PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Chantall Lowe, Senior Director of Partner and Community Engagement at INCLUDEnyc
4:24:55
ยท
4 min
Chantall Lowe from INCLUDEnyc testified about the challenges faced by students with disabilities in New York City's special education system. She highlighted the underserved population, gaps in service delivery, and disparities in academic outcomes between students with and without disabilities.
- INCLUDEnyc received over 3,000 helpline requests in 2024, with 75% related to education issues.
- Data shows significant numbers of preschoolers not receiving mandated services and large achievement gaps in math and ELA proficiency between students with and without disabilities.
- Lowe provided several recommendations, including ensuring preschool children receive all IEP services, recruiting diverse special education professionals, and addressing transportation issues.
Chantall Lowe
4:24:55
Good evening.
4:24:55
I'm Chantal Lowe.
4:24:56
I'm the senior director of partner and community engagement at INCLUDE NYC.
4:25:01
We thank, chair Joseph and the Committee on Education for holding this necessary oversight hearing on the provision of special education services.
4:25:09
Include NYC is the leading source of training and information for young people 0 ages 0 to 26 with known or suspected disabilities, the parents, and the professionals who support them.
4:25:20
For over 40 years, we've helped New York City families navigate the complex special education and support systems.
4:25:27
While we commend the city for its continued efforts to create a more inclusive system through initiatives like boldly reimagining special education, launching the new division of, Dial, and its recent, inclusion of district 75 within it, the reality is that many of the near 300,000 students with disabilities, ages 3 to 21, continue to be underserved.
4:25:48
We urge the city to address these critical gaps and ensure that it delivers special education instruction and related services to all students entitled to them as per their individual education programs.
4:25:57
That's good to see.
4:25:58
In 2024, Include NYC received over 3,000 requests on our helpline, and over 75% were related to education.
Jessica Wallenstein
4:26:05
It's all right now.
Chantall Lowe
4:26:06
Families and professionals came to us due to their need to better understand the special education process and the rights a child and a family have under the Federal Special Education Law, IDA.
4:26:16
And this year, like many other years, and, the areas in which people seek information from us, the most are are the following, referrals, quality evaluations, preparing for IEP meetings, transition into kindergarten.
4:26:27
As you can imagine, I can go out on that list, but maybe we already talked about it.
4:26:30
And we know, according to local law 27 data on preschoolers, nearly 14,000, of them, ages 3 to 5, did not receive all of their mandated services in this last school year.
4:26:41
This current school year, as we heard earlier today from, New York City Public Schools, 450 young children under 5 were excluded altogether from any, placement and were forced to stay home due to the city's persistent shortage of preschool special education seats.
4:26:57
We also see this in, the last school year.
4:27:00
61 percent of general education students in grades 3 to 8 tested proficient in math.
4:27:05
In contrast, less than 3 out of every 5 every 10 students receiving special education services were proficient in math.
4:27:12
There was a wider percentage gap in ELA scores between the two group of students.
4:27:16
The TIPAN gap, we sadly doesn't stop there.
4:27:19
In 2023, less than half of all students with IEPs graduated in 4 years compared to 81% of students without disabilities.
4:27:27
As a result of these long standing chronic issues and unacceptable learning outcomes, we recommend the that the Department of Education in the city ensure all preschool children, receive all IEP services, recruit additional multilingual and culturally diverse special education professionals to address gaps across instructional and therapeutic settings, secure timely evaluations for all students with suspected or known disabilities, change current policies around issuing family related service authorizations as mandated per a child's 10 month or 12 month IEP to reduce the amount of missed services due to not receiving them, automatically not notify families of missed services within 24 hours that they were scheduled to be delivered, Provide services on Saturdays in regional locations, so increase those, weekend academies and direct assistance to families with identifying alternative related service providers.
4:28:16
Temporary evaluations, which we've talked about, all of us.
4:28:21
And address the ever green transportation issues, such as rebidding bus contracts, which will improve service, expanding bus service so students with disabilities can also attend after school weekend programs, mandate one campus per bus route, split up students according to their chronological ages, so elementary age students can no longer be assigned to buses with students up to the age of 22, and create an accountability mechanism that measures timely and language accessible communication with families.
4:28:46
I can go on, but I think my time has over.
4:28:49
But thank you for taking the time to consider these important matters.
4:28:52
We look forward to partnering with you to improve equity and access for all students with disabilities in New York City.