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New York State Commission on Property Tax Relief Report to Governor Recommends Severe Cuts to Special Education

(December 11, 2008) On December 1, 2008, the New York State Commission on Property Tax Relief, chaired by Thomas Suozzi, released a report proposing that the state government make severe cuts in funding for special education and services for people with autism and other disabilities.

The report to Governor David A. Paterson contained the following recommended cost saving measures. The Commission believes that...

"Inflexible staffing mandates" that require pupil-teacher-aide ratios should be eliminated as a cost-saving measure.
Class size mandates should be repealed and schools should be permitted to establish class size based on their students' needs.
There should be no mandatory minimum service levels for special education. Levels should be determined by the CSE's. This would give power to the district to provide speech, OT, PT, etc. as it sees fit.
The state should push for a change of the federal guidelines to reduce or remove payment for transportation of special education children.
The state should dramatically accelerate the integration of special education with general education by dismissing the formal classification procedure.
The state should shift the burden of proof in hearings when families appear with representation.
The state should shorten the statute of limitations for non-approved private schools reimbursement cases from two years to ninety days

Normally the legislature doesn't meet until January but the Governor has asked that the State Senate and Asssembly convene again on December 16 to work on the budget.

Read the report from the NYS Commission on Property Tax Relief

Comments:

Anonymous @ 4/27/2009 9:14:53 AM

Cutting any aid to special education is so short-sighted. Are we going to repeat the sins of the fathers as we did by delaying treatment and research of AIDS for 10 years until the need was so overwhelming no one alive could catch up? What we spend now is going to affect how much we will have to pay later. Are we, once again, going to give our children and grandchilden the burden of caring for the adult within the autism spectrum because we took away that which might have helped them take care of themselves? Shame on us! Please do not make these cuts. RWitterman, grandmother of 4 grandchildren on the autism spectrum.

Anonymous @ 3/22/2009 4:49:51 PM

I am so glad that Tom Suozzi chaired this program. He has done such a "wonderful job" for Nassau County. Of course he would suggest we cut funds to special education. If he had special needs children they would get services no problem. Mr. Suozzi's idea of fixing the problem is making these children go away,or be bullied in school and on the bus so that these children don't want to go to school because they are in fear of their lifes. Thanks Mr. Suozzi and the rest of the board for your enlightening ideas. Thank heavens you didn't get elected to a higher office. SAH

Anonymous @ 3/21/2009 7:13:37 PM

As the population of special needs grows, our government chooses to make cuts! I have 2 children with Autism, and my district can't even provide an appropriate program for either child , due to tight budget constraints now! Many fail to see the cumulative effects of these cuts. They may look good to some in the short run, but certainly won't help these students or the State in the long run. The State will need to provide for Lifetime
services for this population! Please see the Big Picture here.....

Anonymous @ 2/22/2009 8:10:38 AM

What a great idea. Let the districts police themselves. Awesome. I am feeling no speech, no OT, no classroom aides and NEW BAND UNIFORMS!

Anonymous @ 2/13/2009 1:16:59 PM

Removing New York State mandates for children with autism such as meeting the speech needs of children with autism on a daily basis is going to benefit nobody in the long run. We have a child with high functioning autism. Our local school district did not provide transitional support or speech therapy as mandated in New York for children with autism being educated with non-autistic students. We did. As a result of these 2 key componenets, he is being educated in a mainstream classroom. If mandates are not being met, enforce them. Do not abolish them.

Anonymous @ 1/28/2009 9:27:41 AM

Wow! I am a Special Education teacher and am thoroughly disgusted by this report and by the commission's total ignorance. Mr. Governor and commission members, If you are actually considering these ridiculous cuts, you had better plan on greater spending for services for these children when they grow up and are not able to become contributing tax payers. You are all tripping over a 20 dollar bill to pick up a nickel!

Anonymous @ 1/28/2009 7:04:27 AM

I strongly believe that this widespread disabilities of our children with Autism and other disabilities must be well funded & not cut. This serious problem of our children will haunt us if we do not get serious
doing something about it. Because our children are the hope of our fatherland.They will stay and we are all gone. I gave up my RN profession(just doing small businesses on the side) just to care for my
son,5 year old now.Thank God he's with NEST PROGRAM now.He started talking at the age of 4.There is hope if we give them all the support while they are in these critical age and developmental stage.I thank you
for all services granted ,I would not be able to afford them. But it will cost more if we don't provide the needs they can have now and become useless when it is too late. I do not stop from there because my son stil have long journey to be able to completely recover from this disability.I hope and pray that our children should not be ignored.
RLV..

Anonymous @ 12/15/2008 12:36:30 PM

Overall, special education services have not been provided as the law states. If these cuts are made, the children have less of a chance of a free appropriate public education. Special education is supposed to "level the playing field" for children with disabilities. If the districts would provide the appropriate service as the law states, many children woud be successfully remediated and could be phased out of special ed. The less services these children receive, the longer they will need service. Why does it have to be a constant fight to get children with disabilities an education?

Anonymous @ 12/15/2008 11:45:07 AM

I find that cutting funding to the very programs that were so difficult to attain is unacceptable. There must be some other way of saving the state money than on the backs of children who cannot speak for themselves. What's more, it may seem like you are saving money now, but it will cost the state more when these children who were denied appropriate educations get older and have no skills. Will this government be remembered for its blatant disregard for children with disabilities? Or will it be remembered for cutting the fat from REAL wasteful spending? I challenge all the Commission members to spend time in these programs and it will take them two seconds to see that our children deserve more,not less. Do the right thing for them. Thank you. Linda S. Mancuso

Anonymous @ 12/12/2008 5:39:46 PM

We have two children with asd and its very important to have a small teacher to student ration with a non-integrated classroom. An integrated classroom is better however because students and teachers are then able to achieve a much higher level of social awareness.

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