Urgent Call to Action/Albany Shenanigans

[lilly]

The rocket scientists in Albany are at it again.

Below is an email from the Autism Advocacy Network. The proposed cuts to special ed affect spectrum and LD/ADHD kids with reductions in speech & language minimum requirements as well as increased inclusion class sizes.

All those parents augmenting school efforts with private speech therapy and/or ex$pensive tutoring that already pay $12k in increasing taxes are going to be sooooo happy....

It's "all for the kids", right?
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Call NY Regents Today - Speech Therapy Threatened!

If you want children with autism to continue receiving anything but the bare minimum amount of speech therapy required by federal law you need to get on the phone. If you want bigger class sizes for students with autism you need to get on the phone.

The New York Regents, the statewide board that sets school policy, is attempting yet again to reduce the minimum educational standards for students with autism. They want to make integrated classrooms bigger, and to eliminate the minimum speech therapy standards for students with autism. And they are schedule to make this decision during their monthly meeting on the 15th and 16th.

This is what they want to do (in their own words):

repealing the minimum service delivery requirements for speech and language;
authorizing school districts to add up to two additional students to integrated co-teaching classes; and
repealing the requirement that each student with autism receive instructional services to meet his/her individual language needs at a minimum of 30 minutes daily in groups not to exceed two, or 60 minutes daily in groups not to exceed six.

We have until this Friday, November 12 to contact the Regents and persuade them to stop this plan.

And they are quite open about the reasons they want to do this: to save money. Reduce the basic educational services for some of the most vulnerable people in the state to save a few dollars. But the regents havena€(TM)t even bothered to quantify how much would be saved.

We have five days to inundate them with phone calls, faxes, letters and email. We are going to start today with phone calls today.

Please forward this to friends, family, your childa€(TM)s teachers and therapists, everybody you can think of who will help us. And please post this to Face Book and other social networks.

Everybody regardless of where you live in the state call Commissioner Steiner, Chancellor Tisch and Vice Chancellor Cofield. And call the Regent who represents your county, Numbers and lists of counties are below. Please politely tell them why these are really bad ideas.

Four phone calls today is what you must do if you want to keep your childa€(TM)s right to speech therapy intact.


David Steiner, Commissioner
New York State Education Department
89 Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12234
[phone]

Merryl H. Tisch, Chancellor
9 East 79th Street
N.Y., N.Y. 10075
Phone [phone]
[e-mail]

Milton L. Cofield, Vice Chancellor
Judicial District VII - Cayuga, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Seneca, Steuben, Wayne, Yates
98 Hickory Ridge Road
Rochester, N.Y. 14625
Phone [phone]
[e-mail]

Robert M. Bennett, Chancellor Emeritus
Judicial District VIII -- Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans and Wyoming
201 Millwood Lane
Tonawanda, NY 14150
Phone: [phone]
[e-mail]

James C. Dawson
Judicial District IV -- Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery, St. Lawrence, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren, Washington
166 U.S. Oval
Plattsburgh, NY 12903
[phone]
[e-mail]

Anthony S. Bottar
Judicial District V -- Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Oneida, Onondaga, and Oswego
120 Madison Street, Suite 1600, AXA Tower II
Syracuse, NY 13202
[phone]
[e-mail]

Geraldine D. Chapey
Judicial District XI -- Queens
107-10 Shore Front Parkway, Apt. 9C
Belle Harbor, NY 11694
Phone: [phone]
[e-mail]

Harry Phillips, III
Judicial District IX -- Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester
71 Hawthorne Way
Hartsdale, NY 10530
Phone: [phone]
[e-mail]

James R. Tallon, Jr.
Judicial District VI - Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Madison, Otsego, Schuyler, Tioga, Tompkins
United Hospital Fund
Empire State Building
350 Fifth Avenue, 23rd Floor
New York, N.Y. 10118-0110
Phone [phone]
[e-mail]

Roger Tilles
Judicial District Nassau, Suffolk
100 Crossways Park West, Suite 107
Woodbury, N.Y. 11797
Phone [phone]
[e-mail]

Karen Brooks Hopkins
Judicial District II - Kings
30 Lafayette Avenue
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11217
Phone [phone]
[e-mail]

Charles R. Bendit
Judicial District I - Manhattan
111 Eighth Avenue, Suite 1500
New York, N.Y. 10011
Phone [phone]
[e-mail]

Betty A. Rosa
Judicial District XII - Bronx
Chambreleng Hall, Fordham University
441 East Fordham Road
Bronx, N.Y. 10458
Phone [phone]
[e-mail]

Lester W. Young, Jr.
55 Hanson Place Suite 400
Brooklyn N.Y. 11217
Phone [phone]
[e-mail]

Christine D. Cea
Judicial District XIII --Richmond
NYS Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities
1050 Forest Hill Roada۬, Staten Island, NY 10314
Phone [phone]

Wade S. Norwood
74 Appleton Street
Rochester, NY 14611
Phone [phone]
[e-mail]

[Chris_Wendt]

Lilly advised:
"We have until...Friday, November 12 to contact the Regents and persuade them to stop this plan."

