PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Jennifer Choi, Special Education Advocate
3:55:00
·
3 min
Jennifer Choi, a special education advocate and parent, testified about transportation equity issues for students with disabilities in NYC. She highlighted the denial of OmniCards to students with disabilities as a civil rights violation and emphasized the importance of travel training for independence.
- Criticized the DOE for denying OmniCards to students with disabilities while providing them to peers without IEPs
- Highlighted the long wait times for DOE's travel training program and its limitations in teaching comprehensive travel skills
- Emphasized that transportation access is crucial for preparing students with disabilities for future education, employment, and independent living
Jennifer Choi
3:55:00
If I'm muted.
3:55:01
Okay.
3:55:02
Great.
3:55:02
Thank you.
3:55:04
Let's begin.
3:55:06
Okay.
3:55:07
So thank you, Cheers, Joseph, and one for your direct and pointed questions today.
3:55:12
My name is Jennifer Che.
3:55:14
I am a professional special education advocate for parents.
3:55:18
And, oh, I'm sorry.
3:55:19
I didn't turn on my finger.
3:55:21
Sorry about that.
3:55:22
I'm a special education advocate for parents and a fellow parent of a student with an IEP and an adult who had an IEP.
3:55:30
I also run a 1600 member online support group called New York City parents of teens with disabilities.
3:55:38
To be sure, we agreed with what chair Joseph said today, which is that school transportation is an equity issue.
3:55:46
Because on September 17th, the DOE did not deny a reporter's question from epicenter near states, and that question was that students with disabilities were being being denied OmniCards, even though their peers without IEP transportations, are able to have up to 4 free rides per day on weekends and on weekdays too.
3:56:11
To us, this is a blatant civil rights violation.
3:56:14
More importantly, this issue brings light to light, the obligation of the city, to not only bring students with disabilities back and forth to school, to learn but also teach them how to use transportation because the purpose of the IEP is not just to go to school and learn, but it is to prepare them for further education, future employment, and independent living.
3:56:38
That is the purpose of the IEA the idea.
3:56:42
This is why making sure our children have access to OmniKarts just like everyone else would be important so that they didn't have the opportunity to practice travel training whether it's on their own with a family member, with a with another government agencies because they have access to that too or with friends, whomever.
3:57:02
Waiting for the DOE is obviously costly.
3:57:05
And both chairs and both chairs and and members have asked enough questions about how needlessly long these rides are over commuting via the MTA.
3:57:16
The wait for the the DOE's travel training program is phenomenally long, and please feel free to ask me questions about that because my own child has gone through that process.
3:57:27
And, sadly, that particular travel training program is is is very limited because it it teaches you how to just do one commute back and forth to school instead of teaching them how to actually go from one place to another.
3:57:44
It's kind of like learning how to read a sentence versus learning how to read, period.
3:57:50
And so, you know, the chatter on our group, in our online group of 1600, not everyone's talking up, obviously, is that the DOE really leads to being made to
UNKNOWN
3:58:03
I think you do testimony of the times expired.
Jennifer Choi
3:58:06
To students with disabilities now.
3:58:08
Thank you.
