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Q&A
Council member questions DOE on preschool special education services and wait times
2:51:53
·
4 min
Council Member Rita Joseph questions Deputy Chancellor Christina Foti about the current state of preschool special education services in New York City. Foti provides updates on the number of preschoolers waiting for seats, those receiving all or some of their mandated services, and the DOE's efforts to address these issues.
- 616 preschoolers are currently waiting for seats in special education classes
- 71% of preschool students with IEPs are receiving all their mandated services, while 29% are missing one or more services
- The DOE is implementing various strategies to maximize resources, including Weekend Academy, sensory gyms, and summer service sites
- The department is seeking to hire 325 additional related service providers to meet the needs of preschool students with disabilities
Rita Joseph
2:51:53
But in the council preliminary budget hearing in March, New York City public schools testified that more than 600 children were waiting for seats in their legally mandated preschool special education classes and 7,914 preschoolers or IEPs were waiting for at least one of their legally mandated service to begin and more than half of those children, is 4,570 preschoolers or IEPs, were receiving none of their mandated service.
2:52:17
Can you give us some updated data about the number of preschoolers with IEP currently waiting for seats in their legally mandated preschool special education classes, the number of percentage of preschoolers with IEP currently waiting for at least one service to start, and the number of percentage of preschoolers with IEP is currently receiving none of their mandated services.
Christina Foti
2:52:37
Yes.
2:52:38
I can, Chair.
2:52:40
And and just wanna reiterate what I said earlier.
2:52:42
We are doing everything we can with what we have.
2:52:45
Right?
2:52:45
We're making up for an infrastructure that wasn't there.
2:52:49
Currently there are six sixteen preschoolers waiting for seats.
2:52:54
Just to be clear, we did stand up and meet every one of the commitment we made with that 55,000,000.
2:53:02
We added those 700 seats as promised.
2:53:05
As I said earlier, preschool special education enrollment is happening on a rolling basis.
2:53:10
It is not that those kids are waiting and nothing is happening.
2:53:15
The process will continue for them.
2:53:18
Again, we added 1,700 seats this administration has had.
2:53:22
We do expect through rightsizing that every kid will start with a seat in the fall and we're really excited about that.
2:53:33
In terms of students receiving all of their related services, there are currently 17,453 students in preschool receiving all, that's seventy one percent.
2:53:46
Seven thousand one hundred and fifty six, that's twenty nine percent, are missing one or more.
2:53:51
Three thousand seven hundred and twenty nine, that's fifteen percent, have no related service.
2:53:56
We are maximizing again the service providers we have.
2:54:00
How are we doing that?
2:54:01
We're inviting kids to Weekend Academy.
2:54:03
We're inviting them to our 79 sensory gyms.
2:54:07
General Counsel Vladek spoke about the RFP and enhanced related service contract.
2:54:14
That contract is especially targeting our preschoolers, and of course we're gonna offer our preschoolers with disabilities those related service summer sites as well.
2:54:24
Once we have related service providers to serve our integrated classrooms as well as our students in our community based programs, that will really help put a dent in those students that are receiving none or one or more services.
Rita Joseph
2:54:43
Thank you for that update.
2:54:44
In our budget response, we were calling for $70,000,000 for related services.
2:54:49
But in our January and March, New York City Public School testified that you would need an addition 246 related service providers to serve children in public schools.
2:54:59
But we noticed that New York City is not in the budget.
2:55:03
So how will New York City meets its legal obligation to these preschoolers with disabilities when the funding is not in the budget?
Christina Foti
2:55:08
Yeah.
2:55:09
We were calling for that as well, and we appreciate your partnership on that front.
2:55:13
As I said, we're gonna maximize the resources we have on those four fronts, weekends, sensory gyms, the contract, the related service sites over the summer.
2:55:22
We too want to see those related service providers in our schools.
Rita Joseph
2:55:26
How many providers would be needed to meet those needs?
Christina Foti
2:55:30
At our last hearing we testified that we are seeking two fifty related service providers for our integrated classes and 75 related service for our preschool students outside of our integrated programs.
2:55:48
So that's 3 20 5.
Rita Joseph
2:55:52
3 20 5?
Christina Foti
2:55:53
Yes.