OSCEOLA, Fla. — The Osceola County School Board met Tuesday night to address their new ESE class updates for the 2025-2026 school year.
But before they sat down, around 80 parents and their children rallied outside the district’s administration building.
If it wasn’t clear how parents feel about the Osceola County School Board’s new plan for ESE students, they made sure to make it known at the rally.
Some of the parents say they’re fighting for the lives of their children, with a lot of the parents saying the district has reassigned their students to different schools which are further away from home.
“We have been dealing for almost 12 years with his health fighting for his life and now we are fighting for his education,” said Osceola County parent, Lissette Velez.
Velez says her son Kevin has Medulloblastoma and is restricted to a wheelchair.
He attends St. Cloud High School, which is about 12 minutes from their home and has the resources that he needs.
But a new plan from the school board would have him going to Gateway High School, which is a 58-minute morning commute from their home.
Velez says this decision was made without her input.
“It’s not acceptable. If that happens, I cannot work, and the family will be affected because of that,” Velez shared. “It’s not, it can’t be.”
Brian Bennett is an advocate with Parents for a Quality Education in Osceola County and says his son Michael has a very rare disease called CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder, which made him the eighth male in the world to have it when he was diagnosed.
And while this plan isn’t going to impact his family, he’s fighting for those it does.
“We’re individuals. We all have individual needs,” said Bennett. “My kid’s needs are far different from other kids and we can’t just bucket everybody in and say we’re going to serve them in these schools.”
The school district says they’re not grouping all ESE students together.
“We will be able to provide higher quality services because those supports will be concentrated in those locations instead of being spread thin across 55 plus schools within our district,” said Osceola County School District Deputy Superintendent Dr. Rene Clayton.
They say flat funding from the state, county growth and ESE staffing challenges have led to changes.
Velez hopes their concerns over this new plan are heard.
“I at least want them to stop what they’re doing right now and so we can go to the table and talk with them and see how this can work better,” said Velez.
District leaders say that communication about this plan was not executed well.
Board members even shared that they didn’t know about the plan, but they apologized for the confusion.
They are urging any and every parent with questions to schedule meetings or phone calls with their staff to get their questions answered.
