Offering support with:
Compensatory education claims
Recent data released by the New York City Department of Education revealed that nearly 40,000 special education students received only part of the interventions they were entitled to or did not receive any extra support whatsoever. Compensatory education is a form of relief that provides parents a means of getting make up tutoring or related services where there has been a denial of a Free Appropriate Public Education (“FAPE”). A denial of FAPE can occur when either the DOE did not provide the services mandated on the student’s IEP OR where the DOE did not recommend a sufficiently supportive enough program or level of services in the first place. Compensatory education can be in the form of Special Education Teacher Support Services (“SETSS”), speech-language therapy sessions, occupational therapy services, or even Applied Behavior Analysis (“ABA”) for students that require it. Compensatory education is a powerful tool to provide extra one-on-one support outside of regular school hours when a school district has not been meeting your child’s needs. Furthermore, if your child has a learning disability such as dyslexia, compensatory education can be the only way to ensure she or he receives instruction by a provider trained in a research-based approach, such as Orton-Gillingham.
tuition reimbursement/direct funding
I am a firm believer in public education. However, tuition reimbursement (or direct payment for those who cannot afford to pay tuition upfront) is a remedy for those parents who do not feel that the DOE offered an appropriate program to meet their child’s needs. Some students have very unique learning profiles, and the DOE is simply too large a system to offer programs that meet these students’ needs with its current structural limitations. The DOE has a mechanism for referring these students to approved nonpublic schools, called a Central Based Support Team (“CBST”) deferral that enables the DOE to directly fund tuition at these schools. However, CBST deferrals are very difficult to get, and there are simply not enough spots at these schools to meet the need. Further complicating things, some special education schools are increasingly finding that the costs associated with being an approved nonpublic school are too great, and prefer to operate independently of these constraints. As a result, there are even fewer spots available at these schools than there were previously. Even the students who do receive CBST deferrals aren’t guaranteed a spot, which can leave a student with literally no school placement. Parents of these students have no choice but to seek out non-approved private special education schools. Also, for certain populations, such as “twice exceptional” (“2e”) students, there are simply no approved nonpublic school options.
IEP meetings
Special education meetings can be stressful and full of jargon and abbreviations that are difficult to follow. Complicating things, many of the employees at the DOE are overstretched, themselves do not know the legal entitlements of students with disabilities, and often receive mixed messages from their supervisors. For whatever reason, School Based Support Teams (“SBST”) simply do not make parents aware of their rights or entitlements under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (“IDEA”). Teams often present parents with a false choice between A or B because those are the options they are given by administrators, when really the law requires them to make a much more individualized determination. In other cases, where the student requires a particular methodology or intervention to make meaningful progress, the DOE does not empower teams to make these recommendations, even if the members are in agreement that the student needs the service. I can offer counsel to parents that makes them aware of their rights and also the obligations of the DOE at these crucial meetings. I can also accompany you to a meeting if you require. Under the IDEA, the Parent has a right to meaningfully participate in the development of their child’s IEP, and too often, teams are either unwilling or unable to consider or respond to the input the Parent offers.
INDEPENDENT EDUCATIONAL EVALUATIONS (“IEE”S)
IEEs are one of the most powerful tools the IDEA provides for parents. According to the IDEA, a parent has a right to an IEE at public expense if the parent disagrees with an evaluation obtained by the public agency, subject to a few conditions. Perhaps not surprisingly, Districts typically don’t publicize this entitlement or make parents aware that it is their legal right to obtain one, should they disagree with a DOE’s evaluation. Moreover, the NYC DOE has its own method of funding IEEs by providing parents with a voucher to obtain the evaluations. However, the voucher arbitrarily sets the rate significantly below-market level, which effectively restricts parents to a list of providers curated by the DOE and often facilitates evaluations that are not in line with professional best practices. Furthermore, these evaluations are typically subject to review by a DOE supervisor before they are shared with the Parent, calling their “independence” into question. I can help you obtain a truly independent evaluation by a provider of your choosing at District expense.
APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS (“ABA”)
ABA is an evidence-based form of behavior analysis that seeks to change behavior by first assessing the functional relationship between a targeted behavior and the environment. ABA has been brought to bear on a wide range of areas and behavioral problems, including intervention for and education of children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (“ASD”). Some ASD students require strict ABA services in order to make appropriate academic and social-emotional progress. However, the NYC DOE has yet to create a mechanism that allows IEP teams to recommend the service, even if the team is in agreement that the child needs the service. I can help you get ABA services if your child requires it. ABA therapy is typically overseen by a board certified behavior analyst (“BCBA”) who has either master’s or doctoral-level training in analyzing behavior. BCBAs can also be helpful in performing functional behavior analyses (“FBA”s) or behavior intervention plans (“BIP”s) for students with behavior problems who are not on the ASD spectrum.
EXTENDING PRESCHOOL SERVICES
New York City has the latest school birthday cut-off in the country. That means that one-quarter of children are forced to start Kindergarten before they turn five years old. Many parents, particularly those of children with disabilities, feel that their child is not emotionally or developmentally ready to start Kindergarten at such an early age. If your child received services through an IEP created by the Committee on Pre-School Education (“CPSE”) and you disagree with the plan proposed at your child’s “turning 5” IEP meeting, I can potentially help you continue to receive those services for an additional year and buy your child a bit of extra time to mature to a place where they are ready to meet the demands of Kindergarten.