District 75 groups seek meeting with Chancellor

A group of hearing- and visually-impaired students, their parents and their educators hope to meet with city schools Chancellor Joel Klein to talk about a possible plan they believe will reduce the role of District 75 - the citywide unit for an estimated 23,000 special education students - and give more authority to local school districts.
At a meeting in Manhattan on Tuesday, February 12, more than 75 attendees called for answers from the Department of Education (DOE) and decided to form a committee, which would formally request the meeting with Klein. The group is being led by Maria Garcia, President of Parents of Blind Children of New York and chapter leaders from the United Federation of Teachers (UFT).
In a response, DOE spokesperson Maibe Gonzalez said, “The DOE is always willing to meet with parents and hear their concerns. We are not making any decisions without talking to parents.”
Gonzalez said that the agency had been considering an “idea,” which would allow joint leadership for some special-education programs.
“We are looking into options and exploring ideas. We are not making decisions right now,” she said.
However, attendees at the meeting said that they feared a change in the administration - and funding - of services for special needs children would cause their programs to get lost in the shuffle or not receive adequate money.
“I want to know come September that my students are going to receive all of their talking books, large-print books, Braille books, materials and new technology that a visually-impaired student might need and that teachers are going to receive the support that they need to teach,” said Diane Pena, one of four Orientation and Mobility Instructors serving Queens.
Pena works at six schools in Queens, including two high schools - Cardozo in Bayside and Frank Sinatra in Long Island City, and in her role, she teaches kids to cross streets and take public transportation, in addition to more standard activities.
“I want [the students] to receive the materials that they can read just like other children do,” Pena said.
Others worried that parts of the plan have already taken effect. Susan Staal, an audiologist with the Committee on Special Education in Brooklyn, said she had difficulty locating files for some District 75 students because they had been reclassified into their local districts.
“The issue is who am I working for and how am I going to find them now? Someone has made it really hard to find certain kids and very hard to find a lot of them now,” she said.