New York – Special Ed Schools Fear Loss of State Funding

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    New York – Eleven schools serving 1,500 blind, deaf and severely disabled children fear their students may get an inferior education under Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget.

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    Cuomo’s budget would zero-out the state’s annual $98 million contribution to the schools. Instead, tuition would be billed to the students’ local districts.

    Bernadette Kappen, the executive director of the New York Institute for Special Education in the Bronx, which serves 278 blind and visually impaired students from the metro area, said she worries New York City and the suburbs may not want to pay the average $70,000 a year tuition if the state stops funding them directly.

    In Nassau County, executive director Patrice Kuntzler shared those concerns. The Henry Viscardi School serves 185 metro-area students with physical disabilities including cerebral palsy and traumatic brain injuries. Last year, she said, 10 of the 16 graduates earned full Regents diplomas, which is unusual among students with special education needs. She said she can’t see the city and local districts finding enough tuition dollars to make up for state support.

    A spokesman for the state’s budget division, Peter Morris, said federal law requires districts to serve children with disabilities. He added that these 11 schools (which are known as Section 4201 schools) have historically gotten their own state budget line, unlike other private schools serving children with special needs that bill their local districts.

    He said the change in funding is for “consistency and equal treatment” because letting Albany set aside a special budget for the eleven schools results in higher spending.

    But that doesn’t quell the fears of the schools’ administrators or the parents of their pupils.

    “These schools exist because educators have failed to create mainstream environments where children with multiple disabilities can fully participate,” said Tracy Ehrlich, whose 9-year-old daughter attends the Henry Viscardi School. “If the governor’s budget proposal is approved, many students may be forced to return to district schools that are ill prepared to educate them. If the Viscardi school, and the 10 other schools like it, lose enough students, they may be forced to close.”

    Read more at WNYC


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    2 Comments
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    13 years ago

    I’ve worked at one of these schools, and I’ve visited two others. These schools serve children whose needs are great. Districts that balk at the cost will either pay even more to educate them in-district or they will not provide for their needs (which will lead to lawsuits).

    DRSLZ
    DRSLZ
    13 years ago

    As a child neurologist, I frequently encounter parents who are at their wits’ ends, trying to advocate on behalf of their children who they feel are being deprived of an appropriate education which takes into account their disabilities. There is a lot of money at stake. Districts have the financial incentive to delay testing, deny disability, and legally defend themselves when parents with means take legal action.

    Legal action is costly, involving outside testing and experts, who have to be compensated for their time, as do the attorneys. Not every family can afford such expenses–and the school administrators know that.

    Closure of these schools will have direct impact on these children with special needs, and I doubt each and every student will be readily accommodated.

    To harm special needs children to save money is a tactic unworthy of true educators.

    What a disgrace.