City’s Special Ed Students Being Shortchanged of Legally Mandated Help (NY)
March 30, 2011
Many special education students in city schools are not receiving legally mandated help to get them ready for college or a job, a new report found.
The ARISE Coalition looked at 222 educational plans for students with disabilities and found that only a quarter of the students had any planning meeting – and more than half didn’t listed the kind of diploma the student was aiming for.
Advocates say that the lack of preparation contributes to the shocking special education statistics: only one in four students with disabilities graduated from high school in 2009 and only 15% of adults with disabilities statewide have college degrees.
"It’s devastating because those kids who do make it to college often find themselves without the skills they need," said Maggie Moroff of the ARISE Coalition, a special education advocacy group. "For students with more profound disabilities, they are not set up with the supports they will need outside to make it."
For college-bound students, the report said, schools should make sure they know how to access the extra tutoring support services their first year out. For those hoping to enter the workforce, they need to be made aware of the state agencies that can connect them with job training, Medicaid and housing assistance.
City officials say they understand there is a problem and have set up a transition team to look at ways to improve services for special education students.
"We are giving students with disabilities greater access to general education classrooms and creating more accountability for the graduation rates of students with disabilities on school progress reports," said Education Department spokeswoman Deidrea Millier.
Kayvon Barefield, a special education student at Cascade High School in lower Manhattan, wants more help.
"They mostly want to make sure you’re doing what you need to do to get through school," said the eleventh grader, "but they don’t really help with things after that."