MY 11 year old son is Autistic and from the time of his diagnosis at age 5 I have been in a constant battle with the New York City Board of Education to provide my son with an appropriate education. The level of my son's autism requires highly structured individualized instruction for him to grasp and retain academic subjects. Although the Board of Education agrees that he requires this level of instruction and is well aware that the public school system in the Bronx New York is over crowded under staffed and not equipped to educate a child that requires this level of instruction, the Committee on Special Education located at 333 7th avenue refuses to even consider allowing my child to remain in any private institution of education that can adquately provide the education my child needs. I have identified and placed my child in a school that has been successful in getting my child to read and write independently as well as identify his strength in math. The CSE rejected the school for my son claiming that he has only made little progress at the school and that an over crowded school with a C rating would be able to make more progress with him. My child's pediatrician wrote a letter to the CSE explaining how detrimental removing him would be due to the fact that this is the first step hook that he has remained in over 1 yr during his short educational history. The CSE totally ignored that letter and decided to follow the suggestion of a special education teacher who has never laid eyes on my son and a school psychologist who never met him as well. I have asked several people from the BOard of Education why they will not allow my son to stay where he is in a state approved private school and no one can provide me with an answer that makes sense. I was told he does not meet the criteria and when I asked what is the criteria the person said she is not at liberty to explain it to me. I was also told that I have to first place him in public school before they can justify even referring him for private education. The law that addresses special education and placement of a child with special needs specifically says that attendance in a public school is not required before a private placement can be considered; however due to the fact that I can not afford an attorney to advocate for my son every year and due to the fact mty child is African American from the south Bronx education in a school with predominantly Caucasian children from economically well off parent/ guardians is not appropriate the CSE went as far as putting a statement in my son's IEP Individualized Education Plan that he likes to wrestle although they also state that my son does not interact with other children unless prompted to do so. My son does not wrestle he doesn't like hands on play. However my son does like soccer and horse back riding but they would never mention that I guess they assumed because he lives in a community where the people are.known to be physically aggressive with one another he is also that way there is nothing further from the truth. The situation with the Board of education is that wealthy people who can afford to pay for a.private education are fully funded by the state for their children's education and a person such as myself have to go without food for days at a time just to save up enough to pay lawyers and travel to palaces to try to obtain help for my son. This is also how I discovered that children from affluent families do not face these challenges I also discovered that the attorneys that practice pro bono (for free) also help to ensure that a certain type of people are not fully funded for these placements they will advocate for one year of funding and then for some reason that doesn't make sense to anyone they will not represent the disadvantaged person again the next year. This has been my experience with three different attorneys. I have also been the victim of first time attorneys having my request denied for technical errors that a first year law student shouldn't make. The worst part is when my child has to leave a school these people that spend all year praising my child and assuring me that everything will be fine next year turn and walk away with not as much as a backward glance. My child cries to me "I don't have a school again?" I assure him that I will find one for him and I do and we go through the motions of buying uniforms making nice with other parents and teachers only to have another door slammed in our faces in June saying "Your not good enough to and be aware housed in the south Bronx with the rest of the children who are expected to fill the jails as soon as they are old enough to be charged with a crime and because of their lack of Education, socialization, and money they will again have to rely on a state appointed person who will do as little work as possible without seeming negligent until the next economically disadvantaged Autistic person comes along. I guess I will home school or leave New York all together in order to keep my son off the Pipe Line from the school house to the big house. That is the title of the study conducted by the department of criminal justice that proves exactly what Will happen to a person such as my son of there is no intervention . The Board of Education Ripped me off when the state took taxes from my pay check to pay the fees for a service that my child desperately needs but can not receive.
New York City Board of Education Reviews
MY 11 year old son is Autistic and from the time of his diagnosis at age 5 I have been in a constant battle with the New York City Board of Education to provide my son with an appropriate education. The level of my son's autism requires highly structured individualized instruction for him to grasp and retain academic subjects. Although the Board of Education agrees that he requires this level of instruction and is well aware that the public school system in the Bronx New York is over crowded under staffed and not equipped to educate a child that requires this level of instruction, the Committee on Special Education located at 333 7th avenue refuses to even consider allowing my child to remain in any private institution of education that can adquately provide the education my child needs. I have identified and placed my child in a school that has been successful in getting my child to read and write independently as well as identify his strength in math. The CSE rejected the school for my son claiming that he has only made little progress at the school and that an over crowded school with a C rating would be able to make more progress with him. My child's pediatrician wrote a letter to the CSE explaining how detrimental removing him would be due to the fact that this is the first step hook that he has remained in over 1 yr during his short educational history. The CSE totally ignored that letter and decided to follow the suggestion of a special education teacher who has never laid eyes on my son and a school psychologist who never met him as well. I have asked several people from the BOard of Education why they will not allow my son to stay where he is in a state approved private school and no one can provide me with an answer that makes sense. I was told he does not meet the criteria and when I asked what is the criteria the person said she is not at liberty to explain it to me. I was also told that I have to first place him in public school before they can justify even referring him for private education. The law that addresses special education and placement of a child with special needs specifically says that attendance in a public school is not required before a private placement can be considered; however due to the fact that I can not afford an attorney to advocate for my son every year and due to the fact mty child is African American from the south Bronx education in a school with predominantly Caucasian children from economically well off parent/ guardians is not appropriate the CSE went as far as putting a statement in my son's IEP Individualized Education Plan that he likes to wrestle although they also state that my son does not interact with other children unless prompted to do so. My son does not wrestle he doesn't like hands on play. However my son does like soccer and horse back riding but they would never mention that I guess they assumed because he lives in a community where the people are.known to be physically aggressive with one another he is also that way there is nothing further from the truth. The situation with the Board of education is that wealthy people who can afford to pay for a.private education are fully funded by the state for their children's education and a person such as myself have to go without food for days at a time just to save up enough to pay lawyers and travel to palaces to try to obtain help for my son. This is also how I discovered that children from affluent families do not face these challenges I also discovered that the attorneys that practice pro bono (for free) also help to ensure that a certain type of people are not fully funded for these placements they will advocate for one year of funding and then for some reason that doesn't make sense to anyone they will not represent the disadvantaged person again the next year. This has been my experience with three different attorneys. I have also been the victim of first time attorneys having my request denied for technical errors that a first year law student shouldn't make. The worst part is when my child has to leave a school these people that spend all year praising my child and assuring me that everything will be fine next year turn and walk away with not as much as a backward glance. My child cries to me "I don't have a school again?" I assure him that I will find one for him and I do and we go through the motions of buying uniforms making nice with other parents and teachers only to have another door slammed in our faces in June saying "Your not good enough to and be aware housed in the south Bronx with the rest of the children who are expected to fill the jails as soon as they are old enough to be charged with a crime and because of their lack of Education, socialization, and money they will again have to rely on a state appointed person who will do as little work as possible without seeming negligent until the next economically disadvantaged Autistic person comes along. I guess I will home school or leave New York all together in order to keep my son off the Pipe Line from the school house to the big house. That is the title of the study conducted by the department of criminal justice that proves exactly what Will happen to a person such as my son of there is no intervention . The Board of Education Ripped me off when the state took taxes from my pay check to pay the fees for a service that my child desperately needs but can not receive.