Busing Part 2: Troubleshooting

It’s nerve-racking, particularly if this is your first time dealing with the NYC Office of Pupil Transportation (commonly referred to as OPT), but busing doesn’t get worked out until the very end of the summer, and parents must expect to do some follow-up. OPT is a sprawling agency that provides busing for over 600,000 students every year.

At the end of August, if you have not yet received a notice in the mail from OPT, check the OPT website for your child's record and routing information. You will need to input your child’s birthdate and nine digit NYC ID number (sometimes called an OSIS number) to access the OPT student information web-form. You can find your child's NYC ID number on their IEP.

If you don’t see the information you need for your child, call OPT and ask if your child and/or their assigned routing information is in the system (sometimes the online system hasn’t caught up). At the same time, reach out to the busing liaison at your child’s school and alert them to the issue. If these folks are unable to quickly address things, you may need to contact your CSE district representative (and let your attorney or advocate know too). Sometimes it becomes necessary to bring your child’s IEP to the CSE offices and more or less camp out until you can speak to someone.

Unfortunately, it is the case that many bus routes are not properly assigned when the school year begins. Because this happens so often, we always advise clients that it’s good to have a back-up plan for transportation for the first few weeks of the school year, even if busing is provided for on your child’s IEP.

It’s also not unusual to get your scheduling call from the assigned bus company with your child’s pick-up and drop-off time only a few days before the start of school—even though we’d all like that information a lot earlier. The reason for this is that only after all the routes are assigned can drivers go out into the streets with their vehicles to practice them. These dry runs are how pick up and drop off times are initially set. Try not to panic when you are given a pick-up time of 6:15 am (for example). Most of the time, as the driver learns the route, these times shift forward considerably.

When that big first day arrives, reserve a smile and warm greeting for the driver and matron. Drivers and matrons of course vary in quality, but for the most part they care about kids and take their jobs seriously. It is in your best interest to establish a good relationship with them. They may be willing to give you their phone numbers so that you can be in direct contact (although you can always contact the bus company dispatcher too).

However, if you do have a problem with the driver or matron, or with your child’s busing in general, you can file a complaint with OPT (718-392-8855). Ask your child’s school to do the same. The most common problem we see is a bus that is consistently late for school, and it is much easier to address this if your child’s school is documenting it properly and communicating with OPT.

For the most part, once the route issues are worked out, children love the bus! So hang in there.

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This is part two of a two-part article about busing. Part 1 discusses how to secure busing from the DOE.

Riding the Waves

by Regina Skyer 

Two years ago, Skyer Law attorney and partner Greg Cangiano lost his mother Ina Hurwitz Cangiano to a short but hard battle with cancer. Ina was only 67 and her death was a tragedy for all who knew her. She was not only a loving and devoted mother, wife, grandmother, and friend, but she was also a school guidance counselor for 33 years who worked in low-income neighborhoods at NYC public schools.

When Ina died, her family and our law firm decided to establish the INA Fund – a non-profit charitable fund in her name.  Ina's professional life was devoted to making the world better for the children she worked with, and she accomplished this, but she was taken from us far too early; she had work left to do.  

We launched the INA Fund on July 8th by sponsoring They Will Surf Again, a free annual adaptive surfing event at Rockaway Beach, which was Ina’s hometown. Over 200 volunteer surfers, including members of our staff, assisted 80 disabled children, teenagers, and adults in the ocean using adaptive surfboards. My son Josh also led a team made up of volunteer students from his martial arts school (Brooklyn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Brooklyn Heights).  The joy these athletes experienced as they rode the waves and were cheered by hundreds of onlookers was boundless.

The weather was perfect; the water cool, but not cold. This uplifting day was a gift for everyone who gathered on the beach.

When explaining this event to my young grandchildren who attended, I told them that while not everyone goes through life with arms and legs that work, or with the ability to communicate in the same way, or with the a brain that thinks in the same way, that the smell of the ocean, the sound of waves crashing, and the feel of cool water washing over you on a hot day—these things can and should be shared.

Busing Part 1: Getting Special Education Busing for Your Child

Busing is a perennial source of worry and confusion for parents at the start of each school year, even for those who have been through the process before.  We hope this will help you understand the process and plan for the start of the school year. 

Who is Entitled to Special Education Busing?

