Bethlehem, NY: Store to be turned into $6.5M special school for 50 students

A former ShopRite in Bethlehem will be turned into a school for children with disabilities, thanks to $6.5 million from the state, the governor’s office announced Thursday. The school will be the new, larger location of the Langan School owned and operated by the Center for Disability Services in Albany.

The new center is set to be built in a vacant ShopRite at 41 Vista Blvd. in Slingerlands that will be renovated. The grocery store will provide enough space to serve 50 children with disabilities, the governor’s office said. . . ..

Gov. Kathy Hochul said the funding would “transform underutilized spaces” and “make a difference in people’s lives for the better.”

The news release from the governor’s office said the Center for Disability Services has “more demand for services than it can meet,” with an “extensive” waitlist.

The project is proposed even as the center has for years has struggled to get enough teachers for Langan, often relying on substitute teachers and aides.

This spring, Center for Disability Services CEO Gregory Sorrentino cited the high demand as the reason to keep accepting students when he couldn’t hire enough certified special education teachers for them. He has relied on substitutes, which is allowed by the Education Department for private schools. He said Wednesday that recruiting special education teachers for the school is a “daily priority.” 

The new school will open in about two years, he said. . . .

Langan School, which is located on South Manning Boulevard in Albany and is part of the Center for Disability Services, provides educational services for K-12 students from 58 districts in the Capital Region. Last spring, it was largely being run with teacher aides, who implemented plans designed by one certified special education teacher. The center also hired some teachers — but they kept leaving, sometimes within weeks, as documented in regular announcements sent to parents.

Last year, the school had 15 classrooms but only one with a certified special education teacher.

Sorrentino said that aides were better than nothing.

“Here’s the difference — public schools just close classrooms,” he said. “If they can’t run a (special education) classroom, they just close it. I don’t know that’s the best for a student either.” . . .

The state Education Department sided with the parent. If a child’s IEP calls for a special education teacher, the student cannot be placed in a classroom run by aides, the department wrote in a letter announcing the findings of its investigation.

“Instruction must be delivered by a certified special education teacher,” the department wrote. “Even though the teaching assistant (at Langan School) was mentored by the Assistant Director, a teaching assistant or teacher aide cannot be the sole provider of instruction to students with disabilities.”

But the department focused on the one student at the center of the complaint. The letter did not specifically direct the Center for Disability Services to hire special education teachers for the rest of the students, even though their IEPs usually call for that.

Sorrentino said it would be “very difficult” to hire the 14 special education teachers needed to place one in each classroom.

“The governor is committed to supporting students in the Capital Region who rely on these services and will continue to work with her local and state partners to bolster schools statewide with the support necessary to help every child succeed,” said spokesperson Kristin Devoe. She noted that Hochul has increased funding to schools so they can pay special ed teachers more.

It’s not clear how many special education teachers are employed at the Langan School now.