Georgia Cyber Academy responds to state board special ed concerns: DOE didn’t provide assistance or clarity

this is the one are where chraters should kick serious butt. a group of students who need intensive support and intimate educational support.

that said, charter/no charter, the DOE and its local parasites, the BOEs remain the real problems.
until Georgia parents and lawmakers are ready to deal with that….

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As the parent of a special needs child at GCA, I can say that he has gotten better service through GCA than he ever did in the local public schools. He has grown and become so much more confident in his three years with GCA than he ever was in seven years of public school. Thank you GCA and Matt Arkin for everything you have done for my son.

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Turn about if fair play. When the state BOE decides to quit playing favorites, quit putting politics ahead of our children, maybe we can get something done. This is ridiculous. Give the Schools, the teachers, and the parents they need , and they will show you results. Everyone gets a choice in this life. We now, thanks to the vote , have an option. That means choice in education for all of our children. We need to focus on the kids. The entire State of Georgia Education Department needs an overhaul. And trust me… our GCA parents are fired up right now to the point that we are willing to do whatever it takes to support our school and protect our choice in education. Matt Arkin and the team with GCA is second to NONE in this state in working WITH parents, children, families , etc.. to involve the WHOLE community around that child to make sure each child has what he/she needs. Yes we have issues, but good grief what school system in this nation does not. I implore the BOE to think about the steps that they are taking. We expect the State Board of Education to hold just as accountable EVERY single Public School in the state. We have children dying in schools because of lack of concern or neglect… children being locked in closets, children being beaten, bullied, and God only knows what else. The BOE should work with us , not try to dismantle what we work so hard for every day.

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P and J: Did you read the intro? GCA IS NOT a locally-approved charter school! Hence, the local BOE has no influence over it, nor obligation to it! Indeed, since it is a state-wide charter school, which local BOE ae you saying is trying to get rid of it?

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GCA has by far exceeded the quality of education my children receive in comparison to our local brick and mortar school experience. GCA has not only followed my child’s IEP down to every detail, but has worked hard to make sure we receive all necessary special ed services in a timely manner; Which is something the local school failed to do. The teachers at GCA have worked diligently to find my children’s strengths and weaknesses and make sure all learning concerns are addressed as quickly as possible. I hope the BOE holds each and every traditional school as accountable as they are making GCA.

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You got to say, after all this is said and done, GCA rocks. For it to come to light ,all they have not been given and still only 10 parents have complained about the special Ed department. Wow.. can you say that about brick and mortar schools that are given twice the amount to educate children. We not only get less from the state, we also get no local funding and still manage, to only have 10 complaints out of 1,200 special needs students.

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Bravo, Schooling Mom. The Digital Education Council can use your firsthand testimonials because when used correctly, virtual learning can be effective.

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GCA is my choice for my child. They have provided services he needs, they have fine tuned his IEP and everyone is on board. They provide therapists who come into my home and work with him, following his IEP to the letter. Teachers work with him to help identify what he needs and motivate him to work to his potential. His progress has been amazing, thanks to GCA.
I send him back to the B&M schools. They never provided what he needed, denied his documented medical diagnosis and acted as if the tests never existed and they never heard me. Maybe the BOE needs to look around.

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nice to see the charter zealots tip their hand.
if charters fail, we did it.

thanks P&J

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Matt Arkin and GCA = a class act.

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Pride and Joy – this is the STATE BOE complaining about this school – not the local BOE. The STATE is who the recently passed amendment put into the charter school business. Wonder why they don’t like this one?

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Only 10 parents complained? So only 10 out of how many actually spoke up? I’ve talked with 6 parents myself only in the past day that have had the same issues with GCA. I’m sure there are MANY more that haven’t made formal complaints.

I was having issues with the b&m school. I enrolled my kids into GCA. I thought this would be the perfect solution! My daughter wouldn’t have to miss school for her numerous appointments and surgeries. She would still get the same services that she has always gotten at the b&m school. Awesome! Yeah, not so much. It took so long to set up an IEP meeting that her IEP actually expired. When we did have her IEP meeting, it was the teachers first one! She had NO clue what she was doing! During the meeting we set an appt. for a Special Ed meeting. It NEVER happened! They NEVER started her special ed classes. They actually never started any services at all! They were expecting her to still complete the grade level work knowing she wasn’t able to. I was so disappointed, so angry. I withdrew both of my kids after only a few months. Never again. As much as I can not stand her b&m school, at least she’s ALWAYS gotten the services that she needs.

