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Deep Cuts Proposed for Special Education, Early Intervention and Autism Services, Your Action is Needed Now!
Governor David Paterson has proposed sweeping cuts to early intervention and special education as a way to address the current budget shortfall. The scope of the propsed changes are sweeping, and would eliminate most of the objective minimum standards of services that school districts and counties must meet, and replace them with programming provided at the discretion of schools districts.
Much of the proposed changes were thoroughly described in the New York State Commission on Property Tax Relief chaired by Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, The Commission began its work well before the financial meltdown that began in the fall of 2008, indicating that the changes proposed below are policy preferences independent of the current financial situation. See the article below to read the text of the Special Education section of the report. Autism United is working in conjunction with other organizations to form a statewide coalition to prevent the cuts. People with autism and other disabilities need a statewide voice to assure that the budget isn’t balanced by sacrificing the neediest among us. Here are some of the worst proposals the Governor has called for: Early Intervention
The Suozzi Commission proposals seek to provide much less funding for Early Intervention and create barriers. No consideration seems to be given to the longterm effect the cutbacks will have on the affected children. Nor that the demand for Early intervention, and special education, increases by 10-15% every due to the autism epidemic. 1. The Autism Tax, Families will have to pay a co-pay for every session with a therapist or teacher for children in Early Intervention. Since the majority of children in Early Intervention either has, or will have, an autism spectrum disorder, this is a new Autism Tax. Clearly, this will force many families to chose between paying the rent and putting food on the table, or providing for those interventions we know do our children the most good in the long run. 2. Passing the Buck to the School Districts without Passing the Bucks, Responsibility for paying for Early Intervention will be shifted from the counties to local school districts, but the counties aren’t going to hand over any of our tax dollars to the school districts. That will force local school district taxes up, or result in huge cuts to Early Intervention. 3. Rationing of Speech Therapy Speech, The Suozzi Commission recommends rationing speech therapy by requiring “a criterion referenced treatment approach.” That means less speech therapy for kids who desperately need it. 4. Going After Non-Existent Insurance Coverage, The Suozzi Commission clearly did not speak to any parents of children with autism in the course of preparing their report because they want parents and Early Intervention service providers to get health insurance companies to contribute to Early Intervention costs. We would like to know what insurance coverage they are talking about. Who provides it? How do you get it? Special Education Governor Paterson in his State-of-the-State Address thanked Nassau County Suozzi for the report and said he will seek to have it implemented. The recommendations in the Suozzi report would dismantle special education, not just for students with autism, but all students. The destruction of special education standards recommended by the Suozzi Commission is truly breathtaking in its severity and scope: 1. Eliminate class size restrictions, School districts would have no limits on the number of students, or the required number of teachers and aides for children with disabilities. 2. Eliminate Educational Standards for Autism The only disability group mentioned by name in the report are students with autism, who the Suozzi specifically identified in the Suozzi Commission Report. The rport says that current service standards for students with autism, which most students with autism do not receive, are "too prescriptive," suggesting too much is being currenlty provided. 3. Roll State Standards Back to the Federal Minimums, The Suozzi Commission report repeatedly advocates rolling back educational standards to the minimums required by Federal Law. And these minimums are very low indeed. If you have any knowledge of special education standards in Florida and other states that just provide the federal minimum, that is what is proposed for New York. 4. Shift the Burden of Proof to Parents, parents who believe that their child is not receiving an appropriate education would be required to prove that in administrative hearings. Now the burden of proof is on the school district. 5. Dramatically accelerate the integration of special education with general education, improving and increasing opportunities to benefit students who need extra help within the general education setting. While this may be beneficial for some students, the point here is to save money not provide for the education needs of students with special needs, or the needs of the mainstream students in the classrooms. Autism United is following these issues closely and is forming a statewide coalition of organizations and individuals to fight the cuts, and program changes. We can only stop these cuts if the entire community with a stake in special education and early intervention works together and gets involved. A good way to start is to send an email directly to Governor Paterson, County Executive Suozzi, and your State Senator and Assemblymember by clicking on the following link, which will take you to the website of the Autism Action Network where you can fill in a brief form and send an email to the decision makers. This will put your contact information in our data base and we will be able to keep you up-to-date and notify you when further action is needed. |
