Members blast cuts to special ed

UFT Vice President for Special Education Carmen Alvarez (center) speaks with Maggie Moroff, coordinator of the ARISE Coalition, and Raphael Rivas of the Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disable

Speech Chapter Leader Mindy Karten Bornemann tells hearing officers that she found it “shocking” that the Regents would enlarge collaborative classes while shortening the amount of speech services that students received each week. At right is IS 296, Brooklyn, speech provider Ava Geddis.

An ill-conceived proposal from the State Education Department to offer cost-cutting “mandate relief” to state school districts by lowering minimum-service requirements for students with special needs got  slammed at a Sept. 16 SED hearing by every one of the 19 witnesses giving testimony. These included UFT Vice President for Special Education Carmen Alvarez, a slew of UFT speech teachers and therapists and several parents and advocates.

If enacted, the proposals would eliminate the minimum frequency requirements for speech therapy (now offered a minimum of two days per week).

They would also raise the 12-student cap on the number of students with disabilities in integrated co-teaching classes.

Alvarez told the SED that even now, “there is no transparency and accountability as to how the Department of Education central administration is holding principals accountable for complying with their legal requirement.”

Among her recommendations: make no changes “until you have compelling [scientifically grounded] evidence that your actions will advance your overall goals of student achievement.”

Lynn Chamberlain was just one of the many teachers testifying at the hearing. The PS 72, Manhattan, speech provider likened cutting back on the amount of speech services to harming “children who need a minimum amount of insulin. Our students need a minimum of two language sessions per week.”

Ava Geddis, a speech provider at Brooklyn’s IS 296, called the increase of special education students in co-teaching situations tragic and “a losing situation” for them, while Speech Chapter Leader Mindy Karten Bornemann told hearing officers that she found it “shocking” that the Regents would enlarge collaborative classes while shortening the amount of speech services that students received each week.

“If mandate relief is enacted and minimum services eliminated,” Bornemann warned, “many speech therapists will be forced by administrators to give fewer services to children.” She said that a cut in weekly services could lengthen those services in the long run because there will be more distance between speech sessions, less carryover and more limited progress.

The Regents will formally vote on any new procedures later this year, but the SED is accepting written comments from teachers and any member of the public who was unable to attend the hearing or unaware of the pending changes.

Alvarez urged general education and special education teachers working in integrated co-teaching classes as well as speech providers to use the opportunity to explain how the proposed changes would affect their ability to help students meet the new standards.

Information about the proposed changes and where to send comments can be found at the UFT website at "What's New". Comments must be submitted to the SED by Oct. 4.