Special ed parents urged to write to Cuomo

Both Agudath Israel of America and the Orthodox Union are stressing the need for the new special education bill to be signed into law.

“We want special education children to be appropriately placed so they can learn,” emphasized Leah Steinberg, Director of Special Education Affairs at Agudath Israel. “This is supposed to help them go through the process so they don’t suffer more than they have to.”

Steinberg explained that children in the United States have a legal right to a free and appropriate public education. When a child is unable to learn in a public school setting and the parents find an educationally appropriate private program, they “go through due process and request tuition reimbursement,” she said. If the request is approved, the parents get the tuition reimbursed. “The bill streamlines the process for the public school district and the parents which will achieve a monetary saving for the district. That is the goal, to save money and time for the district and the parents, so the committees can concentrate on the children and spend less time on meetings and parents can be parents.”

Currently, parents have to assess the public schools every year and the private school has to be deemed appropriate every year. Steinberg noted that there are legal costs, excessive paperwork, meetings with staff from the committee on special education, staff for hearings on these decisions and when a district loses a case it has to pay the parents’ as well as its own legal fees.

Steinberg stressed that the first option is to have the child placed in an appropriate public school program. If the placement meets the child’s needs then there is no problem, but in some instances, a private placement may be better for the child, enabling the child to learn. The only time the home environment and family background is important is if the child’s particular educational needs cannot be addressed in the particular place.

“It’s not just religious. It has to affect the child’s ability to learn. It’s not about yeshiva education, it’s about appropriate special education.”