Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2022.The city’s public school system will spend $205 million to expand programs for students with disabilities, Schools Chancellor David Banks said Thursday.
Banks said the city recently increased the number of inclusive programs for students with autism through the Autism Spectrum Disorders Nest programs. The new funding will also create a paid internship for high school students in special education to work with other kids, introducing them to careers in occupational, physical and speech therapy.
Jenn Choi, an advocate with Special Support Services, said the new programming “sounds amazing,” but added that it needs to reach many more students. The Path program, for example, will serve students in seven classrooms total, while the SEED program will be expanding from 10 to 70 sites. There are more than 900,000 students attending some 1,600 schools in the city.
Approximately 20% of public school students receive some form of special education, but their test scores and graduation rates lag far behind their general education peers, and the pandemic appears to have widened the gap. City schools also have a poor track record of matching students with services. Many students with disabilities wait months or even years to get the services they are supposed to receive by law.