One of the Lucky Ones

Last night I attended a little-publicized, hastily-called meeting designed for parents to have the chance to talk with the NYC Board of Ed's new Senior Coordinator for Special Education, Garth Harries. First he said he was asked by the Chancellor (and Vice Chancellor! he stressed that several times) to take on the role.

He offered reassurance that his role was not to look for budget cuts but, and I thought this was clever wording, to streamline and condense where practical. (Those might not have been his exact words but that's the gist of it.)

Best quote from his introduction: "A kid getting good services is magical, but it's not magic."

Then he let everyone talk. And wow, was that eye-opening. Parents in da Bronx got issues! Parents with IEPs citywide got issues! Teachers completely ignorant of not only what a certain diagnosis means-- sometimes ignorant of the very fact that a certain child has an IEP.

Given the time and effort I put into DB's IEP, I can't even imagine.

Lest my occasional rants here lead you to think otherwise, I'm so grateful for the Nest program, DuckyBoy's school, and the many trained, caring adults who surround my child daily and want him to succeed.

I was glad to have the chance to defend the program when a very bitter woman tried to paint it as a broken failure ("Kids get kicked out left and right!"). Another Nest mom replied first with a positive comment and I seconded it later, adding it is a program worth keeping AND replicating.

I feel for the woman who spoke -- she has a high-functioning child but (if I pieced it together right), because he needs a para, was told he is not appropriate for Nest. But it was clear when I spoke to her after the meeting that there was nothing I could say to convince her the program is a success. ("Look at how Long Island does it! The whole country does it better!" Uh, okay.)

Otherwise, almost every other parent was reasonable, if frustrated.

It seemed to me that Harries is making a comparative, prioritizable list of what types of issues come up around the city. So since other people mentioned teacher training, para training, IEPs, promotion, transition issues (which is more for the high-school level), all I said was: BUSING.

We were each given index cards to write issues on, so on it I elaborated: Bus quality, language gaps, accessibility (cell phone etc), length of routes, sensory and emotional issues. Someone else said driver and matron training regarding special ed kids. Amen to that!

I also wrote:

• Earlier approval for summer programs
• Continued funding for the additional adult support in our program
• Teaching additional school personnel (lunch ladies, security guard, librarian, etc.) strategies for speaking to our kids
• More training for teachers on writing IEPs

Someone asked if there was anyone who could help her write her IEP goals. At least they didn't laugh at her, but the answer is, Of course not. Not in the school system -- it's their job to give you as little as they can get away with! I'm sure the people who rushed that mom after the meeting told her as much, and gave her contact info for groups like Advocates for Children.

What the officials did let slip was that there are people called "IEP specialists" who are supposed to help the teachers learn to write IEPs. There are like 6 per boro, according to John Mulligan from the Manhattan ISC, and principals can have them come to do staff training. I've been lucky that each year so far there's been at least one someone on DB's team who drafts appropriate goals. But it was clear this year that the classroom teachers did the least; maybe an in-service for them could be arranged.

In the end, the meeting certainly put my concern about art at DB's school next year into perspective. Not that I don't want to advocate for it, but it's certainly going to be far down on the list of priorities of special-ed issues that need DOE attention and funding. It's clearly only something for the school level, not to be raised any higher.