Editorial: Intuition for special-needs tuition

As the budget talks continue in Albany, our community looks to the painful budget cuts not only as taxpayers but also as parents. Much attention has been paid to the possibility of New York City public school teachers facing layoffs as a result of the budget. But hidden inside the dramatic testimonials is an even more costly proposition, which would greatly impact the viability of special education programs in the Jewish community.

Currently, parents seeking to enroll their special-needs child in a private school, while receiving tuition reimbursement from the state, must appear before a special hearing officer testifying that the public school does not fit their child’s specific needs. The burden of proof is on the schools to demonstrate otherwise.

Seeking to plug the $10 billion gap in the state budget, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposes for the state shift the burden of proof to the parents, forcing their special-needs children to attend public school before demanding that the child be transferred to private school. To avoid this, parents would have to engage in costly lawsuits so that their children would receive the reimbursements in private school. The alternative would be to pay full private special-needs tuition, a prospect that is difficult enough in a community where many families have existing multiple tuitions.

The special education programs provided by yeshivot and community organizations have been proven to be cost-effective and attentive to their own specific needs, in conjunction with the secular studies and therapy programs.

Unable to afford full tuition of private schools, many parents of Orthodox special-needs children will be forced to choose which of their children will have the privilege to learn in a Torah environment. Additionally, it will limit the parents’ spending power and will erode the quality of education in Orthodox special education programs.

Bloomberg’s advice to run government along the lines of a corporation will keep the budget balanced in the short term, but forcing some New York State Orthodox special-needs children into public school may be much more costly for the long term cohesion of our community.