PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Tanesha Grant, Executive Director of Parents Supporting Parents and Moms United For Black Lives New York City, on Special Education Challenges
6:19:17
ยท
3 min
Tanesha Grant, a mother and grandmother, shared her family's struggles with accessing appropriate special education services for her grandchildren with autism and other special needs. She highlighted issues including inadequate evaluations, placement in inappropriate programs, insufficient therapy, and transportation problems.
- Emphasized the need for more tailored programs like NES instead of placing all special needs children in D75 schools
- Pointed out the difficulties in obtaining early intervention services and the impact of unreliable school bus transportation
- Called for the Department of Education to ensure all children entitled to special needs services receive them, framing it as a generational issue
Tanesha Grant
6:19:17
Good evening.
6:19:18
My name is Tanisha Grant.
6:19:19
I am the executive director of Parents Supporting Parents and Moms United For Black Lives New York City.
6:19:25
Today, I come to you as a mother of 3 and a grandmother of 4.
6:19:30
I have 4 grandchildren, and all of my grandchildren are special needs children.
6:19:34
My oldest grandchild is 8 years old.
6:19:37
He is highly up on the autism spectrum, and and he is also nonverbal.
6:19:44
For his whole first, I wanna say that it took us a long time to even find out how to get him evaluated.
6:19:52
He is now 8 years old, and I wanna echo what my colleague, Paulette Hill nearly Healy said.
6:19:59
I even though the work that I do, and I can help other parents and I can help other students, it has been really hard to get the services that my grandkids need.
6:20:08
My 8 year old grandson is stuck in a d 75 school when he should be in a program like NES.
6:20:16
Even though my daughter has continuously tried to fill out the paper and continuously I have talked to district 5 where the NES program is, somehow he's still stuck in a d 75 school.
6:20:28
It is not okay to put all special needs, children, despite their disabilities, despite their learning disabilities, despite their, behavioral disabilities all into one bunch.
6:20:42
Speech therapy for 3 times a week for 30 minutes is just not enough for a nonverbal child.
6:20:49
My daughter has been called multiple times that to come pick up my grandson because he doesn't know how to regulate his emotions, and he doesn't know how to communicate in the way that he needs to do instead of, trying to make an environment for him that is significant.
6:21:07
My daughter also has twin daughters.
6:21:10
They are about to turn 3, and it's very hard for her to get the early intervention that they need.
6:21:15
And having twin daughters, it is very hard for her to take my grandson to school when the bus doesn't come because he has to have a power on the school bus.
6:21:25
So if the school bus doesn't come, then the power is standing outside in the cold, that doesn't work, and my grandson doesn't get to go to school.
6:21:33
My 3 year old grandson, Riley, his mother, Rain, right now is trying to get him evaluated.
6:21:39
This is unacceptable.
6:21:41
As we know, there is a higher need, especially for children with autism, at the rate that our children are being diagnosed with autism.
6:21:50
So I will, I look forward to continuing to work with, the education committee, and you, chair.
6:21:56
I thank you so much for all of your energy and for doing everything that you can to, lift up these issues because this is not a right now issue, chair.
6:22:06
This is a generational issue.
6:22:08
As a child, I didn't get what I needed for my behavioral, problems.
6:22:13
I I started being an education advocate because of the problems that my children were having in school.
6:22:19
My
Eric Dinowitz
6:22:19
oldest child
Tanesha Grant
6:22:20
is very now I am fighting for my grandchildren.
6:22:24
So I look forward to continuing to work with you and to, and making sure that one of these days, Department of Education makes sure that every child that is entitled to their special needs services get it.
6:22:36
Thank you.