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Submit via email to GNETrule@doe.k12.ga.us and sitara@p2pga.org

DATE

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to you because I believe that students who need support with their behavior in Georgia public schools should be able to receive services in their neighborhood school. I have had a child in name of school in name of county county for number years.

Please choose any that apply:

☐ I have a student who has a disability and needs mental health services at school, which my student has not received.

☐ I have a student who has a disability and because of that disability, I was told my student needed to receive services at a different school or program that is not my neighborhood school.

☐ I have a student with disabilities that result in the student’s behavior being challenging for other people in his/her life. Because of that, my student was sent to a GNETS program.

Let me tell you more about my student’s school experience: ENTER TEXT 

I understand that the state Department of Education is looking at proposing new rules about how and when schools provide support for students with behavior-related disabilities. I understand the new rule:

1. Keeps all 24 GNETS facilities as segregated programs for any students with a disability that has some behavioral “challenges”.
2. Does not change the flow of money used to fund these programs from facilities to support services in the local schools.
3. Does not provide any process or guidance about how families or IEP teams would access or implement any “GNETS Services” in a local school.

Let me tell you what supports and accommodations my student would need to be successful: ENTER TEXT 

I understand the state of Georgia has been investigated by the United States Department of Justice and found too often not to provide these services and to offer them only in segregated settings with inferior education like the GNETS programs. This has also been my family’s experience: ENTER TEXT 

My student has received and is receiving an inferior education. It is urgent that the GNETS system in Georgia transform into a set of local services for all students with behavior-related disabilities, where they are afforded an equal educational opportunity in general education classrooms [or in classrooms with their peers who are non-disabled] in their local schools.

Thank you for asking for public feedback about a draft proposed rule.

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME