NYC: "Unprecedented" investment in SPED services for youngest students
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“Children with disabilities should not be forced to travel across the city just to get the education they deserve,” Mamdani said in a statement. “That’s why we’re bringing those classrooms closer to home and taking another critical step toward making Pre-K truly universal. Every child deserves to learn and grow in their community, and every family deserves a public education system that meets them exactly where they are.”
The specificity of the investment is unprecedented in New York City, where more than 200,000 students are eligible for special education services.
“For the first time, we’re giving young children with autism and other disabilities the same high-quality, specialized instruction that has delivered real results for our older students,” Samuels said in a statement. “This investment is about strengthening the foundation and when we get early childhood education right, we set children up for a lifetime of success.”
To expand special education services to the city’s youngest learners, New York City Public Schools will hire hundreds of staffers to help lower evaluation delays; assist families through the process of creating a legally binding personalized school roadmap for children with special needs, known as Individualized Education Program (IEP); and provide more bilingual assessment options. Overall, more than half of all children in New York City come from homes where a language other than English is spoken and in the majority of those homes, that language is Spanish. Among the new hires will be 35 psychologists, social workers, speech evaluators and occupational therapists across 10 additional Preschool Regional Assessment Centers, or city-run evaluation hubs that identify children ages 3 to 5 who qualify for special education services.
The Special Education Itinerant Teacher program will also grow, with an additional 29 therapists and specialists to support children attending community-based 3-K and pre-K programs. According to city officials, the placement of more special education teachers in general education preschool classes will help boost the number of small children with IEPs in inclusive learning environments. . . .
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