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Oh, this story is going to get much uglier as it plays out in the larger context of the new wave of state chartered schools that is coming since passage of the new amendment. Don’t you just see the battle between the commission approving the schools and a state superintendent that did not support the amendment. It’s going to get really ugly…and unfortunately, it will be some of the most vulnerable students in GA that will pay the price. *smh* So very sad.

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Any competent educational leader would be able to access the DoE consultants and read and understand the compliance requirements. it does not matter whether you are a charter, on-line, or regular school system, to receive federal funding you must first meet the reporting deadlines.
If the GCA administration had done their job, the funds would be received. Any competent instructional leader would know how to develop an IEP and follow it through for a SPED child.
The report on GAC reflects incompetence in the leadership and oversight.

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What REALLY matters is exactly what Amber said about her child:
“As the parent of a special needs child at GCA, I can say that he has gotten better service through GCA than he ever did in the local public schools.”
Amber needed and wanted something better for he child. Our state has a mandate to educate every child and the state wasn’t doing its job.
It doesn’t matter if a school is cyber, bricks and mortar, charter or traditional, WE have to educate the children.

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As far a Special Education students: it there ar Federal Laws and State laws concerning what services MUST be given to these students (along with jugements backing them up) then the funds for complying with these laws should come from Washington and the State Capitol respectively. Otherwise these are just unfunded mandates on the local systems. If you want something, you had dang better be ready to pay for it.

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Here we go … Charter schools are treated unfairly by the State Board of Education — so, the legislature will amend the enabling legislation, and provide that the unelected commission is the only governance authority the for-profit charters will report to. The Yazoo land fraud is going to look like a kindergarten deal when the dust settles from this fraud.

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I just love the way people who are not familiar with GCA has decided that it is not a good school for whatever reason. My child has an IEP, put in place by GCA because my child’s previous brick and mortar school wouldn’t do it…amazing that all of the people who know the lingo and the law, also know how dance around it and make things look good on paper while the child suffers. GCA took my concerns seriously, while traditional public school only made things worse. Is it right, when a child has a 504plan to give extra time for school work, their PE and recess is taken away for them to keep working? Is it okay for a child to be sent to time out class because he can’t sit still in PE?! Traditional public schools did not have my child’t best interest in mind. I was in the counselor’s office Daily, in tears, trying to work with them to figure out what to do to make sure my child didn’t fall through the cracks. Around 12,000 kids are enrolled in GCA this year…this speaks Volumes! And with 1200 of those being SPED, with only 10% of the parents having any sort of complaints, GCA is better than any public school I have heard of. I also find it interesting that local schools aren’t slammed like this when they are atrocious when it comes to SPED, And regular ed students. If parents are happy with their children’s progress, and children are Finally Making progress, who is anyone else to speak badly about it? That’s the beauty of Amendment 1…We will have more choices. There are too many people who want more for their children, but have to work, or can’t afford a private school. They don’t want their children around drugs and violence…well now they will soon have a Choice. Most people Against Amendment 1 only see money…I see a brighter future for my child, one with choices. If I get to choose where I shop, what bank I use, what hospital I use, then why shouldn’t I get to choose what school my child attends? We should not have to wait 5-10 years for someone to figure out the problems with traditional public schools and fix them. My child will graduate in 6 years…we don’t have time.

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Looks like the DOE needs an enema.

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Maureen, we can agree that numbers are one good way to evaluate a school’s effectiveness is driven by the numbers, and the CRCT and EOCT test scores that you referenced show that GCA Special Education students outperformed Special Education students across Georgia on that yardstick. If you find these students’ scores at GCA disconcerting, I’d be interested to hear your opinion on the State’s performance as a whole. While GCA Special Education students are doing well compared to their peers in other public schools, all of us schools in Georgia have a lot of work to keep improving the performance of all of our students.

