[CharterSchools] A New Orleans High School Where Students With Disabilities Thrive

[charterschools at LACharter.org]

A New Orleans High School Where Students With Disabilities Thrive


By Rahel Wondwossen | January 12, 2015

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Rahel Wondwossen has been an urban educator for 10 years. In 2010, she became the founding principal of Cohen College Prep in New Orleans, which graduated its first class last year. A native of Ethiopia, she started her teaching career in a Bronx high school as a Teach For America corps member, after her graduation from Bates College.
I met Damion three years ago when I was interviewing for my current position as principal at New Orleans Cohen College Prep. Damion and his aide were walking around the school building, working on his morning greeting. His aide would prompt him to say “Good Morning Ms. ___” when they saw other staff members and Damion would struggle to repeat the greeting. He has been diagnosed with severe autism.
Today if you were to meet Damion, you would be able to communicate with him, often with eye contact. He would likely tell you hello and share with you his love of dinosaurs. His sentences are still broken, and some of his anxiety remains. But the progress he has made speaks to the hours of hard work, love and commitment that Cohen’s special education team, along with Damion and his family, have invested over the past years.
Damion’s success isn’t unique in New Orleans. The news that a settlement has been reached in a lawsuit about special education students in our city is welcomed by all of us who work every day with these exceptional young people.
In 2003, before Hurricane Katrina, only one in 10 children with special needs left high school with a diploma.
Today, more than 40 percent of 9th graders with special needs will graduate with their peers in four years. New Orleans’ graduation rate for students with special needs now surpasses the state average.
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