Lt. Gov. Dan Forest wants all parents of special needs children to have the option to send them to in-person school. | Stock Photo
Lt. Gov. Dan Forest wants all parents of special needs children to have the option to send them to in-person school. | Stock Photo
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest said any student with special needs has to be allowed to receive in-person learning for the upcoming school year.
Forest's July 29 statement comes a couple of weeks after Gov. Roy Cooper said school districts could reopen in North Carolina under a model that mixed limited in-person instruction with remote learning.
"All families should have the option to send their children back to school full-time," Forest wrote on Facebook. "But at a minimum, a governor’s plan for reopening schools MUST allow for children with special needs and those with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) to attend school."
Special needs children won't be required to attend in-person education, but he said it should be an option available to all parents with a special needs child.
"These exceptional children depend on the public school system to afford them the therapy, services, and specialized instruction that only our trained and dedicated educational professionals can provide," Forest said in his Facebook post. "Anything less than giving these students and families the option to go back to school full-time is incomprehensible."
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