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Special Education

Philadelphia Approves Scaled-Back $10 Million Special Education Program

By Christina A. Samuels — July 06, 2017 1 min read
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After special-education advocates criticized Philadelphia’s plan to create a $54 million separate program for students with disabilities, the city’s school reform commission voted unanimously Thursday to approve a $10 million contract to start a school that will serve 100 special education students.

Kristen Graham with the Philadelphia Inquirer that the commission’s original plan was to create a program for 600 special education students who are now being educated in private schools. Opponents said that the commission was creating a segregated school, and that the money would be better spent on helping children integrate into less-restrictive settings.

The commission, on the other hand, said that the new program was needed to get students out of restrictive settings such as Wordsworth Academy, a private provider for children with emotional and behavioral disturbances. David Hess, a 17-year-old from Lebanon, Pa., died at a Wordsworth residential treatment facility in 2016 . The facility has since closed and .

The new program will be run by Catapult Learning, with the goal of transitioning the program to school district staff, the Inquirer reported.


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A version of this news article first appeared in the On Special Education blog.