Officials are planning an overhaul of the district that serves more than 20,000 of the city’s most disabled students – a move that could put many more special-ed kids in regular classrooms.
The effort stems from an independent report that proposes ending the decades-long segregation of District 75 by merging its data, funding and oversight and, especially, more of its students with those of the 32 traditional community school districts.
Unlike geographically based districts, District 75 has 296 schools spread around the five boroughs, serving a majority of kids with emotional disabilities, autism or mental retardation.
About 1,800 of its students attend general-education classes full time, but nearly 15,000 others whose classrooms are housed within traditional public schools don’t have a single class with their general-education peers, the report says.
“I think key to all of our recommendations was wanting to see a more porous relationship between the Department of Education and District 75 as far as how it functions at the top of the system all the way on down to the classrooms as far as integrating kids,” said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, which conducted the study.
Education officials said that they’d already embraced some of the report’s recommendations – such as enhanced training for principals at traditional public schools – but that they want to get feedback from parents before taking action.
Deputy Schools Chancellor Marcia Lyles said that there were no immediate plans to abolish District 75 but that she supported the big-picture goal of dissolving the dividing lines between districts.
“All of our principals, all of our schools are expected to support students with disabilities,” said Lyles, who could not provide a timeline for any possible changes – which could also include cuts to personnel.
Parents have been fighting tooth and nail for years to keep District 75 intact because they say traditional schools can’t serve their kids.
Yet they’ve also complained about their children’s segregation within regular schools – to the point that they’re treated like second-class citizens.
Although she applauded education officials for seeking ways to end the isolation of kids in District 75, Maria Garcia, president of Parents of Blind Children of New York, said she was wary of what the changes could mean.
“It’s very difficult to trust the system because it’s not one that has been very supportive of our kids or desirous of having our children in their classrooms,” said Garcia, whose daughter attends a District 75 school within a traditional school in Manhattan.