Since 2007, the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship has been very successful, with over 2,550 students with special needs in Georgia accessing the scholarship to attend one of the 190 participating private schools during the 2010-11 school year.

This year, lawmakers have proposed improvements to the program in two bills, House Bill 62, sponsored by Representative Mike Jacobs, and Senate Bill 87, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers.

Together, the bills would:

  • Expand the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship program to include children with Section 504 plans.
  • Establish a quarterly deadline for disbursement of scholarship funds.
  • Require that all parents be notified about the special needs scholarship once a year and requiring that all families of students with special needs are made aware of the program at each IEP meetings.
  • Allow eligible students to transfer from public school to private school at different dates throughout the year, not just at the beginning of the year.
  • Clarify that a child can receive an IEP at any time during the school year and be eligible for the scholarship.

Help us pass these great bills into law today by contacting your legislators and asking them to support HB 62 and SB 87! You can find all you need to help you under the “Talking Points” and “Contacting Your Legislators” tabs above.


Tell your state legislators strengthen Georgia Special Needs Scholarship by voting YES on HB 62 and SB 87!

What HB 62 would do and why it is important:

  • Allow eligible students to transfer from public school to private school at different dates throughout the year. Students who begin to struggle during the school year should not have to wait until the following school year to have access to the scholarship.
  • Establish a quarterly deadline for disbursement of scholarship funds. Because scholarship payments are not made in a timely manner, many families are put under a financial strain that makes exercising school choice hard.
  • Require that all parents be notified about the special needs scholarship once a year and requiring that all families of students with special needs are made aware of the program at each IEP meeting. Many parents don’t know the scholarship exists and this will help remedy that.
  • Clarify that a child can receive an IEP at any time during the school year and be eligible for the scholarship. A recent Department of Education rule required that a child be served under an IEP for an entire year, which was against the original intent of the law.
  • These bills would have no fiscal impact on public schools. Scholarships for Section 504 students would only use state dollars, meaning that local school districts would still retain local funding, effectively increasing per pupil funding.

What HB 87 would do and why it is important:

  • Expand the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship to children with Section 504 plans. This classification of children with special needs does not have Individualized Education Plans (a current requirement of the Scholarship program) but still have needs that may necessitate a different educational environment.
  • Every special needs child, regardless of whether they have an IEP or 504 plan, should have access to an educational environment that best fits his or her needs.


Contact your legislator and ask them to support House Bill 181!

Writing a letter or email, followed up with a phone call is a great way to get in touch with your legislators.

Tell them what it means to you and to military families all across the state. And most of all, let them know how much you value school choice. Be respectful, be brief, and tell your story. Use the locator below to find your state senator and representative.

 Search for your local legislators by 9-digit zip code   -   
(If you don’t know your full 9 digit zip code you can look it up at the USPS website.)

Write a Letter / Send an Email

Personal letters or emails, written in your own words and conveying your views and experiences, signed by you as a constituent, are the most influential. We’ve provided talking points on the bills to make it easier.

10 Tips for Writing to Your State Legislators

  1. Be sure to tell them who you are. Put your address and phone number on the letter because envelopes get thrown away.
  2. If you are writing to your own senator or representative, be sure to identify yourself in the first line “as your constituent.”
  3. Write about one subject at a time and identify legislation by name/subject and include the bill number.
  4. State your reason for writing. Tell how the issue would affect you, your work, your family, community, etc.
  5. Provide a personal example of the issue and its affects. Examples are very useful to legislators.
  6. Be brief and concise!
  7. Be cordial and reasonable. Resist the urge to be angry or demanding.
  8. Ask his or her position on the issue. You are entitled to know.
  9. Be sure to thank the legislator for considering your views and for any responses you get.
  10. Sign the letter/email.

How a letter/email should be addressed:

Your Name
101 Your Street
Yourtown, GA 30000

Date

The Honorable _________________
Georgia House of Representatives [or] Georgia State Senate
Legislator’s Address
Atlanta, GA 30334

Dear Representative [or] Senator _________,

Making a Phone Call

This is the quickest way to get in touch with your legislator’s office. The same tips and suggestions apply for making a phone call as letters and it helps to prepare a few points before you call. When you call your legislator, you will most likely be received by an assistant. Ask to speak with your legislator. If he or she is not available, always leave a message and ask that your call be returned.


Special Needs Scholarship is in jeopardy!! We need your help NOW!

It’s the last day of the legislative session and a legislator has proposed an amendment in the House on HB 192 – legislation that would create a QBE study committee. The proposed amendment would reduce Special Needs Scholarships. It includes NONE of our positive changes; it just reduces the scholarship amounts.

If you support the Special Needs Scholarship we need you to flood the House with calls and emails to oppose any amendment to HB 192–or any bill–that would reduce Special Needs Scholarship amounts. The bill is going up for a vote sometime today.

  1. Go here to contact your legislators. It is a great new program we are using that will take just two minutes of your time to send your legislators and the 7 key legislators that are influencing this bill an email.
  2. BUT PHONE CALLS ARE JUST AS IMPORTANT!! So use the legislative look up below to get your legislators phone numbers. You will most likely get a secretary, but leave a message syaing “I live in the Representative’s district and I am opposed to an amendment to HB 192 or any bill that would reduce Special Needs Scholarship amounts.”
     Search for your local legislators by 9-digit zip code   -   
    (If you don’t know your full 9 digit zip code you can look it up at the USPS website.)

Finally, it is imperative that you call these key legislators.

Speaker David Ralston – 404.656.5020
Jan Jones – 404.656.5072
Ed Lindsey – 404.656.5024
Donna Sheldon – 404.656.5025
Allen Peake – 404.656.7146
Fran Millar – 404.463.2260
Casey Cagle – 404.656.5030

Please forward this on to everyone you know who would be affected by this proposed legislation.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support

Here are some of the highlights of our original bill, HB 181:

  • Establish quarterly deadline for disbursement of scholarship funds. A lot of schools are not being paid on time, putting a financial strain on the them and families enrolled using the scholarship.
  • Notify ALL parents about the special needs scholarship once a year and make it a requirement that Special Needs families are made aware of the program at public school IEP meetings. Many parents don’t know the scholarship exists.
  • Allow eligible students to transfer from public school to private school at three different dates throughout the year. Students who begin to struggle during the school year should not have to wait until the following school year to have access to the scholarship. HB 62 would allow families to enroll in the program by September 15, December 15 and February 15.
  • Clarifies that a child can receive an IEP at any time during the school year and be eligible for the scholarship. A recent Department of Education rule required that a child be served under an IEP for an entire year, which was against the original intent of the law.
  • Allow parents of students with extreme medical conditions to petition for an exception to the one year public school enrollment requirement to be eligible for the special needs scholarship.