Aidan’s story: How a private school saved a young man’s life

by David Bass | Mar 23, 2021

Aidan’s story: How a private school saved a young man’s life

“Every day was truly a dark day.”

That’s how Tiffany Pearce describes life during the hardest weeks of trying to care for her son, Aidan. Diagnosed with bipolar with mania, on top of an earlier diagnosis of autism and sensory integration disorder, Aidan couldn’t do most things we take for granted—everything from communicating his feelings to using the restroom.

But tragically, that extended to Aidan trying to hurt himself during his manic episodes. To help, Tiffany would try to hold Aidan to prevent injuries. The results from this strong eight-year-old boy were that Tiffany herself would often get injured.

“He was having episodes three to four times a day lasting anywhere from one hour to three or four,” Tiffany says. “With these episodes, it’s like he didn’t know who he was at the time.”

When the manic episode calmed down and Aidan would recover, he would look at the blood on his mother and ask, “Why don’t you move out and leave. I don’t want to hurt you any more.”

Tiffany took her son to a long list of doctors and specialists for help before he was eventually admitted to the Atlanta-based Peaceford Hospital, a behavioral health treatment facility. But even that didn’t help. Aidan continued to struggle. It was all made worse by the fact that Tiffany could not stay with him at night.

“I’ll never forget the time he looked up at me and said, ‘Mommy, I want to be in heaven.’ You just feel completely helpless as a parent at that moment,” says Tiffany. “To hear an eight-year-old say that is devastating.”

Later on, Tiffany waged a battle with the insurance company to move Aidan from Peachford to a residential facility where they would better be able to serve his needs. At the same time, she had to make a choice about where to send the young man to school.

It was the first time his mother heard, “we want Aidan.”

All students deserve the chance to succeed.

But Tiffany soon discovered that not many schools were willing to support a child like Aidan. The local public schools in Cobb County wanted to put him on an EBD (Emotional and Behavioral Disorder) satellite campus, but Aidan’s doctors and therapists said that would have been detrimental to his behavioral and development issues.

Thankfully, there was another option: CORE Community School, a private school in Atlanta.

“I’ll never forget them saying, ‘We want him. We want Aidan.’ That was the first time I felt hope in a year, because he deserves to be wanted. All kids should feel that. They deserve that,” Tiffany says.

Today, Aidan is thriving at this private school that prioritizes serving students with unique needs and challenges.

“Being at school is the first time in a year and a half that I see Aidan smile,” Tiffany says. “I didn’t think I would see that again. I wondered if this boy with the biggest heart would ever feel like he was worth anything. And he did here.”

Drive-Thru Job Fair Comes to Gwinnett

by Kimberly Sawatka | Mar 18, 2021

Drive-Thru Job Fair Comes to Gwinnett

The current pandemic has made a massive impact on America’s workforce and wreaked havoc on certain business sectors. While we’re beginning to see a dip in the number of active COVID-19 cases around the country, parts of the economy are still in desperate need of finding workers. Until recently in-person meetings have been known to be the most effective way of engaging potential job seekers with jobs, but they’re not feasible in today’s environment of social distancing. Instead, organizations like Better Work Gwinnett are finding creative ways – like a drive-thru job fair – to connect businesses with job seekers.

We are excited to announce the Better Work Gwinnett Drive-Thru Job Fair on Thursday, April 1st at the Infinite Energy Center Parking Deck.

This event will connect job seekers with hundreds of full and part time jobs. Businesses will have booths set up around the ramp of the parking garage allowing job seekers to drop off resumes and learn more about each organization. Job seekers will also be able to collect information and engage with potential employers – all from their cars.

The job fair is a result of a community collaboration among GCO, Goodwill of North Georgia, First Step Staffing, Lawrenceville Response Center, and WorkFaith – all Gwinnett County based organizations. Working together with a common goal of strengthening the community, the Gwinnett Coalition combines local resources to provide training and support services to help job seekers find meaningful work and businesses to gain valuable employees.

For most people a job is more than a paycheck, but also provides purpose and dignity to everyday life. Unfortunately, there has been a steady rise in unemployment rates in the Gwinnett County area. Gwinnett County’s current unemployment hoovers at about five percent, which is on par with Georgia’s overall unemployment rate of 5.3 percent.

“The global pandemic is impacting our neighbors,” said GCO’s Director of the Gwinnett Workforce Initiative, Jace Brooks. “When the pandemic started, Gwinnett County saw thousands of residents out of work, many of them faced housing and food insecurity. A drive-thru job fair will allow job seekers the ability to connect with potential employers while still practicing social distancing and safe health regulations. It’s been great to see local groups working together in such harmony for the good of the community. We know the job fair will be beneficial to our local residents, businesses, and economy.”

The pandemic has produced a vanishing supply of skilled labor, and the growing local market’s demand is outpacing the supply of workers. Drive-thru job fairs in other areas have been largely successful for filling positions in various industries like, administrative, utilities, manufacturing, and warehouse work.

To register to participate as a job-seeker, volunteer, or business click here.

Get Buzz’d At the state Capitol

by Buzz Brockway | Mar 17, 2021

Get Buzz’d At the state Capitol

A focus on the state legislature and the policies effecting Georgian’s everyday life.

Buzz Brockway, VP of Policy, is in downtown Atlanta at the state Capitol building, and walks us through the proposed changes to The Special Needs Scholarship, occupational licensing, a current protest, and more.

Our state lawmakers create policies that better the lives of Georgians. Learn more about active legislation and how it translates into everyday life for all of us.

