An article in The Washington Post features good news for parents who hope to find Catholic schools capable of providing services for children with disabilites:
Forty-two percent of Catholic elementary schools in the United States had a resource teacher to help students with special needs in 2008-09, up from 28 percent in 2001-02, according to the National Catholic Educational Association....Many Catholic schools now offer support for students with learning disabilities such as attention-deficit disorder or Asperger syndrome. The portion equipped to enroll students with intellectual disabilities, historically defined as those scoring below 70 or 75 on an IQ test, is still small, but it, too, is growing.
The article also features the Catholic Coalition for Special Education, an organization that raises funds and offers grants to support the hiring of resource teachers in Washington D.C.- and Maryland-area Catholic schools. The video below features a few of the students they've assisted.
While I would have liked to hear comments from one or two of the students with special needs, overall, the video presents some great stories about the kinds of opportunities made possible by the organization. Definitely worth watching.
We just need to be careful that people are directed to such opportunities because that is what they want and are assessed to be good at, not because we have preconceived notions based on their demographics (meaning that if the white surgeon's kid wants to go to cooking school we can do that for him while channeling the hispanic cooks kid to a Pre-Med track if she has that vocation).
Catholic Education should not be reserved for those of us who are greasy grinds. Every young person should have that experience - including those who would be grease monkey's instead (like my uncle, who was a mechanic and ended up with more money than any of his siblings).