Special Needs Education — Blog — Gottlieb & Wang LLP

A Safe Harbor

Another election has come and gone. As they say, all great political acts happen twice; once as tragedy and then as farce — and Trump 2.0 is certainly going to be a lot of that.

Many people in the special education community are anxious about what the administration might do to gut the various executive agencies, especially the Department of Education. I’m reminded of the mood in 2016, when educators were, frankly, scared to death of Betsy DeVos and her insane views on public education. We weathered that storm because DeVos didn't even try to touch special education.

Statistically Significant Bias

We recently had a case regarding a student who withdrew from a NEST program in order to attend a private special education school. For those who don't know, NEST is a specialized program within the Department of Education (DOE) that is specifically intended for children on the Autism spectrum. The classes are all integrated co-teaching classes, and the teachers ostensibly undergo some proprietary professional development. NEST has long been considered the Cadillac of public programs for children with Autism.

Unprofessional Behavior Hurts Everyone

Sometimes, being professional means dealing with unprofessional people. Gottlieb & Wang only recently finished a case that was delayed by an impartial hearing officer who deferred to the DOE representative in a way that was unfair.

The hearing was originally scheduled for one day — about a four-hour block. The hearing started off as any other hearing until the DOE representative unnecessarily prolonged the entire proceeding. Unfortunately for her case, no one could ever be able to get around the fact that her witnesses were lying, and we could prove it.

Private School Spotlight: Achievement Unlocked

Recently, I visited Achievement Unlocked in Brooklyn. Achievement Unlocked doesn’t limit itself to a specific type of student. Rather, their mission is to serve kids who have failed to succeed in other school settings. Brendan Wolff is the founder of the school and I met with school director, Michele Lipman.

Private School Spotlight: Academics West

I recently visited Academics West in Manhattan for a tour and meeting with our friends there. AW is a small, therapeutic K-12 school that particularly focuses on kids who have failed to make progress in other, less supportive settings. A sizable plurality of the kids are behavioral, and the staff does an incredible job attending to their needs.

A Great New Addition to The Lang School

I recently attended the installation ceremony for Mark Otto, the new Headmaster at The Lang School. It was an extraordinary event.

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