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The face of McKay kids

One Florida parent/educator is doing what she can for special-needs kids: 

Tucked into a Kass Circle storefront near Michelle’s Elbow Room restaurant and Pizzaz Hair Design, the Golden Branch Academy still lacks furniture and just got a phone connection.

But if Lourdes Morales’ dream becomes a reality, by late August, that storefront will be home to a new educational option for children with special needs in grades 4-12.

Morales, who has 15 years’ experience teaching reading and English as a second language at Deltona Elementary and Farnell Middle schools in Hillsborough County, hopes to serve up to 30 students in the four-room suite of offices.

She saw the need for a private alternative while raising her own children, 12-year-old Luis and 15-year-old Laura, both of whom have been diagnosed with autism. Prone to outbursts and obsessive behavior, both needed consistency and individualized attention they couldn’t find in public schools, she said.

"Once they get into middle school, they just get lost," she said, referring to some special-needs children. "I’ve met with parents in the area and the need is great."

Morales hopes eventually to serve up to 30 elementary, middle and high school students with autism-spectrum, anxiety, or attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorders, as well as gifted and ESOL students, in three rooms at the school. For now, she won’t be accepting students who need the intensive support of a one-to-one aide.

Each of those groups of eight to 10 students will have its own teacher and will work out of its own cubicle so the students get the individual attention they need, she said.

That’s the dream.

Oh, but rest assured the ACLU and assorted teachers unions are doing everything in their power to see that dream denied and Laura and Luis "welcomed back" (shudder) to public school.  Remember: for teachers unions, any school choice program, regardless of its form or who it’s intended to help, is just too much.