Q&A
Council Member Rita Joseph questions DOE on special education staffing and evaluation processes
1:00:29
ยท
3 min
Council Member Rita Joseph conducts a detailed inquiry into the NYC Department of Education's special education services, focusing on staffing needs, evaluation processes, and timelines for preschool special education. Jessica Wallenstein from the DOE provides information on current staffing levels, needs for additional personnel, and evaluation timelines.
- The DOE needs 246 additional related service providers for integrated classes and even more for general education classes.
- There are currently 21 evaluation teams (63 in-house evaluators) handling less than 10% of all evaluations, indicating a significant need for more evaluators.
- The average timeline for starting the evaluation process is 30 days, with efforts to complete services within a 60-day compliance timeframe.
- The DOE needs about 50 more Committee on Preschool Special Education (CPSE) administrators to improve the current ratio of 350 students per administrator.
Rita Joseph
1:00:29
Thank you, council member.
1:00:30
To meet the IEP, the mandates for all preschoolers, how many related services providers would you need to hire?
Jessica Wallenstein
1:00:39
So right now, we have related service providers staffed in our self contained special classes.
1:00:45
If we wanted to also staff related service providers in all integrated classes, we would need about 246 additional providers.
1:00:55
When it comes to our general education classes, we would need even more.
1:01:00
This new RFP that that we are issuing will create, improved payment structures to incentivize contract providers to support our students in gen ed, but certainly, more more providers on staff would be helpful.
Rita Joseph
1:01:14
How much is, New York City Public School spending on contracted preschool IEP evaluations?
Jessica Wallenstein
1:01:20
I don't have the number for eval contracted evaluations.
Rita Joseph
1:01:23
And you'll send that to me?
1:01:24
Yeah.
Jessica Wallenstein
1:01:24
We can follow-up with that.
Rita Joseph
1:01:25
How many more New York City public school evaluation teams do you need to provide all preschoolers with a timely evaluation, and how many individual evaluators do you need?
Jessica Wallenstein
1:01:35
So we currently have 21 prac teams, each made up of 3 clinicians.
1:01:40
So 63 in house evaluators who do less than 10% of all evaluators.
1:01:45
So you can do the math there.
1:01:47
We we would need quite a few more.
1:01:48
I think realistically, in in a year, we can almost double our amount of of prac teams and, you know, over 4 years do even more than that.
Rita Joseph
1:01:57
And earlier, council member Schulman asked for the evaluation, what's the timeline when when a preschooler comes into your system, say, hey.
1:02:05
I'm looking for special education services.
1:02:07
What's the timeline for that child to get evaluated, and how long does it take for that child to get a seat?
Jessica Wallenstein
1:02:14
So on average, when from the point of referring, a student then begins their about their first evaluation point process on average in 30 days.
Rita Joseph
1:02:28
Okay.
1:02:28
From start to finish.
1:02:30
So 30 days, next steps.
Jessica Wallenstein
1:02:33
So once evaluations are complete, we work as quickly as we can to schedule that IEP meeting.
1:02:38
It can take a couple of weeks, but once the evals are done, we do everything that we can.
1:02:43
I can get you average day numbers.
1:02:45
I I only brought the the first one around evaluations, and then we do our very best to ensure services are in place within our 60 day compliance time frame.
Rita Joseph
1:02:53
And how many committee, on preschool special education staff do you need to process referrals, hold time the IEP meeting, and arrange for services?
1:03:03
Sort of a follow-up on what I said before.
1:03:05
Mhmm.
Jessica Wallenstein
1:03:05
We currently have a 132 CPSC administrators supporting all 32,000 preschool students with IEPs across the city.
1:03:14
This again amounts to the about 350 students per CPSC administrator.
1:03:19
To make a significant improvement in thinking about the realities of hiring, we would need about 50 more.
Rita Joseph
1:03:25
You need 50 more.
1:03:26
300?
1:03:28
Wow.
1:03:28
That's a huge caseload.
1:03:31
And what's the plan to fill to staff up?
Jessica Wallenstein
1:03:36
We are constantly assessing these needs in in close, partnership with our our city partners, and, you know, I have to thank you chair Joseph for how much you have prioritized this work and, you know, we look forward to continuing to work with council.
Rita Joseph
1:03:48
Is there a pipeline with, higher education institutions to try and fill those gaps?
Jessica Wallenstein
1:03:54
When it comes to CPSC administrators, our barrier has not been, the workforce.
1:03:59
I would say when it comes to special education teachers to staff, the newly funded self contained and integrated classes, we absolutely do, you know, need to think about our pipeline and are working closely with our office of teacher quality and recruitment to discuss potential, teaching fellow initiatives and also incentives.
Rita Joseph
1:04:20
Thank you.
1:04:20
Council member Narcisse.