Exclusive, vivid storytelling illustrates movement to homeschool kids with disabilities

When education accountability reporter Bianca Vázquez Toness set out to explore who is benefiting from the unprecedented movement to privatize American schools, she started hearing about an unexpected trend. Families of children with serious disabilities were increasingly pulling them from public school, giving up their rights to free services and disability accommodations, and homeschooling them. The trend was shocking and controversial. American public schools offer some of the world’s strongest protections for special education students, and disability rights advocates worried children weren’t receiving an adequate education at home. It was also deeply complex: Parents said public schools had failed their children and that they were better off at home, no matter the trade-offs.

To illustrate the trend, Vázquez Toness spent months interviewing parents before finding the Walter family. She and Health & Science video journalist Shelby Lum then spent a week on their Montana ranch, capturing the highs and lows of homeschooling their son, William.

Lum is an expert at telling the stories of children with disabilities, and her narrative style was a perfect match for Vázquez Toness’ approach. Together, the vivid narrative and stunning visuals from the family’s daily life illustrated the complexity of their situation. The journalists’ work was precise and executed with care, capturing William’s life with dignity while acknowledging the family’s difficulties.

The story saw phenomenal engagement and resonance. It was picked up by the Association of Secondary School Principals in Texas, where a massive private-school choice program has just been launched, and attracted strong interest from principals across the state.

Judges praised Vázquez Toness’ compelling narrative and the visually rich content produced by Lum, which anchored the storytelling in dignity, beauty, detail and complexity.

For delivering a national scoop and exceptional enterprise reporting in all formats, Vázquez Toness and Lum are this week’s Best of the AP — Second Winner.