Letters to the Editor

Special needs discrimination exists

Feb 28, 2008 1:36 PM

To the Editor:

I am a parent of a child who has special needs. In my opinion, she has not been challenged to the best of her abilities to succeed academically. I am fortunate that she is able to converse with me and tell me about her day. There have been many activities that are not age-appropriate that coverage teachers have had her class do.

Every general education class — including the kindergarten — goes to the computer lab as a coverage session for at least part of the school year. Yet in the six years that my daughter has attended her school, she has never had a computer class.

The 5th-grade class has a special program that includes ballroom dancing, yet my daughter continually tells me that she is the only child from her class who is participating — and her partner is the paraprofessional who accompanies her.

If I had not looked at the school calendar for January and asked if my daughter would be participating in this program, I do not believe that she would be.

This is just a sliver of what I believe to be discriminatory actions against children with special needs in community schools in the New York City. I have learned to be a very effective advocate for my daughter, but I wonder about how much she has missed because the focus of our education system is on test scores and what the school report card states.

Betsy Mandel, PS 177, Queens