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TESTIMONY
Lupe Hernandez on Challenges in Special Education Class Size and Funding Allocation
3:43:08
ยท
5 min
Lupe Hernandez highlights the challenges in class size and funding allocation for special education within New York City schools.
- Hernandez is a New York City parent and sits on the citywide council for special education, sharing insights from personal experiences.
- She discusses the limited availability of special education programs and the impact of class size on student support, particularly for students with disabilities.
- The testimony addresses issues with the New York City public school system's approach to class size, funding allocations, and the impact on principals' budgeting capabilities.
- Hernandez emphasizes the importance of timely resource allocation and the visible benefits of reduced classroom sizes, as evidenced during the hybrid learning period of the pandemic.
- The testimony touches on systemic challenges in accurately projecting needs and allocating funds, specifically for students in temporary housing and with disabilities.
Lupe Hernandez
3:43:08
Good evening.
3:43:09
Thank you, chair Joseph, and longtime OC.
3:43:12
My name is Lupa Hernandez, and I am a New York City parent.
3:43:16
I am here speaking at my own capacity, but I do sit on the citywide council for special education.
3:43:23
And I come here today after hearing from many parents that even spoke about their experience in EI.
3:43:28
My son started an early intervention where we experience reduced sized classrooms that were able to provide supports, much needed for many of our students with disabilities.
3:43:41
However, like many families going through the turning 5 program or turning 5 process, you realize quickly how limited these programs are within a district, sometimes even boroughs.
3:43:53
I think what I was touring was a lot of out of boroughs.
3:43:58
And we know what transportation looks like, but I won't get into that.
3:44:03
But my advocacy in this work started 10 years ago, and I will say in those 10 years, Reducing our class sizes has been the number one parent concern on many surveys year after year after year.
3:44:15
In fact, New York city public schools puts out a survey every single year.
3:44:19
And city council had in committee and had several hearings.
3:44:23
And we were waiting for the speaker at the time to bring that class size reduction bill to a vote and never have and and I'm glad and I'm thankful for the state for passing this bill, and there is a phase in process in in the recommendations provided by the working group.
3:44:40
Kinda goes over that.
3:44:41
I wanna give some of my own personal experience when I went into kindergarten.
3:44:45
My son was in a classroom, ICT.
3:44:47
It was what was recommended.
3:44:50
He probably would have been better off in a 12 to 1 to 1, but there was nothing available.
3:44:54
And our local school offered an ICT.
3:44:58
With a full time pair of professional 1 to 1, a 100% of the time.
3:45:02
However, when we got there that first day, not only were there 26 kids in that classroom, which was one student over the actual current mandate, and they didn't create another ICT classroom.
3:45:14
It was the one and only ICT of the 3 kindergarten class in a school that actually is more affluent like many of these folks are saying in a very privilege district that had PTA funds.
3:45:27
But even with that, our principal was limited to use that budget because my son's IEP stating he needed an ICT classroom and a 1 to 1 para was not finalized till after that principal had already received their budget.
3:45:42
So therefore, we spent a year.
3:45:45
There was also more kids in that class that needed IUPs.
3:45:50
We are current he's in 5th grade now.
3:45:52
They're all 3 of the 5th grade classrooms are ICT, and we're lucky we were able to do that.
3:45:58
But the way fair student funding is allotted, the way we're allocating our budgets, principles have been incentivized.
3:46:07
Regardless of enrollment in their schools to hire the classroom sizes in order to use their budget for all of these amazing things that everyone has spoke about today.
3:46:20
But one of some of the key things I just want to touch on before, I'll let you go is that the birth principles had money through contracts for excellence.
3:46:31
They weren't able to do it.
3:46:33
And that the fact that my son made the most progress when we went hybrid and classroom sizes were slashed in half during the pandemic.
3:46:43
And I just want to point out to the DOE that we did add additional weights for our students in temporary housing.
3:46:55
We also for the first time.
3:46:57
Right?
3:46:57
And then we also added additional weights to our students with disabilities.
3:47:02
But our schools currently were never functioning with that money.
3:47:05
If if you remember the comptroller's office testified that schools are missing $11,000,000 this year just based on the students in temporary housing because they give the budgets to our principles off of very grossly inaccurate projections.
3:47:20
But it was from December 31 2022.
3:47:24
There were 20,000 more students in temporary housing in our school buildings when we opened this fall in September.
3:47:31
And the principals are just now getting that money.
3:47:33
Do you think that we can they can purposefully use these funds for what they were intended when this is the way that we're giving schools our money.
3:47:43
So when we say it's this or it shouldn't be.
3:47:46
These are mandates.
3:47:47
And if principals actually got the money they really needed in June, they wouldn't be playing like Tetris in February March because they have to use these budgets in the next couple weeks, and they just got them.
3:47:58
We're not hiring teachers.
3:48:00
We're My son got that paraprofessional in February.
3:48:05
He's supposed to have it from September.
3:48:06
And 5 of the kids in my class, we were called to be given fully funded, specialized education.
3:48:15
But by that time those seats were filled, turning 5 had already exhausted that.
3:48:20
The 4 other children for my son's class went Carter.
3:48:24
My district has the highest Carter rates.
3:48:29
If the principal could have expanded that ICT into 2 or or have done more, she would have she didn't she it was impossible.
3:48:39
So thank you.