For Immediate Release

UFT President Randi Weingarten re Comptroller’s Audit of Special Ed: July 27, 2007

Jul 27, 2007 3:48 PM

“The Comptroller’s audit demonstrates what educators of special needs children have complained about for years, namely the school system’s refusal to acknowledge systemic problems and insistence on dealing with special education concerns on a case by case basis. Indeed, the fact that our members have to stand up and fight for services on a case by case basis is one of the major reasons for the new city whistleblower law. They’ve often had to make a Hobson’s choice: If they fight for services for their kids then their careers could be threatened.

“You can’t deal with the problems of 150,000 special education students that way. Kids aren’t going to go home and tell their parents they did not receive a mandated service on any given day, and children and parents should not be responsible for notifying the system about missed services.

 “It’s been over a year since school officials were supposed to issue a request for proposals to have a private contractor establish an adequate data collection and monitoring system, and we’ve heard nothing about progress in designing one. Until the city does so, you’re going to continue to have a problem. But in the meantime the DOE receives no penalty and no punishment when kids fail to get services. This has to stop.”