Thursday, May 16, 2019

DOE Paid 303 Million Dollars To Settle Special Education Lawsuits






























The DOE practice of "penny wise and dollar foolish" policies has resulted in the City paying out 303 million dollars to settle Special Education lawsuits.  It appears the DOE practice of  "Education on the cheap" has resulted in a 185% rise in payouts since Bill de Blasio took office back in 2014 and a 8% rise since last year.

According to the Education committee of the City Council 22% of the estimated 250,000 students with an IEP do not receive their required services.  Parents are frustrated with the DOE's inability and or unwillingness to provide the Special Education services required by federal law.  The result was an uptick of lawsuits that the City needed to settle.

I suspect that the DOE's Fair Student Funding is a major contributing factor as principals, subject to tight school budgets, try to save funds by withholding needed services for their Special Education students. Moreover, the high administrative costs for paying for the bloated Central Bureaucracy at the DOE also is a problem.  Finally, the lack of accountability at Tweed immunizes the managers to escape consequences when their decisions hurt the child.

Will anything change?  I highly doubt it.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, this happens and this mayor want to run for President? I want to know what his wife did the $800 million she received for her agency.

Anonymous said...

FACT: In elementary schools, ICT classes are supposed to have 2 teachers with students at all times. (One regular ed licensed teacher and one special ed licensed teacher) This means that there should be 2 teachers in each specialty class such as art, music, PE, etc. However, it is extremely rare for the special ed teacher to go with their class to the specialty class. This means that the specialty classes are being taught by just one teacher. This has been brought up many times to our district rep and NOTHING has been done about it. Who here can chime in on this fact?

Anonymous said...

Been an "arts" teacher for 15 years and never had the ict teacher join my class and have taught ICt classes with sometimes up to 20 IEP's in one room when the limit is 12!!! I have been in 3 schools in 3 boroughs and experienced it in each one.

Anonymous said...

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't it in every ICT class that they should have two teachers? Middle and High school too?

Anonymous said...

Fact- Most IEPs only require small class or ICT for the student in the four core subjects: ELA, SS, Math & Sci. When the kid goes to art or pe or foreign language, etc
it is all gen ed rules unless iep specifies otherwise.

Anon2323 said...

Exactly the 800 million I am sure found a way to fund himself.

Anonymous said...

Is this true? Where I work they NEVER send a spec ed teacher to prep classes with the students. They also pull paras from students whose IEP's clearly state 1 to 1 para.

Anonymous said...

When one parent who is a sup at DOE found out her child was not getting services complained our school finally got the ICT teachers for each class. Up to that point there were ICT teachers in 9th grade eng classes only even though IEPs stated otherwise.

This parent made things better for all the SWD students and the school.

Anonymous said...

As an ATR in the Bronx I can tell you almost every ICT class I cover, I’m by myself. I have also had to cover District 75 classes in Lehman HS and East Bronx Academy for the Future, as well as others I’ve tried to forget. District 75 is way better that sped classes. The worst is the the sci 7 type classes - very dangerous. One day the darlings beat a sub with their belts and he was taken out in an ambulance. All crime in the schools is being hidden, Bronx high and middle schools are prison yards.

Anonymous said...

In my old high school, students with an IEP had to have a majority of their classes be with team teachers. They didn't necessarily have to have team teachers in all their classes though that would have been ideal.

Anonymous said...

ICT teachers do not have to be in all classes. The IEP states which classes the student will be receiving ICT services. It is usually in the academic classes, not gym, art, music or other electives, unless specified on the IEP.

Anonymous said...

The shame in this article here by Chaz is that the doe has hundreds maybe thousands of qualified, expertise teachers, counselors, social workers all sitting in the atr pool doing nothing but being vilified by the Doe for no reason what so ever!

As they say in NYC you cannot make this shit up

I know sooo many teachers, spec ed teaches alike who are atrs with no classrooms, treated like second class citizens in the school with no classroom, no place to hang a coat or computer no keys to bathrooms, no nothing. Yet the doe being sued by parents for lack of services.....lol lol rolf lmao sad sad sad sad the politically correct nyc

We had Bloomberg for mayor and that was hell on earth. NExt we get diblasio who is a nice guy, misunderstood but non the less a dork who did nothing for us teachers in the nycdoe but continue most of bloombergs crap i.e. fair student funding, tweet loaded with bloomberg people still....so now diblasio saying good bye for presidential run....

our next mayor....hmnnn who could that be?

Anonymous said...

@9:11 while I agree with most of your points, i don't think you really understand what politically correct means...

Anonymous said...

9 35 thanks for the compliment but please explain to me your definition of politically correct.

Anonymous said...

Carmen Alvarez, the former VP for special ed always stated that all classes must have 2 teachers and a para if required.

Anonymous said...

They also say the ATR pool is temporary

Anonymous said...

Chaz,
The big crime here is the amount of money the DOE funds per student. Over the past 15 years, the amount a school gets for a GE student has only gone up about 500 dollars. Really? Consider inflation and increased salaries alone. How does the DOE get away with this funding Chaz?

Anonymous said...

When politicians are in charge of education, the schools, teachers, and students are doomed. Politicians and their minions have their own agendas and educating children is not on the list. Public school education in NYC is such a farce. As a teacher, your choices are (1) learn to play the game or (2) leave.

Anonymous said...

Carranza is racist, read the ny post. Front Page article...

Anonymous said...

Yes, you said it...

"If I was the Chancellor and decided to clean house, many of the people that I would ask to retire, resign, or be demoted would be the Black and White high level administrators and replace them with a more diverse talent pool. That means that there would be less Black and White administrators and more Hispanic and Asian administrators".