There are a few ways to get special education busing:

1. If a student has “Special Transportation” checked off on their most recent IEP, they will receive busing.  This generally appears toward the back of the IEP under the section “SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS.” The CSE should check the box for special transportation when the child has a medical issue requiring it (parent must submit documentation), or if the child is being recommended for a District 75 program, or if the child is being recommended for a NYS Approved Non-Public School (“defer to CBST”).
2. New York State Education Law requires that school districts provide suitable transportation to children identified as having “handicapping conditions” who attend private schools for instruction similar to that recommended by the local school district. Unfortunately, the DOE has, in recent years, used the language about how the instruction must be “similar” to what is recommended on the IEP to deny busing to children attending non-approved (sometimes called "independent") private schools. We argue that a child whose IEP recommends a self-contained class is eligible for transportation.

By now, you may have had your CSE meeting and know whether or not busing has been checked off as a special education service on your child's IEP. If your child will be attending an independent private school and does not have busing checked off, you are no doubt wondering where this leaves you.

Can My Lawyer Get My Child Busing?
Sorry, but there is no quick yes or no answer to this question. When we file our statutorily required ten day notices for parents seeking tuition reimbursement for private schools, we request busing if you want us to. Unfortunately, in recent years the DOE has not been offering settlements that include busing.

When tuition reimbursement cases do not settle and go to an impartial hearing, we are able to ask a judge for busing as part of the final order. Busing is also part of pendency orders whenever a child’s prior IEP includes busing.

If you end up spending money on transporting your child to and from school, keep records of all of these costs and speak with your attorney before the school year begins. If your child's school has a private busing option and your child has not been recommended for transportation or a full-time special education program, we can attempt to get this reimbursed as part of your claim—keep proof of payment and contracts. 

Here’s the good news: In our experience, once a child has busing and the school placement remains the same, the DOE tends to provide it automatically in subsequent years.
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Next week, in part two of this article, we will discuss how to troubleshoot problems with busing once the school year begins.

Bill to Clarify IEP Rights of Students with Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia Passes Legislature

For many years, advocates for students with dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia have asked school districts to use the specific language of a student’s diagnosis in their Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Unfortunately, school districts routinely refuse to do this, wrongly citing federal law as pretext.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires schools to provide services to students who are adversely affected by one of 13 named conditions, including those with a “Specific Learning Disability.” School district IEP teams sometimes tell parents that they can’t write “dyslexia” on an IEP, and can only use the generic term “learning disability” because that’s the name of the classification that covers it. This isn’t true. There is nothing in the IDEA preventing an IEP team from putting down “Specific Learning Disability” as the classification, while also using specific diagnostic language within the IEP document.

These labels do matter because an IEP is a binding legal document. The more specific and accurate the IEP is, the better it can serve its purpose of meeting the needs of a child—and the more effectively it can be used on that child’s benefit if a school district fails in its obligations.

It is very exciting that S.6581 /A. 8262, a bi-partisan bill sponsored by State Senator Martin Golden and Assembly Member Jo Ann Simon, has passed both houses of the legislature and will now move to the Governor for his signature. This bill directs the NYS Department of Education to issue a clarifying order to local school districts clearly spelling out the importance and legality of putting the words dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia in IEPs.

Language is powerful, and we are hopeful that saying and writing the words will help to raise awareness of the very specific needs of students with dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia in our school system.  

If you happen to live in the districts of either Senator Golden or Assembly Member Simon, who both represent parts of Brooklyn, please take a moment to call or email them and thank them for this important legislation.

Graduation Season: A Time for Celebration

by Regina Skyer

It’s graduation season—a time to celebrate the incredible accomplishments of special education students who work so hard to overcome so many challenges in the classroom every year. 

In the spring, I make a point of trying to attend at least one graduation ceremony. It’s a good reminder of why the fight we show up for each day matters so much. 

This week, I journeyed deep into the heart of Brooklyn’s Boro Park to attend a high school graduation for Gan Yisroel Yeshiva’s special education program. The eight lovely young women I was there to witness graduate all have Down syndrome or another significant developmental disability. 

Gan Yisroel does an incredible job at integrating special education students into the social fabric of the larger school. While the girls in the special education program learn in a self-contained class, they are fully integrated into daily life and activities with their typically developing peers. When they danced with their friends this was obvious.  

As part of their graduation ceremony, each girl gave a speech. All of them expressed their gratitude to their teachers, therapists, parents, and to the founders of the school – Rabbi and Mrs. Ginsburg. Their words were eloquent, heartfelt, and there was not a dry eye in the auditorium during the standing ovation they received, marching down their aisle with their yellow corsages and certificates. This program is a shining example of what good special education is about – maximizing each child’s potential, teaching them to self-advocate, heightening their self-esteem, and preparing them to be functioning members of their community and society.  

Whether your child is stepping up from preschool or kindergarten, elementary or middle school, graduating high school, or simply closing out another year making their own kind of music from a cacophony of setbacks, comebacks, and triumphs—congratulations!