Working for the inclusion of disAbled Catholics in Catholic schools!

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nuchi

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This site is geared toward Minneapolis/St. Paul Minnesota.
exceptionalcatholicmn.com/
It’s amazing to me how many churches have little or nor accomodations for people with special needs. The schools regularly refuse special needs kids as students. What’s it like in your part of the world?
Is there a forum here for disAbled Catholics and their children?
 
we had a long, acrimonious discussion of this very topic within the last year, so a search might help you

if you want to make an allegation against a specific school or diocesan education system, do so and provide evidence, but I don’t think it is worthwhile to condemn all or most Catholic schools based on anecdotal evidence or experience with one school, one family, one child.

we have at least 12 children I know of with severe needs in our school of fewer than 250 students, and at least a dozen if not more who are in our parish CCD in any given year, and we have an active outreach to identify and enroll such children, so speak for yourself.

there were also at least 2 threads about the specific autism case cited on the website you link, so search for those (it also bears retelling that this case had nothing to do with Catholic schools)
 
Actually I wasn’t looking for acrimony at all…lol. Ask your school how many children they have to turn away each year due to funding. If you look at the churches listed on the website I posted you will see a list of every church in the archdiocese and their services. Only by shedding light and volunteering to help make a change, will change happen. I don’t understand why you would be so rude?
 
nuchi said:
This site is geared toward Minneapolis/St. Paul Minnesota.
exceptionalcatholicmn.com/
It’s amazing to me how many churches have little or nor accomodations for people with special needs. The schools regularly refuse special needs kids as students. What’s it like in your part of the world?
Is there a forum here for disAbled Catholics and their children?
Click to expand...
There are two separate issues that are erroneously lumped together in the site you linked.

The first issue is inclusion in the Catholic Church of children and adults who are anywhere along the spectrum of ability. This is directly the business and responsibility of the Church.

The second, which your thread title addresses is the inclusion of disabled children in Catholic schools. I looked over the website and no where could I find a proposal of how to pay for this. I have two kids in Catholic school now. I pay for the mainstream kids in public school via my local taxes, the disabled children in public school mostly via my federal taxes, my own two kids via tuition and kids who attend our school but can’t afford full tuition through donations.

How would you fund special education in Catholic schools? The schools can’t absorb the cost, they are often just getting by. By a rough calculation, I am already paying for the education of at least three children, only two of which are mine. Asking the parents of the students to subsidize special eduction at the Catholic school would raise tuition beyond what most of us could pay. Asking the parents of disabled children to pay a higher tuition to cover the expenses to educate their children would likely be prohibitively expensive.

The only fair avenue is to pressure the government to extend special education benefits to all disabled children regardless of what school they are in.
 
nuchi said:
I could be mistaken here but isn’t the Catholic Church the wealthiest church in the world and in fact wealthier than most nations? cloakanddagger.de/media/where_the_vatican_wealth_is_stor.htm

time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,833509,00.html

And I see no reason why both issues can’t be addressed on the same website? For now we are working on including as much info as possible. Check out the blog and the forum for a little more. Think about contributing.
Thanks!
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There is no reason they can’t be on the same website, I didn’t say that. I said that on the website the two issues were lumped together to make it seem as if they were a single issue - they are not.

You first comment/question doesn’t deserve a response.
 
nuchi said:
Actually I wasn’t looking for acrimony at all…lol. Ask your school how many children they have to turn away each year due to funding. If you look at the churches listed on the website I posted you will see a list of every church in the archdiocese and their services. Only by shedding light and volunteering to help make a change, will change happen. I don’t understand why you would be so rude?
Click to expand...
how am I being rude by insisting that personal experience in one parish or diocese does not equate to a general problem regarding all Catholic schools? am I rude because I offer my experience? do you only want to hear from people with one side of the story? if so, why not say so.
 
nuchi said:
I could be mistaken here but isn’t the Catholic Church the wealthiest church in the world and in fact wealthier than most nations?
Click to expand...
Not “could be mistaken”. Rather, are mistaken. Some major American universities have larger operating budgets than the Vatican. The presumed wealth of the Church as a whole cannot be accurately assessed given the fact that individual parishes operate within the confines of their own budgets. The Church is not a multi-national corporation with a single budget operating under the auspices of a CFO.

If Catholics want a greater range of services available in their local Catholic schools, then Catholics need to get up off their wallets long enough to drop some extra money in the collection plate.

– Mark L. Chance.
 
Corki said:
The only fair avenue is to pressure the government to extend special education benefits to all disabled children regardless of what school they are in.
Click to expand...
I don’t think that would be fair. Why should the average taxpayer pay for a child to attend a private school at all?

