attend an approved private school taking their state dollars with them," explained Hannah Heck, work works for the Georgia Federation for Children.

The scholarship has been around since 2007, however, only students with individualized education plans could qualify. Last year, Georgia state lawmakers voted to expand the program under Senate Bill 47. The expansion now allows more students to qualify for the scholarship. It now includes students with 504 plans.

"This is when a student doesn't need a specialized education but just needs accommodations," Heck said, "It might be a student who needs extended testing time or someone who might need to sit at the front of the classroom."

The expansion was heavily debated at the state Capitol. Critics of the bill said the expansion would take away money that was meant for public schools. Heck said students who qualify would only take a portion of funding away from public schools.

"One thing that's unique about this scholarship is that you take just the state portion of your funding, so all of the local tax funding generated by a student stays there at the local public school," said Heck.

Tiffany said the scholarship has proved to be a lifeline for her to get Aidan the education he needs.

"The money I get from the special needs scholarship doesn't cover the full tuition, but it allows me to keep him in therapy. It allows me to pay for medication," said Pearce, "Without it, I'm honestly not sure where Aidan would be."

Georgia's Department of Education administers the scholarship program. If you're interested to see if your student qualifies, you can head to GADOE.org. The website will launch a calculator in July to help parents find out how much their student qualifies for under the scholarship.