Was this successful? Please keep us posted.

Thanks,

Chris Wendt

[lilly]

I think the vote is today. According to a Newsday article yesterday it is expected to pass despite the the Regents being "bombarded in recent weeks by e-mail from parents, speech therapists and other opponents who say changes would slow down students' progress".

Btw, Hidlebrand stating that special ed accounts for 1/3 of total school spending is just plain whopping incorrect. In Wantagh, the figure is more like 12% ($8m/$69m). And love his characterization of "generous" state-wide special ed (NOT).

The article does do a good job of outlining the implications of this change on the issue of guaranteed appropriate education. If a CSE (which includes parents' vote) decides a child needs more than this new minimum, the child *should* get it. Anyway, that is how it is supposed to be interpreted. However, I know Wantagh's "pathology" will be to interpret the new minimum as a maximum, when that is not what the new regs will be saying. Yet they will cite the new regs as their reason for lowering kids' speech. That is how they've done things in the past.

And everybody in Wantagh should get ready for bigger class sizes. With inclusion going from 12 to 14 students, I think the regs also say must have at minimum equal # of general ed students in an inclusion class. So before, the minimum total kids per inclusion class was 24. Now it will be 28 (not a popular class size in Wantagh).

My favorite article quote is "Revisions are supported by Albany-based groups representing most school boards and superintendent on the Island and statewide." Lolololol, oh where to start with that one, given the headlines on superintendent pay. Also, most school boards are comprised of regular laymen citizens who don't necessarily have expertise (in fact, pretty much do not) in special education diagnoses and interventions.

Of all the places to start e.g., consolidation of LI's 125+ districts with their superintendents (pay), consortium buying, centralizing back office services, they start trimming costs with the special ed kids without a critical analysis of what works and what doesn't?

Let's see, Wantagh's special ed scorecard:
- Eliminated preemptive K-2 speech therapy bc it was "optional" in the regs about 2 years ago
- Eliminated aides in the MS and HS resource rooms this year bc it is not mandated in the regs. Again, no critical analysis of what works and what doesn't before making such a change.
- Yet at the same time, Wantagh special education legal expenses morphed into like 10 times what it was 5 years ago.

I won't mention the obvious areas that to date, Wantagh has not reduced at all, rather increased. Ok, I will.... Salary in and benefit costs, retirement fund increases and sports. Gotta love Wantagh school management, they really know where their priorities are, right?

If there ever was a time for Wantagh SEPTA to not disband it is now. There will be increasing cuts to educating kids beyond holes they've already put in the arts and special ed unless Wantagh gets their act together with some serious changes in the way they do business.

I didn't expect to do a morning rant...

Here is the online version of the Newsday article in yesterday's Sunday edition:
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State may ease up on special education rules

Originally published: November 13, 2010 7:41 PM
Updated: November 13, 2010 8:41 PM
By JOHN HILDEBRAND [e-mail]
Quick Summary

State education officials are poised to trim mandated services for thousands of special education students.

State education officials are poised to trim mandated services for thousands of special education students - including some provisions on the books more than 20 years - in an effort to provide financial relief for schools.

The state's Board of Regents is scheduled to vote this week on politically sensitive changes in special education rules that would allow schools on Long Island and elsewhere to raise some class sizes and reduce speech therapy for students with disabilities, including autism.

Special education accounts for about a third of total school costs, including more than $3 billion on the Island alone.

Supporters of the changes say school districts could continue providing all existing services if they wished, and that students with disabilities still will be guaranteed "appropriate" education under federal law. Nevertheless, Regents supporting revisions have found themselves bombarded in recent weeks by e-mail from parents, speech therapists and other opponents who say changes would slow students' progress.

"I don't have a problem with making it more flexible, as long as the parents and the district agree they ought to have that flexibility," said Roger Tilles of Great Neck, who is the Island's representative on the Regents board and is the parent of a teenager with a disability.

Tilles referred to federal requirements giving parents a strong voice in special education services for their children.

The proposals are scheduled for votes by a Regents committee Monday, and by the full board Tuesday. Tilles predicted passage.

Rule changes, debated the past two years, would:

Drop a required minimum of two 30-minute speech therapy sessions each week for students needing this, while maintaining their general right to therapy.

Drop a required minimum of 30 to 60 minutes' daily language training for students with autism, while maintaining their right to such help.

Allow schools to increase the number of special education students temporarily assigned to "inclusionary" classes from 12 to 14 with state permission. Such classes typically are assigned two teachers, along with equal numbers of students with and without disabilities.

Revisions are supported by Albany-based groups representing most school boards and superintendents on the Island and statewide.

However, many parent advocates of students with disabilities view the changes as a retreat from the state's traditionally generous support.

Robert Krakow, the co-founder of the Manhattan-based Elizabeth Birt Center for Autism Law and Advocacy, which provides legal support for children with disabilities, said, "We all understand that we're in difficult financial times, but cost savings shouldn't be placed on the backs of the most vulnerable students who need the most focused interventions."
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