Atlanta News First

Hundreds of Georgia students with disabilities are waiting for help from a federal agency facing an exploding backlog of civil rights complaints and fewer staff to handle them. One of those students is 8-year-old Theo Hutchings, who has Down syndrome. His parents placed him on an individualized education program to help him in school. The plan required his teachers to use a device to improve his vocabulary and help him communicate. According to his mother, Chelsea Hutchings, Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) failed to use the device for years. Hutchings said the family faced hurdles not only in obtaining the device, but in getting the school to actually utilize it. “We were told it was being used in great detail, but I tracked it and could see that it wasn’t,” she said. “Four years of not implementing the device is such a waste of his precious time in his language development, communication, and learning.” Hutchings voiced her frustration at nearly two dozen school board meetings.