I do think that it’s essential to provide as good an education for the disabled as we can, but not in a private setting such as a Catholic or a Quaker or a Hebrew school.
 
Corki said:
There is no reason they can’t be on the same website, I didn’t say that. I said that on the website the two issues were lumped together to make it seem as if they were a single issue - they are not.

You first comment/question doesn’t deserve a response.
Click to expand...
Actually, there is a response to it and it’s very enlightening.
 
mlchance said:
Not “could be mistaken”. Rather, are mistaken. Some major American universities have larger operating budgets than the Vatican. The presumed wealth of the Church as a whole cannot be accurately assessed given the fact that individual parishes operate within the confines of their own budgets. The Church is not a multi-national corporation with a single budget operating under the auspices of a CFO.

If Catholics want a greater range of services available in their local Catholic schools, then Catholics need to get up off their wallets long enough to drop some extra money in the collection plate.

– Mark L. Chance.
Click to expand...
Very good response but what about all the gold and jewelry in the Vatican?
If all that doesn’t belong to the Church who owns it exactly?
I agree with you that if Catholics want a wider range of services in their schools they should pay for it, however, just as any other faith should subsidize their own schools.
I’ve never been asked to finance a Muslim school, or a Hebrew school, the members of that faith manage without me, so why should the Catholics be any different?
 
Molly2000z said:
I don’t think that would be fair. Why should the average taxpayer pay for a child to attend a private school at all?

I do think that it’s essential to provide as good an education for the disabled as we can, but not in a private setting such as a Catholic or a Quaker or a Hebrew school.
Click to expand...
non sequitur

This thread is about services for the disabled in Catholic schools.
 
Molly2000z said:
I’ve never been asked to finance a Muslim school, or a Hebrew school, the members of that faith manage without me, so why should the Catholics be any different?
Click to expand...
I guess it depends on the state where you live. In NY, for example they just opened a Muslim school in the public school system and there have been Jewish schools there for decades. Your federal taxes go to give services for children receiving special education services in those schools. So maybe you haven’t been asked, but assuming you are a US taxpayer, you have financed it. 🙂
 
Molly2000z said:
I don’t think that would be fair. Why should the average taxpayer pay for a child to attend a private school at all?
Click to expand...
That wasn’t my point. It isn’t about paying for a child to attend a private school but about providing special education services to children regardless of where they attend school. Some states already have this. I believe it should be expanded to all states.
 
Molly2000z said:
Very good response but what about all the gold and jewelry in the Vatican?
If all that doesn’t belong to the Church who owns it exactly?
Click to expand...
Those items are owned in trust by the Church in the same way that a museum owns works of art. They are not the Church’s to sell.

And, yes, it is already federal law that tax monies can be used to send a child with disabilities to a private school if that school can best meet the educational needs of the child.

– Mark L. Chance.
 
Corki said:
That wasn’t my point. It isn’t about paying for a child to attend a private school but about providing special education services to children regardless of where they attend school. Some states already have this. I believe it should be expanded to all states.
Click to expand...
Who would pay for it?
 
Corki said:
There are two separate issues that are erroneously lumped together in the site you linked.

The first issue is inclusion in the Catholic Church of children and adults who are anywhere along the spectrum of ability. This is directly the business and responsibility of the Church.

The second, which your thread title addresses is the inclusion of disabled children in Catholic schools. I looked over the website and no where could I find a proposal of how to pay for this. I have two kids in Catholic school now. I pay for the mainstream kids in public school via my local taxes, the disabled children in public school mostly via my federal taxes, my own two kids via tuition and kids who attend our school but can’t afford full tuition through donations.

How would you fund special education in Catholic schools? The schools can’t absorb the cost, they are often just getting by. By a rough calculation, I am already paying for the education of at least three children, only two of which are mine. Asking the parents of the students to subsidize special eduction at the Catholic school would raise tuition beyond what most of us could pay. Asking the parents of disabled children to pay a higher tuition to cover the expenses to educate their children would likely be prohibitively expensive.

The only fair avenue is to pressure the government to extend special education benefits to all disabled children regardless of what school they are in.
Click to expand...
That is also where vouchers for schools come in. i would love to put my boys with Autism in a Catholic school, but can’t afford the tuition and the government gives my tax money no choice but to go to public schools. We need school choice and let parents decide where their tax money goes.👍
 
maria_rose said:
That is also where vouchers for schools come in. i would love to put my boys with Autism in a Catholic school, but can’t afford the tuition and the government gives my tax money no choice but to go to public schools. We need school choice and let parents decide where their tax money goes.👍
Click to expand...
You would dismantle (by taking funds out in vouchers) your public school district’s special ed programs so that you can send your kids to Catholic school?

If tax money can barely support the public schools, reducing it accomplishes what?
 
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