Brooklyn – With school back in session this week, many parents with special need children are facing new efforts from the Department of Education (DOE) to limit resources for their children. To confront the harmful effects of these cuts, Councilman David Greenfield convened a meeting with several dozen community and special education leaders in his office on Thursday, September 1st to discuss emerging problems in special education and to gather feedback directly from parents on how best to address these issues. The participants included representatives from Tafkid, Ease Advocates, Agudath Israel, Bonim Lamakom, Gesher Yehuda, Reach for the Stars, Shema Koleinu, Lev Uvois, Building Blocks, Step, Yaldeinu and other parent and school groups.
The law requires the DOE to place students with disabilities in programs suited to their special needs. When the DOE is not able to find a proper placement for a student within a public school, parents may request placement within a private school and seek full or partial reimbursement for the school’s tuition. The law also obligates the DOE to provide related services–occupational, physical and other types of therapies–to students who require them. Unfortunately, it seems like the DOE has not been following the law.
“Parents of special needs children already work hard to ensure that their children get a good education,” explained Councilman Greenfield. “The DOE is simply placing stumbling blocks in front of them and is making it even harder for parents to ensure that their special needs children receive the education and services that they are entitled to.”
As recently as this spring, Mayor Bloomberg sought to restrict the number of private placements for students by shifting the legal burden of proof from the DOE to families who are seeking tuition reimbursement. The mayor testified in Albany in February in favor of these new mandates for families, and Councilman Greenfield responded by leading a delegation of community advocates to protest this change, including representatives from UJO of Williamsburg, Agudath Israel of America, the Sephardic Community Federation, Ichud, Ptach, Tafkid, YAI, Ohr HaLimud, and TEACH NYS.
Now, the DOE is telling some families that not only does it intends to challenge tuition reimbursements for special needs students in private schools, but that it may also cut off physical therapy and other related services for students placed in private schools. The DOE is essentially taking a hard-line approach with parents of special needs children forcing them to not seek tuition reimbursement or lose their related services. This decision is unfair because related services can cost in the tens of thousands of dollars per year.
The other issues on the agenda of Thursday’s meeting included reduced access to related services, protracted litigation battles with the DOE over reimbursement issues, lack of clarity surrounding the rights of students and parents, and the prohibitive costs of educating special needs children without the DOE’s help. In the coming weeks, the group will reconvene to discuss access to related services in greater depth. Furthermore, this group will also begin a campaign calling on the mayor and the schools chancellor to stop employing policies that prevent parents and children from getting educational resources that the law guarantees.
“I was elected to represent every segment of the population. Special needs students and their families need special attention and that’s why I have made advocacy on their behalf a priority and will continue to do so in the upcoming school year,” Greenfield concluded.
(YWN Desk – NYC)
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7 Responses
You mean the government doesn’t want to spend money it doesn’t have on a program that might not even be in our community’s long term interests (since once we get used to relying on government money for hinuch of Jewish children, the government will start to meddle in ways we don’t want).
The issue is whether the government should be funding frum schools. It is nice that they give us money (and don’t worry, I’m sure Mr. Bernanke would be happy to know the money he prints is going for Jewish education), but it is corrupting. Note how good frum people like Mr. Greenfield (and Mr. Weprin) more or less sell their soul to the Democratic machine, since they are required to go clearly against Torah on multiple issues in order to get the money and patronage they need to redistribute within our community, and which is the basis of their political careers.
@ akuperma Comments like yours outrage the essence of our souls.
How can you speak like that, without any basis?
You are painting with too broad a brush as this is a very specific issue and the city is so wrong here it is not funny. They must provide for the secular education of these children and instead of funding the English studies directly they force the parents to hire lawyers every year and sue the Board of Ed every year after which they then settle the case and pay the English portion of the tuition bill less the lawyers’ fees!! We have been going through this for the past nine years, do you realize how much could have been saved by ending the adversarial nature of this?
#2- money doesn’t grow on trees – when the government gives out money, is is out of our pockets — Mr. Greenfield, and most frum Democrats talk as if the government grant they obtain is coming from someone else – this is the philosophy leads to financial crisis
Whether it is good for yeshivos and frum students to have their education paid for (and eventually controlled) by the sovereign is for our leaders to answer. It should be noted that the Torah world survived for centuries without having to depend on kings (and czars and emperors and popes and caliphs, etc.) to pick up the tab.
member akuperma, i think you should be careful what you write, i think you should take a special needs child into your house for one hour and see what we parents have to endure and then i would like to see what you have to say. you have no idea what suffering we have to go through and how each child by law is entitled to have a free and appropiate school and the board of ed wants our jewish children to go to a public school, please tell how that is fair and if chas v’sholom we want our kids to get a jewish education we have to pay for it or worse not get the services, is that right? why should children who are disadvantaged and not typical suffer, dont they suffer enough!!!
I would like to thank Councilman Greenfield for doing whatever it takes to get help to the special needs children. These children deserve the best education to help them reach their fullest potential. Keep up your great work. I also wanted to thanks all the organizations that work tirelessly to help our special needs children. I can tell you that your reward is great. Thanks again
Akuperma, you have no idea what you are saying. Putting religion aside, federal law mandates these children a proper placement, or they must pay for the parents private placement.If you would see these public school placements you would certainly agree they are inappropriate. Secondly, the private school special ed cost is actually lower than the cost of public school special ed, and would save taxpayers millions if they settled with the parents rather than educate them in their system. The Dept Of Ed is also paying millions to their lawyers to fight and prolong these cases, which they have mostly been losing. Since they can’t win, they have decided to play dirty by blackmailing parents and taking away their therapies, which is also against the law. Additionally, if these children do not get the help they need now, down the road the costs to care for them as adults will be astronomical. So,actually, private schools like the special yeshivas are saving taxpayers untold millions now and in the future. Bloomberg and co. Know this, but cannot stand anything that is out of the public school system, especially yeshivos, and it is his considerable ego that is driving this, not business sense.