AS HE OFTEN DOES WHEN DISCUSSING the merits of education bills before the Legislature, state Sen. Don Gaetz is drawing heavily on his days as a school board member and district superintendent from 1994 to 2006.
“For way too long, children with intellectual and physical disabilities have been pushed to the margins of education,” he said during a recent conversation about the upcoming session. “I remember when I became superintendent of schools in my county, Okaloosa County, most children with disabilities were in portables out in the back of the school grounds, and they were ghetto-ized educationally as well as in terms of location.”
