Alex Elegudin
5:30:57
Good evening, chair Joseph, and, thank you so much for the opportunity to speak.
5:31:02
My name is Alex Hellegoutin, and I direct the postsecondary Readiness Project at Advocates for Children of New York.
5:31:11
I'm testifying today on behalf of the Transition Alliance, a coalition of more than 20 organizations dedicated to improving transition planning services for students with disabilities in New York City.
5:31:22
Together, we represent students, parents, advocates, and professionals working to ensure that students with disabilities are not left behind as they prepare for life after high school.
5:31:33
Federal law requires the DOE to ensure that every student with an IEP has a transition plan has a transition plan by the age of 15.
5:31:42
Yet we know from our work with families, these plans are often vague, incomplete, or not individualized to student's interest and abilities.
5:31:51
Transition planning is meant to be a bridge to adulthood, but for too many families, the bridge feels incomplete or missing altogether.
5:31:59
And they are left to navigate this process on their own without adequate guidance or support from their schools or the DOE.
5:32:06
While the DOE asks schools to designate transition team leaders, their availability and knowledge vary widely as these roles are part time and often assigned to a staff member as an add on to their full time position they already hold.
5:32:20
There's also limited information on who transition team leaders are in schools and where where families and parents should reach out to get meeting get, help and guidance.
5:32:33
We are also concerned about the barriers that students with disabilities are facing in accessing the DOE's career pathways.
5:32:40
The DOE has made a significant push toward career connected learning and postsecondary readiness through programs like future ready and Career Technical Education.
5:32:49
While these programs have the potential to provide valuable opportunities, too often students with disabilities are left out.
5:32:58
For example, the DOE has not provided clear guidance on the inclusion of students with disabilities in future ready, a new and up and coming program.
5:33:06
The section in the DOE's future ready NYC program guide for students with disabilities was blank for well over a year until just the last few days and still lacks the concrete information that schools need to properly integrate and serve students with disabilities and their programs.
5:33:23
Without this guidance, schools are left to figure it out on their own or worse exclude students altogether from their career connected and work based learning programs.
5:33:32
There is little transparency accountability when it comes to enrollment of students with disabilities in postsecondary programs.
5:33:39
Another major gap is travel training, teaching students how to navigate the public transportation system.
5:33:45
Families have expressed how valuable travel training would be for their children, not just for long term independence, but for the immediate need to get to internships, classes, and jobs.
5:33:55
The DOE's travel training program to district 75 is small and only serves a limited number of students a limited number of students.
5:34:03
For the majority of students with disabilities, there's no resource to help them learn how to use public transportation.
5:34:09
In closing, we ask to address these issues according to the the following.
5:34:13
There needs to be individualized support.
5:34:15
Every school should have a trained staff member like a transition team leader who can provide individual guidance to families.
5:34:21
There needs to be expanded access to career connected programs, and there needs to be stronger recruitment for students with disabilities.
5:34:28
The DOE needs to take a proactive parent outreach approach.
5:34:32
The DOE should proactively approach parents and families of transition age students offering workshops and individualized direct support.
5:34:41
Lastly, there needs to be a transit travel training expansion so that the DOE should have a citywide travel training program to serve all students with disabilities.
5:34:50
The transition planning isn't just a bureaucratic requirement.
5:34:53
It's a lifeline for students with disabilities and their families.
