Notes - NYC Roundtable

Temporary Task Force on Preschool Special Education
New York City Regional Roundtable
Site: 45-18 Court Square, Long Island City
August 3, 2007

The members of this group were outraged that only two representatives from NYC are members of the 15 member temporary preschool task force. They want to know why IAC is not in the temporary task force. Facilitator responded that the Governor decided who was on the task force.

Relationship between parents, Early Intervention (EI) service coordinators and staff are good. Not all service coordinators are familiar with the Committee on Preschool Special Education (CPSE) process.
Most of group felt EI transition does not work. Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Education (DOE) are not working together; they are two different agencies with different philosophies. DOH and DOE need to work together. They must establish the same goals.
Transition is stressful for families because if they do not have the Individual Education Program (IEP) meeting before the child’s third birthday, they are out of EI. It is ridiculous to have to do two IEP meetings if students remain in EI for an additional 6-8 months. It is not productive to do an evaluation and an IEP for a child 8 months before the child starts school. It is meaningless.
Get rid of DOH. Birth through 5 should be under DOE, DOE is a more organized system. DOH has certain strengths but transition would work better if there was just one system rather than two.
DOE/CPSE (Committee on Preschool Special Education) regulations are based on education, DOE/EI is more family focused and they listen to parent input.
A regulatory agency may need to be established to coordinate DOH/EI and DOE regulations. A combination or the best of DOH and DOE is needed.
The EI service coordinator needs more training about CPSE.
EI service coordinators and Early Intervention Official Designee (EIOD)’s are always changing; there are not enough knowledgeable people in the system. EI and CPSE should be combined-a hybrid of both systems is needed. Make one system through DOE.
Transportation under Office of Pupil Transportation (OPT) is working well
Other states do not have a birth-5 split.
As EI tightens up on services, children are not prepared for preschool Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). More intense services should be given in EI to prevent children needing more help when they grow older. Before EI changed criteria for evaluations and services, more students did not require special education services when they turned three.
For turning 5 transition and LRE, the type of classes, /services differs from district to district and from borough to borough. .
CPSE’s/CSEs (Committee on Special Education) in different boroughs and even different districts are not consistent in the way they recommend services.
More accountability and supervision of CPSE.
Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) should give priority to accepting students with disabilities.
Providers who want to run integrated classes cannot get general education students to come for 2.5 hours. The hours of UPK and SED approved integrated classes are not the same.
Providers are not getting enough money to run a responsible program. They often lose staff to DOE and cannot compete with the salaries DOE offers. A committee addressed rate setting 10 years ago, whatever happened with their recommendations?
Rate reconciliation does not work. Programs do not know what their rate is for 8 months. Programs are frowned on if they apply for a waiver.
If schools have a vacancy in their program they are not paid. However, they need the money to run the program i.e. they still need therapists, teachers, etc.
Should there be a regional rate? Some programs are more costly to run than other programs. Private preschools lose staff to EI because EI pays much more. Fee for service is impossible to implement because of competition, Special Education Itinerant Teacher (SEIT) should not be fee for service. Consider regionalized rates for SEIT providers.
Providers want to look into the possibility of purchasing state retirement and health care packages.
Are the models for applied behavior analysis (ABA) appropriate? How can we better collaborate with community agencies to make ABA work?
The SED (State Education Department) delivery system does not provide any flexibility to serve kids who need ABA. You can’t change class ratios without another IEP conference.
Preschool should have declassification services like school age.
There should be a way to study and record trends in disability occurrence i.e., there was a huge increase in pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) which no one was prepared for in terms of service.
Regression for preschool students is not the same as regression for school age students.
There needs to be more flexibility in providing service for bilingual students.
Why can’t DOE therapists work for preschool after 3:00? Why is it a conflict of interest?
It was noted that this is in the NYC Charter and cannot be changed. Providers want this investigated.
Why must a PHD psychologist as opposed to a school psychologist do evaluations? It was noted that this is part of Practice Act Law.
Turning 5 students who are decertified from special education services should be monitored.

Group: OTHER (County representatives, advocates, early intervention people, and day care representatives)

Special class in the integrated model is working well.
The early childhood direction center (ECDC) has been a big help to parents. All parent centers are very helpful and we need more.
It does not make sense for EI and CPSE to be two different structures.
School districts should take on the responsibility of the evaluations; counties should stay out of it.
UPK is for 4-year-olds. Recommend an incentive to allow the use of UPK for 3-year-olds.
EI students who turn three between September and December should be allowed to start CPSE the following September. January transition does not make sense. But parents should have a choice.
Raise the rate for related service providers.
EI has a responsibility to coordinate the referral to CPSE. There is a serious lack of coordination from EI.
Parents are not getting the CPSE packet in a timely manner.
The transition plan and the individual family service plan (IFSP) should be coordinated so that the parent is directed to CPSE in a timely manner. Some EI coordinators discourage parents from going to CPSE.
If CPSE agrees that a surrogate parent is needed it should be able to be the EI surrogate parent. There should be standard certification for the surrogate parent.