LAWRENCE COUNTY, Ohio (WSAZ) - On Friday, the Lawrence County DD announced it would keep the Open Door School open for one more year.
Lawrence County DD previously announced it would have to close the school after a proposed tax levy failed in November’s election.
The Open Door School is a school for children with developmental disabilities.
Ryan Baker, a parent at the Open Door School, told WSAZ that having the school remain open for another year means his daughter Kennedi will be able to continue growing and developing.
“I think it is a big relief for us as parents to know that we have finally found a place for Kennedi that she can excel and she can grow, and that the fact that it’s not going to be taken away from her [for another year] is a big thing,” Baker said.
Amy Clevenger sends her grandson Nicholas to the Open Door School. She calls the school “a blessing to our family.”
“Since he’s been at the Open Door School, he’s happier, he’s learning, he’s talking more, and he has made so many friends,” she told WSAZ.
Baker said Kennedi has had a similar experience.
“She’s more cuddly, she’s more personable. She’s figured out her shapes and colors. She has gone on trips,” he told WSAZ. “I mean, she is getting to live the life of what every other child gets to live through this school because they include her, they don’t exclude her.”
Lawrence County DD said they had secured the resources from local school districts and the Lawrence County Educational Service Center to stay open one more year. Superintendent Julie Monroe told WSAZ the extra year will give the school districts “more time to plan for serving the students” once Open Door closes.
“There are no plans to continue past one year,” she added.
Parents told WSAZ that they do not plan to send their students to the local school districts, citing concerns about them not being hands-on, being too overwhelming, and the possibility of bullying. Clevenger plans on homeschooling Nicholas, while Baker told WSAZ his family is planning on moving - potentially as far as Georgia or Florida - to get Kennedi the care that she needs.
According to Monroe, other Lawrence County DD programs are suffering financially, in what she calls a “fiscal crisis.” Those programs include Family Service Support Services, which has been frozen; that program was meant to keep families together by providing resources necessitated by a developmental disability. They have also been forced to stop enrolling anyone onto Medicaid Waivers, which is funding to live and work in the community with developmental disabilities.
Still, the parents say they are grateful for one more year with their kids at the Open Door School.
“I think that Kennedi has found the spot she needs to be,” Baker said. “She loves going, she has a great time. When I pick her up, she comes out laughing, she’s joking, she’s happy, and she’s playful. And that means the world to us.”
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