Matt Arkin
GCA Head of School

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@Bootney, herein lies the flaw in your argument. You say you don’t believe in “one size fits all,” yet that’s exactly what you’re advocating when you oppose the creation of public charter schools….

Can’t have it both ways….

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We left the B&M school for different reasons not just academics. In our B&N school you could only go as fast as the slowest student in the class. This didnt/doesnt challenge any child to their potential, GCA does this. I would like to see the results from the RYAP(Reaching Your Academic Potential) that 8th graders have to take, the results from the B&M and GCA/Charter Schools

middle school teacher
March 22nd, 2010
8:02 pm
It is not making innovative new learning environments readily available for those students who have not fared well in traditional public schools.

Can you offer any proof that the students who now attend these charter schools did not “fare” well in traditional schools? Did you mean academically or in some other way?

Just my guess, but I believe many who leave public schools do so for other reasons than just academics

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There are so many posters on here talking about “B&M” schools. At first I didn’t know what “B&M” meant — it took a minute to figure out they meant brick and mortar. So many people quickly and easily using this anti-”B&M” lingo smells like a lot of people who have drunk the “cyber academy!” kool-aid, and picked up on the talking points. “Old, tired, ‘brick and mortar’ schools are just so old fashioned and so yesterday, don’t you know, exciting new on-line ‘cyber academies’ are the wave of the future!!

I suppose its easier to sell the cyber academy line to a bunch of home schooling whackos.

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Wow Ray, I’ve never homeschooled a day in my life. My student in GCA is with a public charter school and he has real teachers that teach classes everyday. So, I have no idea what you are talking about with, home schooling wackos and this is the wave of the future. Normal brick and mortar didn’t work for us. So there is no need to put those of us that have chosen to do something different down.
Oh wait, you must have learned how to do that in your traditional, old fashioned brick school house. Cause, I know when my son was in kindergarten, my son learning the word M….F… Came from a little boy named Corey. I remember it perfectly,b/c apparently at recess Corey said this word over and over again, and my son felt like he needed to come home and say it over and over. He also learned how to roll a joint in 3rd grade, and in 4th grade was not only bullied by his peers, but also his teachers. So yeah, some overhauling needs to be done in the school systems. I was also in a public school all my life, up until I dropped out in 1992 when they hung metal detectors on the high school doors, and started patting us kids down and going through our bags. You know, that really didn’t bother me, it was the gang of guys that grabbed my private parts and asked me what I was going to do about it, that broke the camels back. So yes, If I can save my child from that, your darn right I am. It’s a shame and a disgrace that everyone is so against something they’ve never experienced. Not everyone is so lucky to live in districts with awesome schools. So your going to condemn me for wanting more for my child. Hahaha.. you go right ahead. I’m making sure that my child is socialized and getting a good education. I don’t have to worry about him learning how to put down others like you have. I’m not saying he want ever learn this, just not when his brain is to immature to understand how to combat it.

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Is this spec ed stuff for real? Just exactly how many, within this community, are deemed as such simply because, well, it’s easier; more convenient for educational leadership…than to (here we go again) set the standards for academic excellence, INSIST upon their attainment, and that’s all there is to say.

No, it’s easier to raise the bar, allow any-and-all to pass, and, in the meantime, bask in the additional demands for educational funding under the cloak of…special education.

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Yes, SJS, really.

I teach my kids that there are all kinds of people in the world, and school is a place to start learning how to deal with them. You can’t get that sitting in front of a computer.

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Let me assure you that “homeschool wackos” are adamantly opposed to cyber schools as well. Many traditional homeschool groups will not allow members who use cyber schools. The two concepts are very different in both intent and practice.

