Assemblyman David I.

Weprin Press Conference September 30, 2012

More Than 150 Parents Gather at City Hall to Protest NYC DOEs Decision To Deny Services For Pre-School Special Needs Children

Good Afternoon. Thank you to everyone who has gathered here today to stand up for what is right for our children. I welcome my esteemed colleagues and partners in this fight, Brooklyn Assemblyman Jim Brennan and Brooklyn State Senator Eric Adams, as well as Queens Assemblyman Edward Braunstein. We are thrilled to see so many parents, providers, educators, and advocates assembled here today, especially United New York Early Intervention Providers and Parents as Partners (UNYEIP) Founding Director Leslie Grubler, who works tirelessly on behalf of this citys youngest and most vulnerable children.

Today we are here to tell the New York City Department of Education that we will not tolerate the Committee of Pre-School Special Educations decision to abruptly suspend critical services for pre-school special needs children in New York City. These children need and deserve a continuity of services; disrupting the educational and therapeutic process is not only unfair, but harmful to their overall cognitive development and ability to thrive in an educational environment. We understand how important it is for children to have a meaningful, on-going relationship with their providers the speech and language therapists, physical and occupational therapists, counselors, and special

instructors and that the overwhelming evidence that points to the critical need for uninterrupted services.

Over the summer, the Committee on Pre-School Special Education signed contracts with large agencies to provide these specialized services to all Pre-K children and began to refuse to honor all prior agreements or written contracts with independent providers arranged by parents for their children. This has been a tremendous burden on a population that is already stressed by difficult circumstances, particularly those with limited means or language barriers. This sudden change in CPSE policy goes against a long understood process that allows parents to choose the providers that will work with their vulnerable children. There is no evidence that the NYC DOE has officially notified parents or providers of this drastic change in policy. Not only is this is unacceptable, but one can only imagine the distress it is causing families all across the city.

While the NYC DOE engages in the egregious process of transferring children with special needs to large agencies that will provide special education services at a lower cost than the providers they previously contracted with, the NYC DOE is taking away all parents rights to choose a provider for their children. The NYC DOE is removing NYC parents from this important decision-making process. The CPSE is telling parents they know what is best for their children! They are putting

cost-savings measures ahead of the best interests of our children, telling parents their only option is to comply.

To date, a UNYEIP online petition urging the NYC DOE to reverse this change in policy and return this choice to parents and families has gathered more than 3,000 signatures. The NYC DOE does not respond to calls, emails, or letters. Our parents and families take this very seriously. As do individual providers who project they will lose more than half of their incomes as a result of this shift from individual providers to large agencies. On Staten Island, the one NYCDOE designated agency has not even opened yet; existing facilities do not appear capable of handling hundreds of new children.

This is an urgent matter. While parents scramble to find new providers for their children and decry this unexpected change in policy, children are not receiving services and losing out every single day. We are asking the NYC DOE to allow parents a voice in this process and to sit down with UNYEIP and other stakeholders to reach a compromise or resolution on behalf of our children with special needs in New York City. We will not tolerate being ignored on this issue.

I intend to fight this change in policy and will not back down until an agreement can be reached that is amendable to parents. We will not allow the DOE to make unilateral decisions that so clearly endanger the well-being of our children and

their right to equitable educational opportunities. This is not about dollars and cents. This is about doing what is right by our youngest citizens.

Copyright 2012. All Rights Reserved.