Open Letter “Nails It”
The parents and students who are stakeholders in the special education process form a vibrant community. They work together on goals, share strategies, and educate each other. Every once in a while, someone will come along with an article or open letter and essentially “nail” the sentiments of this community.
Special Master David Irwin, appointed by the judge presiding over L.V., et al. v. New York City Dept. of Educ., et al., has penned a letter that aptly captures the frustration of parents while demonstrating an expert’s knowledge.
The letter echoes many of the criticisms that we have made in this blog.
“The NYC Department of Education (DOE) must redefine how it interacts and communicates with parents, advocates, schools, and providers in implementing orders from Hearing Officers […] The current systems and processes used for communicating with families entirely rely on email and a single point of contact, for which they may receive more than 200 emails per day.”
Irwin then segued into the DOE’s technology problems, noting that, “DOE’s current approach to implementing orders echoes the business processes and tools of two decades ago.” That results in humans performing easily automated tasks, like manually typing handwritten text returned to the DOE by students and their families — sometimes on blurry photocopies of photocopies.
“...handwritten forms, wet signatures, scanning, emails (lots of emails), lack of document management, and heavy (heavy) data entry simply copying text from one place to another. These outdated processes require more human staff time as the volume of cases increases. This is essentially the root cause of backlogs and delays.”
It’s estimated that the DOE has about 3,000 cases on hold, largely because it lacks the staff to clear them. When inquiring about their cases, parents often complain that the current lack of transparency only serves to compound their frustrations. It seems unfathomable to parents that they can’t get answers to basic questions like:
How many days does it take to reconvene an IEP meeting, once ordered?
What is the current backlog of payment action items waiting to be authorized?
How many days does a particular type of order take to unpack?
Letters of this nature are often used to alert a judge to broader issues that transcend one particular dispute between two parties. Open letters and amicus briefs are often featured in publications.
The bottom line is that kids are not getting educated, likely because of staff shortages. The attorneys at Gottlieb & Wang are seasoned veterans of the DOE’s gauntlet of obstacles. To learn more about what you can expect, contact us.
Marc Gottlieb
Partner
195 Montague Street
14th Floor
Brooklyn Heights, NY, 11201
Marc@GottliebFirm.com
(646) 820-8506