Let me set the scene. You are getting ready for the annual review for one of your 6th-grade students. In the academic area, you note that your student is reading at the 2nd-grade level and is losing more ground each year in meeting grade-level performance standards. His writing is painfully slow and labored. In the social and emotional area, you note that the student has trouble focusing during classroom instruction. Under management needs, you write that the student is rarely prepared to begin work with the rest of the class: his backpack is a mess; and he has great difficulty organizing materials and planning for and executing projects.

Your student is currently receiving special education support in four core subjects — ELA, math, social studies and science — in an integrated co-teaching class with 11 other students with varying needs. Your school stopped offering special classes with the advent of the special education reform. The only Special Education Teacher Support Services provider in your school is the Individualized Education Program teacher, and she frequently finds it necessary to cancel services to attend to her IEP teacher responsibilities. ICT services in your school are limited to the four core subject areas.

Here’s your dilemma: You know the current services are not meeting your student’s needs, yet you don’t feel you have any other option but to recommend continuation of the same.

I want you to know you are not alone. At a recent training, new chapter leaders said the No. 1 special education issue in their schools was pressure to fit students into the programs and services that are available in the school even if the programs and services did not meet the student’s needs.

Issues like those presented by your 6th-grade student transcend subject areas. Students who have difficulty focusing or organizing their materials don’t suddenly become focused and organized when they are participating in non-core classes. Nor do their reading difficulties disappear.

How did we get to a place where educators and special-education assessment professionals are recommending services based on considerations other than student needs? We went off track during the 12 years of the Bloomberg administration, when principals were not held accountable, a far-reaching special education reform was poorly implemented and new school budget policies turned money meant for students with disabilities into a general-purpose slush fund.

Twelve years is a long time in the life of a school. Getting the system back on course is not going to happen overnight. The creation of Borough Field Support Centers was a promising change, but these centers are largely staffed by former network personnel. Their “re-education” is happening, but not quickly enough.

So what can you do when you have students with disabilities who are not receiving the services they need? I advise you to request what the student needs, not what is available. In the case of your 6th-grader, you absolutely can recommend ICT services for non-core subjects. (It’s even in SESIS: take a look at the screenshot above on the right.) Consider requesting SETSS services for five periods a week to help your student improve his reading skills. The principal is misusing the IEP teacher position. If you stop recommending SETSS, you are playing right into the principal’s hand: there will never be a reason for him or her to hire a SETSS teacher for your school. Also consider requesting an instructional paraprofessional to redirect the student when he loses focus and to help him organize his materials for class and prepare his class projects.

It’s easy for me to tell you to recommend services your school would be hard-pressed to provide. I know you may encounter pushback from administrators. But there was never a better time to take on this issue. We have a city administration that wants students to get the services and supports they need to succeed. We are working together with the DOE’s Division of Specialized Instruction and Student Support to clean up all the bad practices of the past.

Start by engaging your students’ parents. Most don’t know the full range of services available in the continuum. Encourage them to seek the right services and give them your full support when they do. Direct them to the UFT’s confidential special education complaint form.

You can also raise the matter with your chapter leader. If the chapter leader is unable to resolve the issue, you can file a special education complaint yourself.

I promise that my office will stand behind you and support you any time you take the initiative to do the right thing for your students with disabilities.