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I learned quite a bit speaking with, and representing, parents of children with special needs at GCA. Some called me for one reason, and once I started looking into their cases, realized that their concerns were nothing compared to the HUGE violations of federal law that I discovered. Completely ignoring IEPs (yet still taking the extra $$ they get for serving children with special needs). Fighting to not have to provide related services that were more than warranted under the law. Mischaracterizing classes. Failing to re-evaluate. Failing to provide progress reports or do any kind of progress monitoring as required by law. And when the parents approached the school about,it, they were ignored, spoken to condescendingly, belittled. I had never seen ANYTHING like this self righteous attitude at ANY brick and mortar, down to them telling bald faced lies in response to parent complaints to the Georgia DOE. I additionally heard about questionable grading practices, teacher providing test answers to children, dropping grades when the children did poorly. You can’t trust these people. They need to have their charter revoked to make room for a new, more ethical cyber school to take its place.

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“ALL of these children must by law be taught together in one classroom with “regular” children who do not have these disabilities.”

One of the biggest mistakes they ever made.

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I am so thankful to have a choice for my children. Not all of us can say that we live in a school district that can meet our children’s needs (educational, social-emotional, etc). I commend the work done by Matt Arkin and his staff. They’ve reached amazing results even when faced by obstacles listed above in the article (via the DOE).
My child has grown in so many ways. GCA curriculum has sparked so many interests in what I hope to be a life-long learner and a productive member of our society.

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I do not have a traditional “special needs” child. However, my child is an accelerated learner. He was so bored in his brick and mortar elementary school that he begged to be homeschooled. He timed himself at school and he independently read over 90 minutes a day. He said he did this while waiting on the other students to finish their work. We chose GCA and we have had a wonderful experience. GCA allows him to learn at his pace and to go more in-depth into the topics in which he has a higher interest. We love what this public charter school has to offer.

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@All,

GCA is my only choose for my two kids. We are a military family who moved here at the beginning of the school year. After going to the our local public school and looking at the curriculum I found out that my son is significantly ahead of his peers. They would of been teaching him things he had learned the year prior in California. So they suggested that we move him to 3rd grade if I was concerned about him getting bored or frustrated. When I asked if they had programs for gifted kids and the gal laughed at me asking me if I knew that our country was in a financial crisis. She informed me that all of those programs had been cut. That the next option for my son was to put him in the local Charter school. So I attempted to do so but they were already full for the year. They told me about GCA. After alot of research I found out that this was the best option for my children. They would have all the support of public school with all the benefits of homeschooling. We have been doing this for 4 months and I am in love with the program. They are there anytime I need them. The curriculum is child based and he can work at his own pace. Without GCA both of my boys would struggle with school because of the fact that school districts are do not have standard curriculum. I hope that nothing happens to GCA because without them alot of kids that do not meet the cookie cutter outline that Public schools rely on, they will fall through the cracks.

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So many people have an opinion about GCA. Some of these people have never taken the time to actually learn about the school. My daughter is enrolled in Kindergarten at GCA. This school has been a blessing to our family. I taught in the public school system for almost ten years. I have been there, done that. I was a good teacher (still am), with good test scores, my kids respected me, etc…. I would NEVER put my child in a brick and mortar public school. It is not because I don’t want her to learn to deal with different types of people. It is because I don’t think she should have to be in that environment to meet different types of people. We are in several different homeschool groups where she meets people of different ages, races, and religious beliefs. Unfortunately schools are not like they were when I was in school. The parents are less involved and kids think they are entitled and should be able to do and say whatever they want. That is not how I am raising my child and I do not want her to learn those behaviors. I want to teach her the values and morals that a lot of people in our society do not have anymore. I don’t see why people are getting so upset over GCA. If you don’t like, don’t enroll your child in that school. I really don’t see how anyone could read the description and talk with an enrollment advisor and not understand that the parent is the learning coach. They were very upfront about all of that. Everything they told me about the school is 100% accurate. The teachers and the administration have been very open, honest, and helpful. We are very thankful for GCA. We will continue to support our school and our teachers. Again, if you are not a fan of online schools, don’t enroll your child there, but also don’t make it a mission to make it to where my child can’t go there. If I don’t like your child’s school, I will just stay away. I will not try to make it my life mission to get your child’s school to close just because I don’t understand or agree with it.

