Yesterday, the NYC Council Education Committee held a packed oversight hearing on the provision of special education services. Parents and advocates waited all afternoon and early evening hours to give powerful testimony about a range of issues—long gaps in services, non-implementation of IEPs, lack of translation services, stories of children being badly injured or mistreated in schools, and more.
Jesse Cole Cutler and Sonia Mendez-Castro, two of our firm’s partners, testified on the issue of delays in the settlement process and in payments on pendency cases. They also alerted the Committee to a growing crisis affecting all due process complaints—there aren’t nearly enough Impartial Hearing Officers willing to hear cases. (Read their testimonies.)
To learn more about what happened at the hearing, read Chalkbeat’s reporting: “New York City Council grills top education department officials on special education.”
It is not too late for our clients and the providers they work with to submit testimony. This is one of those rare window of opportunity moments—a powerful, friendly government body is actively listening to what the special education community has to say. NYC parents, providers, and schools should all take a few minutes to compose an email explaining in their own words how delays in reimbursement, non-payment of orders, and any other special education issues have personally affected their families and communities.
Email your testimony to both Council Member Rosenthal’s Legislative Director Ned Terrace at nterrace@council.nyc.gov and Education Committee Senior Legislative Counsel Malcom Butehorn mbutehorn@council.nyc.gov directly.
Testimony is being collected until the end of Thursday, February 28th.