PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Paulette Healy, District 75 Parent and Disability Advocate, on Special Education Challenges and Suggestions
4:30:57
ยท
3 min
Paulette Healy, a District 75 parent and disability advocate, testified about challenges in accessing special education services and proposed solutions to address staffing shortages. She shared personal experiences with service delays and highlighted systemic issues within the NYC Department of Education.
- Highlighted the irony of being unable to secure speech therapy for her own daughter despite her connections with the DOE
- Questioned the metrics and transparency in allocating centrally funded instructional teachers to schools
- Expressed concerns about the proposed call center for tracking service providers and payments
- Suggested implementing early certification programs and CTE pathways to address staffing shortages in related services
Paulette Healy
4:30:57
Good afternoon, chair.
4:30:58
My name is Paulette Healy.
4:31:00
I am a District 75, parent raising 2 children in the New York City Public School System.
4:31:05
I'm also a disability advocate.
4:31:08
I just wanted to start off by thanking you for being the voice of the parents of New York City.
4:31:14
Regardless of what title you hold, you are always prioritizing parent first.
4:31:19
You lead with your heart, and you inspire parents like me every day.
4:31:23
So we thank you for, for doing what you do.
4:31:28
Sitting in this, this room, I have to acknowledge I do have a very close relationship with the DOE, with the Dial team.
4:31:35
And they allowed me a lot of access.
4:31:37
So it's really ironic that with the hundreds of families that I help a year, thousands in my lifetime, that for the last 2 years I couldn't get sets for my daughter.
4:31:46
She hasn't had speech therapy in over 2 years.
4:31:50
So for my own child, I can't seem to provide the, the services that I work so hard getting other families.
4:31:58
And that's with the connections and the relationships that I have directly with DOE Central.
4:32:04
I would also push that, when they when they talked about the centrally funded, instructional teachers that they were sending out to 96100 schools, what metrics are they using to determine which schools determine, deserve this particular support.
4:32:20
Is it the percentage of students that, they've identified needing this?
4:32:24
Is it just a matter of access that that particular principal knew where the landing page was to request it?
4:32:29
Because I know for a fact that there's 3 schools in Crown Heights that would definitely benefit from that, And they have no idea how to go about, obtaining that.
4:32:38
So I think that there overall within the system, in our system, there needs to be more transparency.
4:32:44
You've already highlighted how cumbersome the website is for parents, let alone think about how teachers are trying to navigate teacher hub and principals trying to figure out how to apply for, certain caveats that would definitely support students sooner rather than later.
4:33:01
I was also distressed to hear that they're thinking about creating a call center to track service vendors and and service providers and parents when it comes to acquiring payments for their services.
4:33:11
Because if it's anything like the call center established to mitigate concerns for pupil transportation, we can anticipate long wait times, circular processes that lead nowhere, and longer delays to response for service implementation.
4:33:23
I also fear, as you've heard many a times from my colleagues about the, decrease in seats, decrease in students waiting for pre K, special education seats is not necessarily a result of an increase of seats, but an increase of families refusing the IEP in favor of an unsupported seat in a local program because the need for childcare outweighs the need for proper supports.
4:33:46
So the human collateral is our children, and they are starting kindergarten without necessary interventions and, therefore, already disadvantaged before even stepping foot into a classroom.
4:33:55
That scares me and that keeps me up at night.
4:33:58
I I just have one more thing.
4:34:01
We can address the staffing shortages in the areas of related services by offering early certification programs under future ready, by piloting CTE programs in the fields of social work, OT, PT, and especially speech so that we can create a pathway directly into our higher learning institutions that can provide the necessary courses, similar to our medical arts CTE program at the Avion Academy under U75 or the emergency medicine program at Urban Assembly.
4:34:26
The best way to address the shortage is to build a talent pool ourselves with our own students.
4:34:31
Our paraprofessional CTE program in D 75 has been a successful and sustainable asset, and we should look at replicating this model not only to offset our staffing challenges, but to open doors for students who may not have seen a pathway towards higher learning or fruitful employment otherwise.
4:34:46
This can also work to address school bus shortages, school school bus driving shortages, major shortages, facilities, and bilingual providers.
4:34:53
Thank you.