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Releases & Statements
Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum today introduced the Special Education Reporting Bill that will require the Department of Education (DOE) to create and maintain detailed files for each student seeking or receiving any special education services and to prepare an annual report based on the files.
“This bill will in effect end the veil of secrecy that surrounds vital DOE special education information,” said Gotbaum. “It will force the DOE to reveal the facts about kids in special education and will bring about the end of the DOE’s complete mismanagement of the special ed system,” added Gotbaum, referring to the DOE’s ill-conceived reforms that resulted in 14,000 students not receiving special education services, and a backlog of tens-of-thousands more not receiving a special education evaluation
According to the bill, the annual report must be submitted to the Public Advocate’s Office, the City Council, and the Citywide Council on Special Education within 90 days of the end of the academic period. Statistics in the report are to be disaggregated by district, by school, and by English Language Learner status, and must include: number of referrals made; number of evaluations and reevaluations conducted; number of placements made; number of students receiving services included in their Individualized Education Programs; number of evaluations and placements not completed at the end of the year.
“The fact that the DOE is $62 million over budget in special education is shocking, given that they provided fewer evaluations, less services, and fired 969 special education evaluators. This bill will provide us with the information we need to assess what is really going on in special education and will help us understand the amount of financial resources need to make the system function, ensure that a special education evaluation is conducted for every child for whom an evaluation is requested, and that every child who needs special education services gets them,” continued Gotbaum.
Gotbaum has spent the past year criticizing the DOE’s new special education ideology, which she believes has and will continue to result in thousands of children not receiving the special education services they need to learn.
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