General News

Jury out on implementation of latest special ed reforms

by Ellie Spielberg

Sep 20, 2007 3:47 PM

How will the reorganization of the school system affect special education? Will the Department of Education’s new acronyms spell improvement or new headaches?

As the first weeks of the new school year begin to unfold, UFT Vice President Carmen Alvarez said that the jury is still out on implementation of the latest round of special education reforms.

“We have been working closely with Linda Wernikoff at the DOE,” said Alvarez, who added that there are some serious issues “such as pressure on staff to change program recommendations for all special needs students to a particular program that is available in the building. This year, that program is Collaborative Team Teaching [CTT].”

Alvarez said the union also has been receiving reports from several schools that there are no seats for students newly recommended to receive District 75 services. “We don’t know at this point whether this is a problem with District 75 or the new placement operation,” she said.

In addition, a Sept. 13 report from Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum stated that about half of the 45 calls her office made to the DOE offices created to help parents of students with special needs went unanswered or unreturned. The report said parents had similar complaints about trying to contact those offices.

Late last year at union headquarters, more than 200 members met with Alvarez and Wernikoff to discuss the reorganization.

Fresh in the memories of many of the members was the debacle that occurred during the previous reorganization, when special education records for thousands of students were misplaced for months, some disappearing altogether.

Alvarez and Wernikoff assured them that this time there were no plans to move any records at all.

“The 10 CSE offices and record rooms will remain at their current locations,” Alvarez said. She told the UFT members that the evaluation process will remain the same, as well, but some administrative responsibilities of the CSEs, such as contracting out and issuing Related Services Authorizations for public school students who cannot be served by DOE personnel and impartial hearings, will be transferred to the new Integrated Services Center (ISC).

Alvarez said these are some of the things that special ed teachers should be aware of for this new school year:

• District 75 will continue to be a separate citywide district serving students with significant disabilities. Its superintendent’s office will arrange for all special education services, as it did in prior years. Business services, such as budget and payroll, handled most recently by the Regional Operations Center (ROC), will be transferred to a District 75 Unit in the Queens ISC.
• Several new structures will replace the regions. These include the ISC, OSEPO (Office of Student Enrollment, Planning and Operations) and SSOs (School Support Organizations). 
• The ISC, Alvarez said, can be best described as a “super district office.” It will assist schools with a variety of operational needs and mandated services including human resources, budget, payroll, transportation, food services, facilities, technology, health and safety and student suspensions.
• Each ISC will have a Special Education Team with responsibility for dealing with compliance issues. The team will include a director of special education services, a special ed administration manager, an operations manager and other personnel responsible for providing oversight and technical assistance regarding Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), transportation, contracting out and issuing Related Services Authorizations.
• Administrators of special education will serve as guarantors of special education services. Supervisors of school psychologists, speech and occupational and physical therapists will be housed in the ISCs, as will special education attorneys who will assist schools in preparing for Impartial Due Process Hearings. (For information about the ISCs, including their locations and key personnel, go online to http://schools.nyc.gov/administration and then click Integrated Service Center (ISC) under Points of Interest.

Wernikoff said there will be a strong emphasis on serving students with disabilities in their home-zoned schools under the new reorganization.

New this year, school IEP teams will be able to directly place students in CTT and self-contained classes if the service is available in the building. When the service is not available in the student’s current school, responsibility for finding an appropriate placement will shift to OSEPO.

To encourage home school placements, when a student with a disability is placed outside of his or her home school, the student’s progress will be reported in both the sending school and the receiving school.

Schools will get double credit if students with disabilities make progress. Wernikoff said OSEPO will also look at data and determine where new programs need to be opened and work with District 75 in placing students who need special education programs. 

The Special Education Lead Teacher program was discussed at a June meeting at UFT headquarters in Manhattan.

This is a new initiative developed in collaboration with the UFT designed to foster mentoring relationships in schools and build capacity for implementation of best instructional practices. Thirty middle and high schools have been selected to participate in the pilot program beginning in September.

The Special Education Lead Teacher will teach for three periods a day and then provide three periods of professional development. 

Members were glad to hear from Alvarez that the union is updating and improving its online special education complaint process.

“You can continue to file online complaints or contact my office if you have problems or questions,” she said.

Alvarez added that based on members’ input, the UFT will post on its Web site — www.uft.org — a Q & A about special education issues under the new reorganization; in the meantime, people can find some answers provided by the DOE at http://schools.nyc.gov/Parents. Click on Special Education under Essentials, then Documents & Forms.

Have issues?

Do you have any special education issues or concerns? Are your students getting the services and resources they need?

UFT Vice President Carmen Alvarez wants to hear what’s going on in your school.
She is urging members to contact their chapter leader or to call her office. You can contact Alvarez by phone at 1-212-598-9546; by e-mail at calvarez@uft.org; or by fax at 1-212-254-5578.