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I am a GCA parent and many children need a different education that brick and mortar schools. My daughter thrives with GCA, and would be bored in traditional school, aside from the bullying and social garbage that goes on in high school

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Cyber academy saved my son and allows him to keep going to school even with the heath issue he has.
When he was going to public “normal” schools he was getting sick all the time, bullied and he wanted to quit school, now he has plans to go to college!
I do not understand why people do not stop attacking this type of school and way of teaching when the “normal” system has proven and keeps proving that is not working in several levels: academically, emotionally, financially…….
I’m very thankful that Georgia Cyber Academy exists and will keep my kids on it for as long as we are allowed. They have provided us with understanding and support for the last 2 years (what we never got in brick and mortar school). Thank you GCA!

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I give a big thumbs up for GCA. B/M schools told me that my child would never learn anything and that I needed to accept that. GCA showed us that this was not true since I pulled him out of the bm school he has learned to read,write and do math just like any other child did just at a slower pace. At the bm school all they did was babysit him they never tried to teach him anything. I want my child to learn not just be look after I don’t need a babysitter but he does need an education and GCA gives him that. If the bm schools would do their jobs then there wouldn’t be a need for homeschooling or any other type of schooling. Just because these kids have special needs doesn’t give anyone a right to say that they can’t learn or to harm them in any way, which is what’s happens to most of these children. My child was abused at school and on the bus and the school thinks this is ok and never does anything about it. Now that I teach him at home he isn’t be abused or he doesn’t have to miss school because he has to go to so many dr appt he still get his education and he is a lot healthier now that he isn’t around the other kids passing germs around. GCA has been a Blessing to us is so many ways just wished I ad done this earlier before he had to go through the abuse.

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This is our 1st year with GCA. I cant say that I have any complaints with them. Yes, my son falls under the SPED. For us it is the best decision we have made for our son. As for money, we didnt have to pay anything for his PE. We as a family play ball(all sorts) together,and othe outdoor activies and that is counted towards the PE time. And before any of you now-it-alls say anything, YES…it is monitored by adults. His Father is military and PT is done also. As for Foriegn Language, that is part of his schooling as an elective as with B&M schools. With me homeschooling my neice also(3rd grade) her art is an elective also. It is like them being in a B&M classroom same as your kid. My kids dont recieve any answers from their teachers. As their LC(Learning Coach) I get them so I can grade there off line work.
NEWS FLASH!!!!!…..The kids actually DO have books to work from. For years our B&M school didnt have enough books, they had to share with another student or do with out, and still didnt as of last year. Believe me the BOE knew me by first name by the time our oldest was out of middle school(when the problems began).

Lets picture a spider, you have the body and only 4 legs. The body is the office area(big open area, middle school one one side & HS on the other) and the legs house the classrooms. One hallway for middle school students(5-8 grade) and the other 3 hallways for the highschool students. This is our B&M middle & HS. Students are aways crossing paths during school . Can someone say “safety issues”. Thats just one issue with this school.

Understand this, all schools make changes every year, some for the better some for the worse. Depends on how you see it. How things were last year are not sounding like anything that is going on this year with GCA. No school is perfect, but I cant find on here(AJC) anywhere, where the B&M schools are being scrutinized for anything.

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My daughter began 8th grade in the public school system, having attended public schools since 1st grade. She had a 540 plan beginning last December that addressed her need for accomodations related to chronic migraines, generalized anxiety disorder and major depression. The counselor she had in the public school system last year was very helpful, but after her retirement at the end of the year, we were unfortunately assigned a counselor who was new to the school. I removed my daughter from the public school 1 month after school began because the new counselor was incompetent. My daughter had also experienced bullying at the public school, which was never dealt with by the administration despite being reported by my daughter and me.

My daughter began receiving her education through GCA, and I am extremely happy with the level of support we have received. I have encountered nothing but positive, helpful, intelligent staff and faculty at GCA. My daughter is quite simply a different child. No longer is she stressed out about going to school and feeling unsafe and being foreced to battle an anxiety-provoking environment consisting of teachers having to spend so much of their time attempting to gain control of their often overcrowded, rowdy classrooms. Now my daughter can focus her energy and attention on learning. Her physical and emotional health has greatly improved as well as a result of being taking out of the school she previously attended. I am so thankful GCA is an option for us.

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