Thank you to Chair Joseph for convening this vital hearing today. Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso commends the Council for prioritizing one of our most vulnerable populations. Unfortunately, this administration has continued to fail our Special Education and District 75 students. The Borough President recognizes NYCPS improvements in certain areas, but changes have not been enough to ensure that our schools are serving students with special needs equally. This is evident in the number of incomplete mandated services; the ballooning cost of Carter Cases; our outdated, inefficient school bus contracts; and the inequities in college and career readiness programs.
School Bus Contracts: Acknowledging the scope of today’s hearing and considering the Council’s previous hearing on this issue, we want to reiterate the need for new school bus contracts for the City of New York. It is irresponsible of the City to continue operating with, in some cases, 40-year-old contracts that do not meet today’s needs for our students and families. Whether it’s buses failing to arrive on time, enduring unnecessarily long routes, or lacking basic accommodations such as climate control and access to after-school programs, it is simply unacceptable. We must update State law and finally modernize our contracts to include climate-controlled buses, extended service hours, and accountability measures to ensure quality service and equitable opportunities for students.
The Borough President was happy to see the Council’s passage and ultimate signing into law of Intro 514, which will increase reporting and transparency of school bus transportation services. We cannot move the needle if information is not publicly available to all stakeholders. With reports of shortages nationwide, it is imperative that Council and the public can dig deep into the data and identify new, innovative opportunities to expand services and address gaps.
Mandated Services: None of us need reminding that a child’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is a legally mandated document under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Yet despite our legal and moral obligations to students, we continue to witness significant gaps in service delivery across the city, particularly in Black and Brown neighborhoods. NYCPS reported last school year that 168,083 families were either fully or partially receiving the recommended programs outlined in their IEPs. However, as you are aware, NYCPS considers “fully served” to mean at least one session of all required services—a standard that does not adequately reflect the reality that many families experience.
Constituents across Brooklyn consistently report concerns such as services being delivered in unsuitable and disruptive spaces like cafeterias and hallways, delays or inconsistencies in sessions for occupational and speech therapies, and a lack of communication or flexibility in addressing students’ emerging needs. For instance, our multilingual learners are disproportionately impacted across our system, with completion rates for Speech-Language Therapy for bilingual students declining by 2.1%, reaching just 84.1%. Furthermore, in the same school year, NYCPS reported that Brooklyn School Districts 16, 23, and 32—which include Bed-Stuy, Brownsville, and Bushwick—experienced delays more than twice the citywide average in the number of school days between IEP meetings and placement notices (10 days or more). These disparities highlight systemic inequities that demand urgent attention and reform.
The situation for students with special needs in Early Childhood Education programs is especially concerning because if their needs go unmet, they only compound through the child’s development. In Brooklyn alone, 670 students had to wait more than 60 calendar days from consent to have their original IEP meetings. Furthermore, School District 14 (Greenpoint and Williamsburg) as well as District 18 (East Flatbush and Canarsie) saw a larger portion of students having to wait longer than 60 calendar days, 60% and 49% respectively. Even when some families eventually secure an IEP, they often face additional challenges, including shortages in occupational therapy, speech therapy, and other essential services. Multilingual families, those speaking English as a second language, and immigrant families experience these challenges more acutely and urgently.
Additionally, DOC and NYCPS are failing to provide young people who are in the carceral system, especially on Rikers Island, with their mandated services. Even after the 2016 court order requiring these agencies to provide a minimum of three hours of education, including special education and related services, they continue to further marginalize an already vulnerable population. NYCLU, Legal Aid Society, and many other organizations have testified and spoken to the lack of accountability of these City agencies in meeting their legal mandates. Denying access to vital services that could change the trajectory of a young person is egregious and unacceptable.
Staffing: Borough President Reynoso acknowledges the continued struggle to identify and hire quality providers to offer mandated services. He stands with the Council’s calls to improve on-time payments to our service providers – especially for our human services workers who are already stretched past their limits in many cases. We are seeing organizations and non-profits across the city struggle to keep their programs afloat due delinquent payments. The BP also supports calls for greater competitive rates for providers as well as “pay for success” programs similar to other major cities.
College & Career Readiness. This administration has promoted College and Career Readiness as part of its “Bright Starts, Bold Futures” work. The amazing work these young people are getting to experience under FutureReadyNYC is particularly exciting. The Borough President visited a District 75 Future Ready site in September, PSK753 School for Career Development. Under the principal’s leadership, students are learning about several careers and professions ranging from becoming a beautician to joining the culinary field, architecture, and even media and production. Our office also recently learned that the same school is piloting alternative tracks where students spend three days of traditional school days preparing for the Regents’ exams and two days in a work-based setting, receiving real-world experience and support for transitioning to adulthood. Innovative models like this are exactly what our students need and deserve, yet special education and District 75 students are often left out of the conversation. We were thrilled to hear of more formal and intentional partnerships such as that of NYCBUS and District 75 Superintendent’s Office, where students are placed at their Brooklyn depot and work within the office setting and/or participate in their automotive development program. Programs like these are critical to our District 75 students and invest in a future NYC workforce to fill service gaps.
The Borough President asks this administration to invest in more Future Ready sites in Brooklyn with an emphasis on District 75 schools, and to develop formal workforce pipelines for our students in collaboration with industry, parents, and community partners. Thank you again for holding this hearing today.
City Council Committee on Education Oversight: Special Education
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