Many Special Needs Students Have Struggled with Virtual Classes

by Buzz Brockway | Mar 16, 2021

Many Special Needs Students Have Struggled with Virtual Classes

For some students virtual classes during the past year have been fine. Some have even thrived. But for many special needs students, it has not gone well, as a parent tells the Georgia Center for Opportunity:

A virtual classroom worked fine for Jennifer’s two older children, but her youngest son, 10-year-old Joey, has Down syndrome. Online learning is entirely unworkable for him due to his special needs.

For example, DeKalb is following a normal bell schedule but staying engaged on Zoom for hours on end is not working. Morning classes will sometimes go well, but by lunchtime Joey is tuned out. It is impossible to get him back online after the lunch break for specials, such as music and art, and Jennifer cannot stay tied up until 2:30pm every day. She has seen academic and social regression for her son as he has little to no interaction with peers.

Additionally, his academic growth is limited due to repetitive practice of current skills on worksheets with no new individual instruction to learn new concepts in language arts or math. As a highly visual and experiential learner, he is missing the magic that happens in a classroom that cannot be replicated on a Zoom call.

“It’s day-by-day and minute-by-minute,” Jennifer shares. “One class he is engaged and on task, and the next minute he is hiding under the bed or taking his shirt off.”

All children, no matter their needs, deserve the opportunity for a high-quality education that meets their individual requirements.

Today, Axios wrote about a newly released report on 130 studies on the safety of school reopening. The report found:

Any benefits to closing schools are far outweighed by the grave risks to children from remote-only schooling — risks that intensify the longer it continues, the report says.
The harms include academic loss — so severe that it could set children back for life — and mental health problems related to loneliness and isolation.
There are also severe hardships on parents — mothers in particular, about two million of whom have left the workforce to care for their kids as part of remote learning.
“Schools are not super-spreaders,” observes the report, written by John P. Bailey, a former deputy policy director at the Department of Commerce.

Fortunately almost 73% of Georgia’s school districts are open for face to face learning. The rest need to reopen ASAP, and plans need to be made to help students who fell behind catch up.

This post originally appeared on PeachPundit.com on March 11, 2021.

Buzz Brockway is a Guest on the Erick Erickson Show | WSB 95.5

by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Mar 12, 2021

Buzz Brockway is a Guest on the Erick Erickson Show | WSB 95.5

On March 4, 2021 Buzz Brockway, VP of Policy, was a featured guest on WSB 99.5’s Erick Erickson Show to discuss legislation (HB 60) that would allow parents and students more education options.

Unfortunately, HB 60 will not come to fruition this year, but we’re not stopping the fight for our kids.

Listen to Buzz explain the legislation and learn more about what state leaders are considering for our children’s education.

Erick Erickson Show - March 4, 2021

by Erick Erickson and Buzz Brockway

Listen to Buzz Brockway explain the importance of House Bill 60 on WSB’s Erick Erickson Show.

Key GCO priority bills make crossover deadline

by David Bass | Mar 10, 2021

Key GCO priority bills make crossover deadline

The Georgia legislative session is halfway over, and already we’ve made some important progress in breaking down barriers to work and expanding opportunity for all Georgians.

We reached a key legislative mark on March 8: The crossover deadline. That means that any bill not passed by at least one chamber (either the Senate or the House) is likely dead for the remainder of the session.

The great news is that several key bills supported by the Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) made the crossover deadline.

Watch Buzz Brockway, VP of Policy for GCO, from the state Capitol as he updates us on what legislation is moving forward, and what is over for the year.

Education

Heading up that list is a measure that would expand the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship. This program helps students with individualized education plans (IEPs) attend a private school that is a better fit for their individual needs. On March 3, the state Senate passed a measure, Senate Bill 47, that opens the scholarship to preschoolers in addition to students with a wide range of special needs, just not those with an IEP.

We’re continuing to work with lawmakers on the House side to pass the bill and send it to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature. We’re hopeful that 2021 will be the year this important measure becomes law in order to better serve families of special needs students who have disproportionately suffered during the pandemic.

Occupational licensing

We’re also seeing progress on occupational licensing reforms. Occupational licensing is needed in some industries and job categories, but the laws on the books today in many cases are an unnecessary roadblock to employment for workers.

Two bills on this issue made the crossover deadline. The first, Senate Bill 45, allows people who move to Georgia and hold an occupational license to immediately be granted a provisional license. This will allow these new Georgians to immediately go to work and support their families.

A second measure, Senate Bill 27, extends the time (up to two years) a retiring military member may count their military training toward requirements for an occupational license

Both bills are now pending in the House.

Adoption reforms

We’re pleased that two adoption-reform bills passed the House before the crossover deadline. House Bill 114 would increase the annual tax credit available for adopting a foster child from $2,000 to $6,000. And House Bill 154 would lower the minimum age to adopt from 25 to 21.

Foster and adoptive families play a crucial role in creating stable environments for some of the most vulnerable children in our society. Anything we can do through policy reform to help these families should be a priority.

Justice reforms

In an attempt to address the type of tragic vigilante violence that occurred in the Ahmaud Arbery case, lawmakers unanimously passed House Bill 479 on March 8. The measure overhauls Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law to generally prevent bystanders from attempting to arrest an individual suspected of a crime. GCO believes this is a crucial piece of legislation to prevent unnecessary tragedies and foster greater racial justice in our state.

Bills that didn’t make the cut

Unfortunately, supporters of Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) will likely have to wait another year before we see them become a reality. Although a measure (House Bill 60) to create ESAs passed the House Education Committee on Feb. 26, it never came up for a vote on the floor of the House.

ESAs are an important way to expand educational access and choice for Georgia students. They allow parents and kids—no matter their race, the circumstances of their birth, or their socioeconomic status—to have equal access to the funds needed for a great education. We’ll continue fighting for ESAs in the 2022 legislative session.

On a positive note, bills that would have legalized parimutuel horse-race betting and casino gambling in Georgia are now dead after failing to make crossover.