Schools
Disability Advocates Push for Funding
They want lawmakers to include $350,000 in the state budget for programs like Kennesaw's Academy for Inclusive Learning and Social Growth, which provides real-world skills to disabled students who aren't able to attend college.
Kennesaw State University is the only university in Georgia that offers a post-high school option for intellectually- or developmentally-disabled students who do not meet the requirements for admission as a degree-seeking student.
The university's Academy for Inclusive Learning and Social Growth in May 2012 graduated its second cohort of students, who left with a certificate and internship at the end of the two-year program.
The waiting list is full, and disability advocates are pushing lawmakers to include $350,000 in the state budget for programs like it, according to 11Alive.
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Rita Young of All About Developmental Disabilities said Georgia is behind the rest of the country in supporting individiuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Georgia, she said, ranks in the bottom 10 of all states.
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Programs likes the one at Kennesaw State are self-sustaining, but they need seed money to get off the ground.
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