LEGISLATIVE AGENDA:
Early Intervention and Special Education Services
March, 2015
Early Intervention Services
- Legislators must provide a 4.8% funding increase to preserve essential Early Intervention services.
Early Intervention (EI) is an investment that actually pays for itself in the long run. EI provides developmental and therapeutic services to infants and toddlers with quantified delays, ages birth to 3—the optimal time for affecting permanent brain development. Studies show that EI increases children’s skills and thereby reduces future need for costly government services and supports.
EI providers are in financial distress. State rates for EI have been inadequate since the inception of this program over 20 years ago. Incredibly, those initial inadequate rates have significantly diminished since then: there has been only one paltry increase in the last 13 years, but several cuts, including a 5% cut five years ago and several targeted cuts in New York City that resulted in additional decreases of up to 9%! To make matters worse, EI providers have been compelled to bill private insurers and Medicaid for EI services, a fiscally onerous burden for which they receive no reimbursement.
EI programs throughout the state have closed, casualties of the appalling reimbursement rate. Most of the former EI providers are large, experienced non-profits with expertise in cerebral palsy, autism, complex medical conditions, and other developmental disabilities. Few, if any, new providers possess comparable expertise. Every day, the remaining providers continue to assess whether they can afford to continue. Without a significant rate increase, EI programs will disappear, depriving young children and their families of the very services that could change their lives.
Preschool Special Education Services
- The Legislature must provide an interim 5% tuition increase as well as a statutory index for annual tuition increases for 4410 classroom-based special education preschool programs.
The public schools assign many students with disabilities to the 4410 non-public special education preschools because the public preschools provide only limited special education services. The 4410 schools are an extension of the public sector.
With no tuition increases for six years, despite rising costs, these special education preschools are dangling by a thread. They are running huge deficits, losing thousands of dollars per child. They have already cut staff, delayed repairs, reduced benefits, and taken other emergency measures. Now, with nothing more left to cut, providers are facing the wrenching decision of whether to close.
Public schools receive annual tuition increases, but 4410 preschools do not. The State Education Department should provide a statutory index for annual tuition increases for the 4410 preschools, comparable to the index used to calculate the annual increases for the public schools. Now that New York State has finally recognized the importance of early childhood education and has increased funds for Pre-K, it is unforgivable to deny equivalent resources to its most vulnerable children.
Special Education
- The Legislature must reject the Governor’s proposal permitting school districts and BOCES to waive state-imposed special education requirements.
Repudiating long-standing student protections, the Governor is proposing, again, to invite school districts and BOCES to apply for a waiver of any state-imposed special education requirement that exceeds federal standards. For example, districts could waive regulations governing class size and ratios, class grouping by age and learning needs, and time frames for implementing the IEP. The purpose of such regulations was to promote productive learning environments. Waiving them will undermine successful student outcomes. A more productive approach would be for the state to establish a workgroup to explore waiving other types of regulations which offer mandate relief without harm to students.