Lauralyn Popp RN., BSN is married and the mother of two children who have behaviors that fall on the spectrum of Autism. She is a registered nurse of twenty years. She has successfully mediated with a public school system for her daughter’s education. Her daughter attends the Jericho School (a private school) in Jacksonville Florida. Her son is a successful student at The LaVilla Middle school of the Arts (public school) in Jacksonville also. The experiences with her own children and the extensive advocacy given to numerous parents with Special Education needs children in Florida have provided the motivation and opportunity to write content for this web site with Webmaster Corinne Collins.
Corinne Collins, Webmaster, is married and the mother of two. She is self employed as a freelance web designer and has a home based business, Corinne Collins Freelance Web Site Design and Development. The decision was made for her daughter as a result of being misdiagnosed by the public school system and documented developmental regression to use the McKay Scholarship voucher. Her daughter has been enrolled from 2004 to 2006 at Family Tree Private School a “600” school that is funded by McKay. The process of obtaining the maximum funding amount of $20,000.00 a year (Matrix number 255) took ten months to obtain. Only after a failed mediation and threatening due process on two occasions was she able to obtain this funding for her severely Autistic daughter.
Unfortunately, due to the Florida Legislature efforts and success to pass a McKay Scholarship Accountability Bill #256, her daughter can no longer use the McKay Scholarship at a "600" school. Up until this bill passed, this family had been allowed to have their child involved in a home-based educational setting through this private school using qualifed teachers/therapists. This family no longer has an appropriate educational choice for their daughter. Due to severe behavorial (self-injurious behaviors and aggression) their only options now are placing the child back in public school, homeschooling the child without McKay Funds (funding for qualified teachers has been cut off), or placing the child in a behavior intensive residential setting to address the behaviorial issues. Her daughter was re-enrolled in public school for one school year and then had to be placed in an intensive residential setting in August of 2007 to address her severe self-injurious and aggressive behaviors.
