School Accessibility Gets $150 Million Boost in N.Y.C. Budget
June 25, 2018
By: Christina Samuels
Source: Education Week
For years, Brooklyn resident Rebecca Kostyuchenko and her family members have visited her daughter Jacqueline’s school every day. They have to make that visit in order to carry Jacqueline, who has a mobility impairment, up and down stairs to classrooms, to the gymnasium, and to the cafeteria. Her neighborhood school is not accessible to children with certain physical disabilities, but her parents said it was important to them that she attend school with her neighborhood friends.
New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson recounted that story during a recent announcement that the city is planning to spend $150 million of its $89 billion budget to pay for accessibility improvements in buildings throughout the one million-student district.