Nov 17 PEP Meeting @ Tweed

The Good Fight continues! I am oddly pleased that Chancellor Klein did not disappoint on Monday at Tweed during his monthly Panel for Education Policy meeting. As I told my comrade John Englert, President of the Citywide Council on Special Education, during our ride back to Brooklyn, Klein confirmed, yet again and quite publically, that we are not hyperbolically unhinged in characterizing him and his cabinet as appallingly indifferent to the challenges faced by the 180,000+ special needs students and their families in our public school system. We have, indeed, been left behind and marginalized by Bloomberg's Children First reforms.

The more we are stopped in our tracks (by whatever outside force) to think about what we did not realize to be not only problematic but inequitable, the better. And when such an opportunity presents itself in a public forum, and to be occasioned by a high ranking public servant who should possess better social/political skills, and -- moreover -- to have the chance to speak some truth to power, the better for our collective groping toward the democractic and
transparent governance of our public schools.

What I believe is crucial for all of us fortunate enough to find our voice as parent advocates to bear in mind is this: Just how many, many more parents and guardians are out there who are silenced, kept by circumstance and fear from doing so. In the case of families with special needs children, the obstacles and challenges of navigating the currently bifurcated and dysfunctional and downright Byzantine special education and related services delivery system is overwhelming. Many lack the resources to mount concerted action to protect the rights of their kids to FAPE ("free and appropriate public education") guaranteed under federal law (IDEA-Individuals with Disabilites Education Act).  

All too many of us are low income, people of color, stuck in low performing, segregated schools, struggling to provide the basics of food, shelter and safety for their children (often more than have special needs) as single parents (a.k.a. mothers).  In a nutshell: Families of students with special needs in NYC pubic schools do not yet constitute, in the current view of the DOE and the mayor it takes its marching orders from, an "interest group" to be reckoned with. (I was struck by something Klein said, Monday evening at Tweed, in attempt to "apologize" for his unilateral decision to postpone the special education update to next month's meeting. He said that as long as he is Chancellor, special needs students would be "welcome" in our school communities. Welcome? How generous and beneficent of the Chancellor! Hello?! It is his obligation under federal and state law!)