Disability

Nearly 10,000 NYC preschoolers with disabilities aren’t getting legally required city services

A new report from nonprofit Advocates for Children of New York highlights how the city is failing to provide services like speech therapy that it’s supposed to.

A student at the Joan Snow Pre-K Center in Brooklyn on November 30, 2021

A student at the Joan Snow Pre-K Center in Brooklyn on November 30, 2021 Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

When Flushing, Queens parent Nathaly’s son turned three, he went without his physical and occupational therapies for a year and a half. Every time she reached out to the New York City Department of Education, she was told the same thing: they didn’t have any therapy available. While he’s since resumed services about a month ago, the damage from that stretch of time he went without has been lasting.

“It went very bad for him,” she said in Spanish. “He retreated inside himself. He’s now about to turn five and he can’t sit still.”

Nathaly’s story is far from an isolated incident. A new report from Advocates for Children of New York, a nonprofit for underserved students, found that 37% of New York City preschoolers with disabilities – around 9,800 children – went last school year without receiving at least one of the services the Department of Education was legally required to provide. 

“It is a huge number. I think it does signal a crisis and it signals a systemic violation of the rights of preschool students with disabilities,” said Betty Baez Melo, director of Advocates for Children’s Early Childhood Education Project. “Unfortunately, the trend is going in the wrong direction.” 

The city must provide services like speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and Special Education Itinerant Teacher services to children who are deemed eligible. While the number of students who received their mandated services during the 2021-2022 school year is lower than it was in the two years prior, early anecdotal evidence suggests that the problem has persisted into the current school year and perhaps even gotten worse, she added. The DOE has only been publicly releasing the data since the 2019-2020 school year so it is unclear what things looked like further back. 

“We are continuing to hear from (parents) that their children have been waiting all school year for one of their therapies, that they’ve been waiting all school year for a special education teacher to work with their child one on one for part time services,” Baez Melo said of the current school year. “These are all children who have a legal right to the services.”

Nicole Brownstein, a spokesperson for the education department, said the Adams administration is committed to fixing prior wrongs.

“We agree with the concerns of our parents and advocates that for far too long students with disabilities were excluded from programming and services,” she said in a statement. “We are working to ensure that all students receive the services, supports, and resources that they need to succeed – from opening more special education seats in early childhood programs to hiring more staff across the system, we are prioritizing our students with disabilities.” 

Several other key takeaways from the report include the fact that not a single school district fully served even 85% of  its preschoolers with disabilities. Over 40% of students enrolled in five Brooklyn districts’ 3-K and Pre-K programs completed the year having never received even one of their mandated services. More than 5,300 children never received occupational therapy. Over 6,500 children who needed speech therapy didn’t have a single session of service last school year. Service shortages were sprawling – at least one in five preschoolers never received their mandated speech therapy in 26 of the city’s 32 community school districts. A disproportionate percentage of impacted children are Black, Hispanic and Asian, and or living in temporary housing, according to the report. 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and schools Chancellor David Banks have contended that many of the problems that have plagued the city’s early education division – such as delayed payments to providers, accusations of mismanagement, and a lack of access for students with disabilities – began under former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration. Underscoring that claim in December, Adams vowed to address the longstanding shortage by adding 800 more special education preschool seats by spring 2023. He also vowed to increase the pay for special education teachers who have historically been difficult to retain and in short supply.

While the city says it has made some progress in expanding access, opening 700 new seats and locking in funding for 6,500 existing seats, there are still over 300 preschoolers waiting for a seat in the necessary special education class as of several weeks ago, according to the report.

“Failure to provide these services now will likely mean that these children may need more intensive and expensive services, or interventions when they get to kindergarten or other grades,” Baez Melo said. “It's just a really key, key window to provide the services for young children.”

With reporting by Ralph R. Ortega

NEXT STORY: Rap Music on Trial bill would stop prosecutors from citing irrelevant lyrics in court

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.