written by former District 77 State Representative Gail Riecken
Recently there was a note from Rep. Ed Delaney, Indianapolis, about a charter school grant application Indiana filed with the federal government. The application is for $900,000 per program and Indiana Department of Education (DOE) proposes to add somewhere around 40 plus new charter schools. Click here to read about the grant.
There are a couple of notes about the application, one positive, that I think you may find exciting. First, let’s get the more negative one out of the way. A new charter school will affect student enrollment in any school corporation. You may want to let your school corporation know this is coming.
Second, the positive one. There is mentioned certain funding, perhaps even an afterthought as Rep Delaney describes it, that should be interesting to parents of special needs children and anyone interested in workforce development.
ARK of Indiana has a program with Ball State and Marriott Hotels for training special needs people in hospitality. Why can’t we, in Evansville, have a program training young special needs people valuable workplace skills working in hospitals? We have Deaconness, St Vincents, Gateway and rehab centers. We have a new school coming on board and rumors are everywhere about the economic growth that will be attributed to it (actually I don’t think the argument is credible until Ivy Tech is there), but growth is coming.
Here is an article about the Munci, IN experience.
https://www.erskinegreeninstitute.org/arc-of-indiana-breaks-ground-on-muncie-complex/
Now this is innovative!  Maybe this grant is finally the place to fund a program that teaches special needs children readiness skills for employment in health care. Employment among special needs people who are able to work should be a goal in our society and Evansville should start planning now for the inclusion of people with special needs working in hospitals.
Click here to open Link :
