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Member Eva Moskowitz Hosts Forum on Special Education
By Tom Kertes
If
an expression of curiosity and caring at an open forum on the
part of “government” goes a long way toward solving problems,
the “Forum on Special Education” in Community School District
2, headed by Council Member Eva Moskowitz, can be termed an unqualified
success. “I have a four year-old at home with learning delays—so
my involvement is personal as well as professional,” Moskowitz,
the Chair of the Council’s Education Committee, said in her opening
remarks.
The exceptionally informative panel of speakers touched on a broad
range of issues of concern to the one hundred-plus in attendance.
“Following the new continuum recently put into effect, we at the
Department are looking at special education services in a variety
of different and novel ways,” said Linda Wernikoff, Deputy Superintendent
of Special Education reform at the Department of Education. “Due
to the upcoming budget cuts, we are also trying to maximize the
limited resources we are able to spend by rethinking our services
and the ways we are delivering them.”
“Our
main focus is on the following points,” added Wernikoff. “We used
to rely on segregated special ed classes. Now we are looking at
how to expand services so the majority of these kids could be
in a general educational environment. We are looking at referral
patterns; minorities and foreign language students are clearly
over-represented in the special ed population. And, in order to
improve the overall quality of our services, we are also looking
at the de-certification process. This is going to be done in order
to see how we can best transition children into the general education
population.”
Panel Member Shane Humphries, a District 2 parent, was not overly
optimistic. “My personal experience is that the new continuum
looks good on paper,” he said. “But, in practice, it seems to
be a road to nowhere, at least for now. When we call for action
or a follow-up under the new rules, no one at the school or at
the Department of Education steps up to the plate in order to
translate words into action.”
On the other hand Sarita Rein, Chair of the Committee on Special
Education in District 2, saw the cup as half full. “The new continuum
allows for a wider than ever variety of ways to educate our special
ed kids,” she said. “In our district, our collaborative teaching
classes–which have a regular teacher and a special ed teacher
in the same classroom – went up in numbers from 2 to 49 just in
the past school year. Have they been perfect? Have they been the
most appropriate way to help every child? Of course not.
But overall, we can safely say that they’ve been a great success.”
Advocate Miguel Salazar, Program Director for Public Education,
Resources for Children with Special Needs, was far more cautious
in his evaluation. “As expected, implementation of the new continuum
has been a case-by-case struggle,” he said.
Dr, Katherine Garnett, Chair of the Special Education Department
at the Hunter School of Education, spoke of the problems as both
nationwide and systemic. “What I’m trying to get across to you
parents is that, wherever I go in this country, the same forces
are trying to unravel the laws in force, and the funding currently
in place, for special education,” she said. “So, in order to counter
these forces, you as parents and advocates must congregate together
and speak as a powerful, unified group with one voice.”
Opening the floor to the public, Moskowitz asked to “focus on
implementation. Yes, the problems can be overwhelming at times,”
she said. “And we will look at all of them, large or small. But
I’m sure there are some of them we can start to solve right here
and right now.”
Such as a non-working answering machine at District 2, the subject
of the complaint of a beleaguered Melissa McNeese who was the
first parent at the microphone. “It’s impossible to get through,”
she said. “We’ll make it possible,” Moskowitz promised. Then things
got tougher: frustrated parents spoke passionately of everything
from “impossible overcrowding in classes where no instruction
can be done,” to “an absence of sufficient flexibility in the
new continuum.” There was also widespread agreement among the
public to the effect that “inclusion and decertification is not
for everyone;” they also called for a profound change in attitude
toward special ed kids and parents by principals and schools.
“There is a systemic, general environment of disrespecting parents,”
one speaker said. “Truth is, many principals look at us as a necessary
evil they must somehow tolerate. We may need a complete reeducation
of those in authority before real change can be effectuated.”
As the evening wore on, it also became clear that the overall
lack of funding–which is about to get worse due to the upcoming
budget cuts–often makes even the best intentions impossible to
implement. “I promise that we will do our level best to change
things,” Moskowitz said. “We, in government, must hear what you
the public has to say from close up. That is why I came here.
And that is why we are going to have these town meetings very
often from now on.”#
Education
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