REMARKS
Initiatives to improve school engagement and reduce suspensions for students with disabilities
3:11:50
ยท
3 min
DOE representatives outline various initiatives and strategies to improve school engagement and reduce suspensions for students with disabilities. These efforts aim to create more inclusive and supportive school environments.
- Focus on developing inclusive communities that welcome all learners
- Implementation of the SEED program with 79 sensory gyms across NYC, emphasizing social-emotional learning
- Partnership with the Neurodiversity Alliance to launch inclusive clubs in 80 schools
- On-site training for superintendent teams on MDRs and suspensions when issues arise
- Emphasis on literacy through the New York City Reads program to address behavior and suspension concerns
- Consideration of factors influencing absenteeism, such as student-adult connections and feeling safe in school
Suzanne Sanchez
3:11:50
I do.
3:11:50
I appreciate that, DC Foley.
3:11:54
I also wanted to flag one other point, back that, we are at we have trained and will continue to train school staff on the FBA process, in in reference to MDRs and is referenced to this as well.
3:12:05
So that's a big push and a big focus.
3:12:09
We're very I don't I don't wanna jump ahead, but we are certainly focused on student attendance in in all forms and variations, and suspensions and behaviors.
3:12:21
Alright?
3:12:21
We all those are interconnected to to the work that we're doing and our students need.
3:12:25
So, we're focusing on developing, increasing, highlighting inclusive communities for schools that are welcoming all learners.
3:12:36
There was a study recently done by the Panorama Education Consulting Group that identified why students with disabilities may have higher levels of absenteeism than others, and the 2 most prominent issues were, 1, for older students having an adult in the school that they feel connected to, and for elementary and middle schoolers, it was feeling safe and comfortable in their school community.
3:13:00
So that's really telling, I think, information for us and places to focus on our work.
3:13:05
Our seed program, which is our 79 century gyms across New York City, yes, they are focused on sensory regulation for students to be get ready to learn.
3:13:10
There's equal emphasis on for students to be get ready to learn.
3:13:15
There's equal emphasis on social emotional learning skills, and teaching families how to support their child's social emotional learning is a big part of that work.
3:13:24
The neuro we have partnered this school year with the Neurodiversity Alliance, which is a a a group founded by and for students young people who are neurodiverse, and we have, in partnership with them, have launched our inclusive club initiative, which we now have 80 schools are registered to have inclusive clubs, including, Stuyvesant High School, which is, gonna be featured in an upcoming, I believe, news article, shortly around how they are integrating and developing programs, enrichment, and community programs for students with and without IEPs.
3:14:02
And something that we've implemented just this school year in in the special education office is whenever we come across or we hear across or we hear about a student who with a disability who was suspended and or there's any concern around the MDR, either internally or from the family, we, one of our team members, our director of innovative projects goes out to that superintendent's team on-site, hands on, in person, starts to do training around MDRs and suspensions.
3:14:31
The other piece that we obviously have to talk continue to focus on is literacy, And we know the connections between literacy and suspensions and behaviors and school dropouts and the pipeline to prison.
3:14:42
We're all unfortunately very familiar with that.
3:14:45
And the New York City Reads program, paired with targeted interventions and supports are focused on teaching children to read to limit some of these concerns.
Rita Joseph
3:14:55
But if some of the students are not getting their necessary services, how are we gonna meet that need?
3:15:03
I don't know New York City public schools.