Dr. Bonnie Brown Honored as Special Educator of the Year at First Citywide Special Education Conference
By Sybil Maimin
“Long before there was No Child Left Behind, we left no child behind,”
exclaimed Dr. Bonnie Brown as she received the Outstanding Special Educator of
the Year award at the first citywide Special Education Conference. Currently
responsible for 23,000 students as Superintendent of District 75 in Brooklyn,
Brown has been teacher, principal, and administrator during her thirty years in
education and her vast experience comes through as she speaks with toughness,
authority, and compassion about the long battle to adequately serve young
people with special needs. She notes the “incredible number of changes in
thirty years” and the “struggle to keep abreast of what is going on in the
field” while always “maintaining a focus on the children entrusted to us and
their parents…That’s what special education is all about.” This veteran
educator who has been in the trenches, marvels, “Everything old is new again.
We knew about No Child Left Behind thirty years ago…and regardless of political
climate, have always looked at the needs of our kids and focused on what goes
on in the classroom.” Advising, “You can’t educate a child without a good
teacher,” Brown has come to see that the best professional development takes
place in the classroom where master teachers can model and demonstrate skills.
While conferences and famous speakers can energize instructors, mentoring is
the most powerful tool. She recommends study groups for teachers to share
experiences and online professional development sites with breakout rooms where
participants can speak with each other and with experts. Brown has seen some
improvements in the world of special education. “We have moved up from the
basement,” she acknowledges, but “still fight for the same things—use of
the library, gym, and lunchroom at reasonable hours.” The graduation rate has
climbed slowly but steadily as well as the numbers going to college. She is
disturbed by the growing influx of children with autism and the large number of
African-American and Latino students who drop out of school. We do a great job
in K-4, she explains, but success plummets by middle school. Funding for older
students is not available.
A recurrent theme at breakout sessions at the conference was the difficulty of
accessing appropriate programs for children with special needs. Lack of good
guidance and support, long wait lists for programs, and a Department of Education
that focuses on K-3, ignores middle and high school students with special
needs, and does not always know what placements will be available make planning
frustrating, if not impossible. Angela Mouzakitis, a lecturer in the Graduate
Program in Special Education at Queens College, advised, “You must fight for
services. They will not be handed to you. You must dig for programs.” Parents,
savvy and full of questions, spoke of the need to be “very pro-active, to be an
advocate for your child.” The process of figuring out where a child will fit
and applying for a slot is “exhausting, frustrating, and alienating as you sit
and try to sell your child in different ways.” Most parents find it necessary
to retain a lawyer to fight for special accommodations or funding if a private
program is the only suitable option. Dr. Jacob and Bonnie Chachkes uprooted
their family and moved from Atlanta, Georgia to New York City seeking an education
for their special needs child. They have run into obstacles and alternate
between wooing those who can help them with flowers and chocolates and fighting
in the courts. A teacher said she could predict which of her students would end
up in jail, pregnant, or dead because their families could not afford
intervention. “Rich kids are at a great advantage,” she offered. “If kids are
lucky enough to get into a great program, amazing things can
happen…unfortunately, the majority of New York City kids fall through the
cracks.” Dr. Thomas E. Brown of Yale University Medical School noted that even families
with money could face obstacles if they do not agree with a diagnosis or
treatment plan. School politics and the refusal of a school psychologist to acknowledge
a learning disorder can be an obstacle to special services. Dr. Lynda Katz,
president of Landmark College, remarked that despite research in brain
chemistry and much evidence, some people insist learning problems are
behavioral and dismiss the need for special treatment. Dr. Jess Shatkin of the
NYU Child Study Center advised, “It takes an extraordinary amount of time to
deal with these difficult problems. Ideally, start early and have a lot of
money.”#
