PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Donavan Swanson, Representative from Brooklyn Borough President's Office
4:06:17
ยท
3 min
Donavan Swanson, representing Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, provided testimony on various special education issues in NYC schools. He emphasized the need for expanded capacity, improved staffing, and the expansion of specialized programs like Horizon ASD.
- Highlighted the critical issue of school bus contracts, stressing the need to update 40-year-old contracts to improve transportation efficiency
- Expressed concerns about special education services for early childhood learners, emphasizing the growing demand and the importance of early intervention
- Advocated for leveraging partnerships with CUNY and other higher education institutions to address staffing shortages
- Shared successful workforce development models for District 75 students, including programs with NICE bus and Future Ready sites, calling for their expansion
Donavan Swanson
4:06:17
Good afternoon, chair.
4:06:18
Donovan Swanson represent representing Antonio Reynoso, Brooklyn Borough president's office.
4:06:23
I'll keep my remarks brief.
4:06:24
You have my written testimony.
4:06:26
There's a number of things that came up also on this hearing, and as you know, Antonio's a partner.
4:06:29
Right?
4:06:30
And we're willing to fight.
4:06:31
We, you know, we are hearing that there's a large need for capacity, fighting for staffing to reduce some of those ratios to offer better support.
4:06:38
You know, we are also, definitely pushing for the expansion of Horizon ASD programs.
4:06:44
The borough president is even exploring expansion of sensory rooms through resume, process and co located sites.
4:06:50
So we're we're a partner in this work.
4:06:52
So I'm only gonna highlight a couple of points, specifically school bus contracts.
4:06:56
We submitted testimony back in September.
4:06:58
Again, thank you for your leadership on this issue.
4:07:00
Right?
4:07:01
We know at the end of day, we can't even begin to discuss mandated services if the babies aren't even getting to where they need to get.
4:07:08
Right?
4:07:08
So we we could fill the capacity issue, and if folks are still coming in and students are coming in an hour or 2 missing instruction, we'll never meet the need.
4:07:16
And so we it really starts with addressing busing.
4:07:19
And so we've heard, from DOE and really working with our state partners and really passing state law that's that allows us to update 40 year old contracts.
4:07:29
There's no reason.
4:07:30
It's a huge inefficiency of the system, and it's really disgusting to see this.
4:07:34
So we that's number 1.
4:07:36
Mandated services, you know, you've already heard about the reports.
4:07:40
We know, in particular, we're extremely concerned about special education, for our, early childhood learners.
4:07:46
Right?
4:07:46
Because we know that that issue only compounds.
4:07:49
And, right, we can't we cannot reduce the number of card cases or due process cases, however we wanna split here as we call it.
4:07:55
But at the end of the day, we can't we can't even begin to address that if, again, our youngest learners are not getting what they need, especially understanding that this is a growing population.
4:08:05
And a good problem is that we're also having more families that are coming to the table and realizing that their child needs this.
4:08:11
Right?
4:08:11
Whereas beforehand, we might have seen seen it in certain communities and not in others.
4:08:15
So now we can't just now have these parents be in a vulnerable position coming to the table ready to help and be part of the solution with their babies, and then we can't even meet the needs.
4:08:24
So there we need to really start there also with our early childhood sites.
4:08:28
Staffing, completely agree with U of T.
4:08:31
We need to leverage more of our CUNY partners in higher education, right, and build upon those.
4:08:36
Unfortunate to hear, you know, great work with the paraprofessional work, but also understanding that there's still a need, is also a challenge.
4:08:43
And the the bulk of what I'll remain and say is that the borough president actually had the privilege in 2 different circumstances to see some great workforce development models for district 75 in special education students, one with NICE bus, where we were invited by advocates to kinda see that work happening during the summer, and definitely we wanna expand upon that, as well as we were able to see a future ready site in Brooklyn, the only one in Brooklyn, that's also d 75.
4:09:08
And so there just also needs to be intentionality there and and, fully funding more future ready sites, specifically with district 75 sites.
4:09:16
That principle was strong.
4:09:17
We actually literally did a chancellor's walk through the same week with that same principle, where she's even doing hybrid models, where the students are doing 3 days a week of traditional instruction, but then also doing 2 days of actual career readiness, right, in a number of fields.
4:09:33
So we wanna expand upon that, start it obviously in Brooklyn, and then make sure that all of our students in the city get it.
4:09:39
And so with that but without that, you know, we're here as a partner.