Releases & Statements

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  September 13, 2007
Contact: Sarah Krauss
(212) 669-4193; (917) 541-0936
Release #: 053-2007

New Gotbaum Survey : City Still Fails to Help Special Education Students

- CSE representatives for 14 of 32 districts could not be reached at all by investigators -

MANHATTAN – The city remains unresponsive and inaccessible to parents calling for help with their special needs children, according to a new survey released today by Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum. The survey, conducted the week before the start of school, found that half of the calls made by investigators to the Committees on Special Education (CSE), the Department of Education entities responsible for managing special education cases, either went unanswered or resulted in unreturned messages. In fact, CSE representatives for 14 of the 32 districts could not be reached at all.

The new survey follows up on a March 2007 report, Waiting for Help, which showed that both parent coordinators and CSEs failed to respond to more than half of nearly 400 requests for assistance by Public Advocate investigators. Gotbaum today renewed her call for the city to improve access to these important resources for families with special education students.

Public Advocate Gotbaum said, “The start of school is always a hectic time for families – and especially for parents of children with special needs. But the DOE is making things more stressful by failing to do the very basics, such as picking up their phone or returning voice messages. The bottom line: Parents need access and answers, not the run-around.”

One parent who called the Public Advocate’s office said, “I had a long-standing difficulty getting a response from a person in the District. My son went without summer services and experienced a regression…not something that a family of a child with special needs should have to endure.”

Public Advocate investigators called the 15 CSE phone numbers three times each for a total of 45 calls. The first two rounds were to determine if the investigator could get through to a live person or voicemail. In the last round of calls, investigators left voicemails and gave the CSEs five days to respond. Twenty-two of the 45 calls resulted in either non-working phones or unreturned messages and, after three attempts, CSE representatives at the following 14 districts could not be reached at all: