nws pre-k special education lfs rlt autism
This photo illustration shows how some special needs students use iPads to enhance their communication skills. The State Education Department is now enforcing rules on how services provided by a special education itinerant teachers are delivered to pre-K students. (Staten Island Advance/Bill Lyons)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Every Sunday night, when Alessandro Terzulli's family would ask where he was going the next day, the 4 1/2-year-old would hit "school" on his iPad.
Although he's not a student there, Alessandro, who is autistic and non-verbal, has been receiving services the last two years to help him improve his socialization, communication, and other skills, to ready him for kindergarten, from a Special Education Itinerant Teacher (SEIT), at Little Miracles, a program in Clifton that's run by Eden II.
Eden II provides center-based programs for children through young adulthood, with autism and/or pervasive developmental disorder (PDD).
According to his family, Alessandro's individual education plan (IEP) calls for him to receive the maximum hours of SEIT services a day, five days a week. Every morning they drop him off at the center, on Skyline Drive, and pick him up when he's finished.
Come the end of January, however, Alessandro may be a child without a school.
DEADLINE LOOMING
He and other pre-K children who get SEIT services at similar programs across the borough and throughout New York State may be at home because of a state crackdown on existing regulations that specify how and where SEIT services may be provided.
Under regulations set by the State Education Department in Albany, SEIT services for children under 5 need to be received at home or in a licensed daycare center, not in a group, or pre-school center setting during a school day, unless the child is enrolled in the school.
A memo clarifying the regulations, which are not new, was issued in late fall by Assistant State Education Commissioner James DeLorenzo, who is in charge of special education.
Stephanie Terzulli, Alessandro's mom, said she was advised by Eden II, by phone, that to continue receiving his SEIT services she'd have to keep Alessandro home, or put him in daycare until September, when he would be eligible for kindergarten.
"I don't see the difference; the state is still paying for the hours of SEIT services he receives. You would think, that to get the most for their money, they'd want the services to be provided in the best possible environment for the child, so he or she could continue to make progress. It makes no sense," she said.
"We would plan a schedule of things to do daily for Alessandro and now they are telling us to place our children in daycare, home school or public school with a para," she said. "None of these is an option for him right now."
Until this point, she said she had been focusing on getting him ready for kindergarten, and his "Turning Five" evaluation, but now she has to focus on continuing his SEIT services through the fall.
"He can't sit home waiting for his SEIT to come to provide services; he needs the socialization with other kids his age during a school-day setting. He's too old for daycare, and has difficulty adapting to a new setting, so how can we put him anywhere else at this point," said Terzulli, an Eltingville resident who works in the research department of Manhattan's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
EDUCATION PLAN REVIEW
Joanne Gerenser, executive director of Eden II, said she would meet with staff and review Alessandro's IEP, as well as other pre-school-age children receiving SEIT services through Eden II.
For children such as Alessandro, who would be turning 5 and entering kindergarten in the fall, she said her staff may pursue the possibility of a waiver, or variance, to keep them receiving services at Eden through August, instead of disrupting their routine and services.
"The state is saying that SEIT services may not be provided at or in a center setting unless the child is enrolled, and we do have to comply with the regulations set forth by the state," Gerenser said. "But from a professional point of view, it would be harmful to a child's progress to disrupt their routine, and risk a disruption in services, especially at this crucial time, when a child is going into kindergarten."
Explaining the process, Gerenser said that when Eden II staff receive a child's IEP for services, the recommendation is made through the Committee on Pre-school Special Education (CPSE), or the Committee on Special Education (CSE), if the child is 5 or older.
"We're getting recommendations, and we don't have much of a choice. We either begin to provide the child with services on their IEP, or we turn away the child and family, and risk delaying the child from getting services. Our concern is always that the child get the services he or she needs -- is entitled to -- as soon as possible," Gerenser said.
FALLOUT FROM PRE-K
Some borough special education advocates say the broader problem is a shortage of programs and classroom seats -- a fall-out from the city's Pre-K for All initiative -- on Staten Island to serve pre-K-age children with autisim, especially children who need a small, nurturing class environment. These are children, they said, who may not be a good fit for an inclusion class, and may require a 6-1-1 or 8-1-1 class (of six or eight students, a full-time special ed teacher and a paraprofessional) to flourish.
"The real problem is that there are not enough programs, not enough pre-K seats, for these children, so we have to make do to get them services," said Gerenser. She said Eden II only has 20 pre-K seats and all are filled.
Staten Island families led the city in new pre-K registrations. According to the mayor's office, more than 4,800 families enrolled their 4-year-olds in pre-K classes for 2015-2016, up more than 1,500 from 2014-2015. In 2013-2014, in the first months of the mayor's term, there were only 800 Island students enrolled in free pre-K classes. Citywide, more than 65,000 children are enrolled.
Meanwile, the number of special-needs students in Staten Island schools is increasing 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; one in every four Staten Island students has an individual education plan.
"We need to open up more classes and providers for special-needs children, at the pre-K level," said Laura Kennedy, director of the Staten Island Early Childhood Direction Center at Staten Island University Hospital-Northwell Health. "Otherwise," she said, "the problem is going to get worse and these children will just get passed along the line as they age."