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A lawsuit filed by Public Advocate Letitia James charges the Department of Education is not properly tracking services for special needs students,resulting in many students who are not receiving the services they are supposed to be getting. (Staten Island Advance/Hilton Flores)
(Hilton Flores)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Special education parents on Staten Island are cheering a lawsuit brought by Public Advocate Letitia James against the Department of Education.
The suit charges the DOE is not properly tracking services for special needs students, resulting in many students who are not receiving the services they are supposed to be getting.
The lawsuit calls into question the DOE's $130 million Special Education Student Information System (SESIS), a Bloomberg-era computer tracking system designed to monitor the progress of students with disabilities.
Special ed staffers working with students are required to log information into SESIS about each student's IEP (individualized education program), including details about initial evaluations, meetings with parents, services provided, and any changes made to the plan.
But the system has been fraught with technical problems since it went on-line in 2011, and special ed staffers have long complained they spend too much time on paperwork and entering data, which takes away from time they can be spending on students.
"The program doesn't work and it never has," James said in a statement. She called the failure of the SESIS system "one of the department's worst-kept secrets."
Special education advocate and Community Education Council (CEC) member Laura Timoney, who is also a parent of a child with special needs, agrees the system is faulty, and that more staff is needed to assist with paperwork and free up providers to serve children.
"If this helps to get children the services they need in a timely manner, and hold the DOE accountable, I absolutely support the lawsuit," she said.
Miguel Rodriguez, president of the Staten Island Federation of PTAs, and second vice-president of the Ciitywide Council on High Schools (CCHS), who is a also a parent of a special needs child, said he also supports the lawsuit by the public advocate.
"It's always the same issues. You have the city and the DOE throwing good money after bad. In this case you have a system (SESIS) that's five years old, and they've known about the problems since then and did nothing," Rodriguez said.
"The children who are being hurt here are the city's most vulnerable. So yes, I'm on board with the lawsuit, if only to hold the city accountable," he said.
The DOE says it has been trying to add more special ed providers and clear up a backlog of students awaiting services, while at the same time adding programs and services -- including expanding programs for students on the autism spectrum -- as part of its special ed plan for reforms known as the Shared Plan for Success.
Meanwhile, the number of special education students in Staten Island's District 31 schools continues to increase at an unprecedented rate, outpacing Department of Education programs and resources in the district.
Staten Island has the highest percentage of students in the five boroughs with an IEP; according to DOE statistics, 24 percent of Staten Island students, or 1 out of 4, have an IEP.