WEST MELBOURNE, Fla. — Florida House Speaker Paul Renner says the lion share of the funding from a proposed school choice bill will help children with special needs.​

What You Need To Know

  • Proponents of a new Florida school choice bill say it would open up private school vouchers to all students

  • Lawmakers are calling HB 1 a new era in Florida education

  • Florida House Speaker Paul Renner says the legislation could help students with special needs find more personalized education

Megan Roark of West Melbourne is mom to three boys, aged 11, 8 and 5, and says her kids can be a handful., and two of them have special needs.

Two of her boys have special needs — Eli deals ​with ADHD and sensory processing disorder, while the youngest, Brecken has Down syndrome and autism.

All three are enrolled at Space Coast Discovery, a school where students of all types of special needs can get a customized education.

"We have kids here that are delayed, we have kids who have a diagnosis of some sort, we have kids who are gifted, and kids who are somewhere in between," Roark said, adding that she is happy all three of her children can go to the same school at the same time.

"At this point, with their ages, they would probably start to be separated into different schools if we didn't have this as an option," she said.

Roark said she was pleased to hear about Florida House Bill 1 — which proponents tout as customizable when it comes to school choice for parents, and expands K-12 education savings accounts for all Florida students.

She said it will also help parents be able to afford to go private or alternative schools if they believe that would be the best fit for their child.

Renner said if the legislation passes, 9,399 Florida students currently waiting for scholarships would be moved to the front of the line to receive assistance with paying for private schooling.

Some Space Coast Discovery leaders say they are also in favor of the bill — explaining that the need is there, but without the funding, they had to turn 80 families away due to lack of space and staff.

"We just want to be that place where parents have a hope, it's an alternative, it's a choice to be here," said Space Coast Discovery Executive Director Terri Clark.

Roark said she believed the measure would give power back to parents to decide to keep their child in public school or move to a private option.

"They see their kids everyday, they see how they learn the best, they've been with them since conception, so they know exactly what their child needs," she said.

Spectrum News reached out to Brevard Public Schools for comment on the proposed bill, but officials said it's too early to comment on any bill that isn't further along in the legislative process.