PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Chaya Sara Herman, Parent of a Student with Disabilities from City Council District 40
6:08:32
ยท
3 min
Chaya Sara Herman, a parent from City Council District 40, testified about the challenges her 5-year-old daughter with severe physical disabilities faces in receiving special education services. She highlighted the DOE's failure to provide mandated services and the impact on her daughter's progress.
- Herman's daughter, who has cerebral palsy, has not received many of her mandated services, including physical therapy, vision services, and speech therapy.
- The witness criticized the DOE for delays in evaluations and failure to provide necessary support, such as a bus paraprofessional.
- Herman expressed concerns about the DOE's culture of denying services and raised questions about inclusivity, referencing historical discrimination against students with disabilities.
Chaya Sara Herman
6:08:32
Hello.
6:08:33
My name is Chaisar Herman.
6:08:36
I am a constituent of the chairperson, in city council district 40 in Kensington.
6:08:41
Before I begin, I'd like to thank the chairwoman.
6:08:44
It's Joseph and the members of the committee for committing this hearing.
6:08:48
I'm on here today to speak about my daughter, who is a bilingual 5 year old in a religious non public school with severe physical disabilities.
6:08:55
Her turning 5 meeting was May 2024.
6:08:58
My daughter is bright, happy kid who loves to learn.
6:09:01
She also has multiple physical disabilities, including but not limited to cerebral palsy affecting all of her limbs, and she primarily uses a wheelchair for mobility.
6:09:11
Thank god for all things concerned, you would be surprised she's doing quite well academically in her general ed classroom socially as well despite having to fight the uphill battle of her disabilities and the lack of services.
6:09:22
And this is combined by compounded by the board of ed's inability to fully provide all of her services and their intent to strip her of due process rights.
6:09:35
So they're also taking her mother's time.
6:09:38
The physical consequences of these service deficiencies has meant that my daughter, for the first time this year, physically regressed for lack of services.
6:09:47
The board of ed didn't successfully assist in procuring a single one of my daughter's many services.
6:09:53
It took 7 months to get an assisted tech evaluation, and they didn't manage to send
Melinda Andra
6:09:58
a physical therapist as a
Chaya Sara Herman
6:09:59
part of the team for a child who's affected in all four limbs with cerebral palsy.
6:10:04
My daughter is mandated to have a vision provider who still has not materialized.
6:10:08
Unsurprising, neither has a speech provider.
6:10:10
She also doesn't have a bus para as many seem to be the case.
6:10:16
And while I'm grateful that sets rates were dramatically increased, obviously, as others have spoken about, the other services have not been increased.
6:10:23
So what is the incentive for the recruiting does not make the wage gap.
6:10:28
These are specialized services, and what is their incentive to treat a child like mine instead of a child who has lesser support needs?
6:10:39
The weekend academy thing, in my experience was a joke.
6:10:43
I tried to sign up.
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They only they did not have after afternoons.
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They only had one location in Barpark, and they only had Sundays, not after school.
6:10:53
It was in December, and I still tried to sign her up.
6:10:57
She was I tried to sign her up for speech.
6:11:00
And, of course, because they don't really want us to get these services, they had no Yiddish speaking speech therapist available.
6:11:08
So what's the point?
6:11:10
I mean, I am grateful for the public school students, and they should also be getting the services.
6:11:13
And I'm glad that if these academies after school and we can, they're also helping them.
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So I don't wanna say that, During my I'm gonna because we don't have time.
6:11:22
I'm going to leave with this.
6:11:23
This is a general culture issue.
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The board of ed is trying to obfuscate and kind of be opaque, and deny children services.
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That's ultimately it.
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We're the scapegoat.
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But dirt I'll give this antidote.
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During my child's turning 5 meeting, which was initially an IEP, not an ISP because I was open minded.
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1 of the members of my child's turning 5 team upon hearing, I wanted to put my child into a general led classroom, asked me, but is it safe?
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What if someone pushes her?
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To which I said, she'd probably push back.
6:11:56
I will admit that this comment was anecdotal, but what does it say about the state of the board of education 70 years after Judy Heumann was barred from kindergarten because she was deemed a fire hazard by her principal?