New York's Special Education Legislation is Wrong | NSEL

Legislation passed the New York state Legislature last month that proposes a new class of qualifiers for private placement for Special Education students. The bills are awaiting signature from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has until August 1, 2012 whether to sign or veto the legislation.? Cuomo is getting loud pressure from both supporters and opponents of the legislation.? The bill?s summary states that the legislation ?relates to the determinations of appropriate educational programs for certain students.??

The legislation states: ?Such determination shall take into account any possible educational impact differences between the school environment and the child?s home environment and family background may have on the child?s ability to receive a free appropriate public education.??

?The legislation excludes the majority of special needs students and gives an advantage to a newly created class.?? The legislation creates a class of students who are entitled to be placed in a private educational setting because they may learn better at the private educational setting based on environmental and background similarities between the student and the private school.?

The question that arises is how dissimilar are a student?s home environment and school environment, or what is that student?s family background, that precludes him/her from receiving FAPE from a public school.? ??Bets are that this is an attempt by religious schools to have public tax dollars pay for private, parochial educations, were typically, special education students are not best served.? IDEA allows for, and requires school districts to pay for private placement when those private schools have the specialized expertise and resources to meet a child?s need that a public school is not capable of delivering.? However, if the legislation passed, a special-education student with family background and environmental differences, i.e. religious, ethnic, would have more rights than a special education student who does not have educational impact differences between home and school.? It is also important to analyze whether the legislation violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, for in essence, allowing private placement based on religious practices or religious environment.? There is no doubt that Special Education legislation needs amendment.? However, shredding the foundations of our public school systems does not help either.?? ?

Source: http://www.nationalspecialedlaw.com/2012/07/new-yorks-special-education-legislation.html

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