PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Carol Drayton, Parent of a NYC Public School Student, on Special Education Services and Disciplinary Procedures
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Carol Drayton, a parent of a 7th-grade student with learning and behavioral disabilities in NYC public schools, testifies about her experiences with her son's suspensions and the inadequate handling of his disability-related behavior by school officials. She highlights the importance of proper disability consideration in disciplinary procedures and the value of legal representation in advocating for appropriate educational support.
- Drayton's son was suspended multiple times without proper consideration of his disabilities
- School officials initially failed to conduct meaningful disability-related meetings before suspensions
- With legal help from Legal Services NYC, Drayton successfully appealed the suspensions and secured additional support for her son
Carol Drayton
4:38:32
Hello.
4:38:33
My name is Carol Drayton, and I am the parent of a 7th grade student in the New York City Public Schools.
4:38:40
My son has a learning disability and struggles behaviorally in school.
4:38:45
At the end of last school year, my son was suspended twice from school, both times after the suspension hearing.
4:38:53
I received a call from someone at my son's school telling me that the incident for which my son was suspended wasn't related to his disability.
4:39:02
I didn't understand why he was telling me this, the point of the phone calls, but they were very brief.
4:39:09
Then my son was suspended for a third time in October.
4:39:13
After the last suspension, I had learned through working with a lawyer at Legal Services NYC that the phone calls I had received were supposed to be meetings to discuss my son's disabilities and their relationship to his suspension.
4:39:28
This time, because my lawyer asked, the meeting was scheduled in advance, and more people who knew my son attended.
4:39:37
At the meeting, I didn't feel like the school psychologist was interested in having a meaningful discussion about my son and his academic and behavioral needs in school.
4:39:47
Both his counselor and I shared that my son struggles with anger in responding appropriately to conflict, and that it's something he's working on.
4:39:56
My son had been suspended for fighting another student after he was triggered by something the other student said.
4:40:03
Despite this being exactly the type of thing my son was working on in counseling, the school psychologist said it was not related to my son's disability because he needs to know he can't get away with this, and most people would have been able to calm down.
4:40:19
Even though my son is classified as having a learning disability, the school psychologist and I had discussed that he also has an emotional disability.
4:40:28
This disability makes it difficult for him to calm down or regulate the others the way others might.
4:40:35
It felt like the school psychologist wanted to punish my son instead of talking about how we could better support him in school and make sure this doesn't happen again.
4:40:45
Luckily, my lawyer appealed this decision along with 2 earlier meetings, and we won.
4:40:51
My son will soon be receiving tutoring services to make up for all the school he's missed and evaluations so that we can make sure he's in the right school for him and receiving the right support so that he can thrive.
4:41:04
I am grateful for the legal guidance and representation that I received from Legal Services NYC, and for their support in addressing my son's educational needs.