CurlyV asks on the forum:
I'm a parent of 2 deaf children, and we live about an hour away from the state deaf school. Our county will not provide transportation for our kids to attend the deaf school, except for a public school that is in another county where they have a deaf program however that program is downsizing and is not in the best interests for my kids to have their LRE needs met. The deaf school is highly recommended and have all the resources available compared to that public school with deaf program which has a grade of F by the state! So my question is are there any of you parents who are facing the same dilemna with transportation issues? Any of you out there live around an hour or so away from a deaf school & are provided transportation? Any answers would be appreciated!
Deaf School an Hour Away, No Transportation
From Jamie Berke, About.com GuideAugust 6, 2007
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stay in the dorm will do! they send kids home every friday. nothing wrong with that! or YOU will have to live closer to deaf school.
Is the county paying for the deaf kids’ education at the deaf school? If so, I would think they are also responsible for providing transportation for these students. You may want to investigate this further, examining the state and county guidelines as well as consulting specialists who may know the answer.
There are students in Utah who are MORE than 1 hour away from their schools and they take bus every day to get there.
And at least in Oregon, the transportation plan is part of the IEP for the child, the district picking up the tab for the transportation (one district even sent one driver all 300 miles each way just to pick up a single student and return following Sunday to drop off the student at OSD.)
This feature, the parents need to fight to get included.
Again, the parents need to be absolute firm in having the district pick up the tab of transportation to ensure higher quality of education since the other option is a lot worse.
I live in Wisconsin. I send my kid to MSSD. I have no relationship with my school district. MSSD and I do the IEP. MSSD is federal funded. Airfare is tax deductable.
This is a free country send your kid anywhere. Let your kid go to state school and filed a lawsuit against your school district for transportation reimbusement.
For years, many parents of deaf students at various residential schools, have to drive to drop off their offsprings before the first day of school.
Y ought to check out with the state residential school of the deaf to see if this school provide the transportation to pick up your kids and transport them.
Many residential schools of the deaf provide weekly transportation service for dropping off and picking up deaf students throughout the school year.
Smokey gave an excellent advice about tax deduction for driving your kid to the residential school. Or you could send your kid on Greyhound/Trailway bus if you could not able to drive much further.
Many of us, deaf graduates survived the statewide bus rides, train rides and other kind of transportation.
WV School for the Deaf provide weekly charter bus rides with posh seats and built-in restroom at the state expense (FREE for parents of deaf students).
I dunno know about the VSDB school if they provide the charter buses for transporting deaf students throughout the school year.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
This sounds like the situation of Anoka county in Minnesota which has a history of refusing to provide public transportation to the Metro Deaf School (MDS), a day charter school in St. Paul about an hour away. And which also has a “deaf” program, which was originally an oral program in the 1970s and only later incorporated interpreters, but still emphasizes speech over sign. There have been deaf people who have fought that county to provide transportation to the deaf school only to lose and be forced to move to the nearby county, Forest Lake, which is the sponsor of MDS and as a consequence willingly provides transportation to its residents who want their children going to that school. The reason for this situation with Anoka county is that the charter school law only requires counties to pay for the education itself, not necessarily the transportation. This is a loophole that Anoka county has exploited to refuse transportation to deaf children of deaf parents, while gladly providing transportation to deaf of hearing parents who have been labelled as having “emotional problems” in their own deaf program.
The school district where your child lives in is responsible for transportation to the deaf school if that child is enrolled there. The school district cannot force your child to go to a local mainstream school. Be involved with the IEP plan. I know of students who lives in another county got transporation set up to their deaf school in another county by the school district. Fight it.
I am having the same problem. We are in the process of due diligence filing through a disability law center. Right now my child is living with a family that lives 30 miles away from the school, but within the school districts boundries, and 30 miles away from home. When she was in elementary school she was bussed, however the district running the school for the deaf states they will no longer provide bus service in middle school. My child comes home on the weekends and is severly home sick. There is not a deaf education program for my child in her home district, not to mention deaf role models or deaf peers. My child has lost weight and does not want to leave her home on the weekends due to her homesickness. I will continue to fight for transportation, but do feel that the school district is leaving my child behind, not to mention not getting a free and public education!!!!