Parents Celebrate National School Choice Week

WILMINGTON, N.C. -- School officials, teachers and parents all gathered in Wilmington Wednesday for National School Choice Week.

• A celebration allowed guest speakers, parents and school leaders to share their stories on why their right to choose which school their children go to, is very important. 

• One parent says her son needed a smaller classroom setting to get the one-on-one attention he needs.
• Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina will be traveling to Fayetteville Thursday and Nashville, North Carolina on Friday.

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Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, a non-profit, sponsored a celebration at the Cameron Arts Center. The celebration allowed guest speakers, parents and school leaders to share their stories on why their right to choose which school their children go to, is very important. 

Vice President of the non-profit, Brian Jodice says, "Education is the bedrock of our community. It is where children get their first chance to start off their life." He continues saying, "It empowers parents maybe for the first time to have a real conversation and get really engaged and know what is going on in their child's education and be empowered with some choice."

Jenni Copeland, a local Wilmington parent has a son with autism. She says she is forever grateful to be able to choose which school her son goes to because "parents know their children best".

Her son went to a local public school for awhile and while she says it was great, she felt her son needed a smaller classroom setting to be able to get the one-on-one attention he needs. 

Once she made the switch, she said the results were instant.

"When he came home from the school he is at now, he looked at me and said, 'Mom, I have friends' and so the social ability is there, just in the right environment" she said.

Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina will be traveling to Fayetteville Thursday and Nashville, North Carolina on Friday to end their celebratory week.