Parents speak, Garth Harries listens, at special ed hearing in Queens
 |
Last night in Queens, parents packed into an overfull auditorium to have the chance to address Garth Harries, who has been charged with reviewing DOE’s provision of special education services citywide — despite his acknowledged lack of training as an educator or special educator. Harries, who appeared with DOE’s Marcia Lyles and District 75 superintendent Bonnie Brown, addressed the group, seeking to “quell rumors” that he would dismantle or substantially reorganize services for children with special needs. His work, Bonnie explained, was on a “macro level” — and Harries is expected to lean heavily on DOE veterans Brown and Linda Wernikoff for specific program information.
Parents and school leaders consistently stated strong concerns about Harries’ oversight of special education programs. Many expressed deep satisfaction with the services their children now receive; one pleaded, “please don’t take this away from us,” and a principal rallied the crowd with a challenge to Harries’ qualifications: “Would you go to a general practitioner to perform open-heart surgery?” Another parent, holding a portrait of her child, implored, “You need to take off your suit and tie and come to our school,” to get to know the kids and the teachers that work so hard to serve them. “Keep this photo on your desk,” she said, “and make decisions with your heart, not your pocketbook.”
Repeatedly, parents expressed their concerns that the services their children receive will be taken away. They expressed their real frustration with Harries’ steep learning curve: “I have a million things to tell you, because you know nothing.” For the most part, Harries and his colleagues listened respectfully, responding little. When one parent, responding to Harries’ statement that he did not intend to dismantle programs, asked “can you assure us that the services we have won’t change?” the DOE representatives chose not to comment.
Subscribe to 
If anyone thinks, on a “macro” level, the city special education is working fine to serve all learners, they should check their educator credentials at the door.
The isolated instances where schools are serving kids well should be help like a crystal, preserved and strengthened. And it is my hope that by starting by listening (which, remember, Chancellor Klein did for his first year in office), Harries will do just that. And that he will take down the barriers many kids have from getting the services they need. The CSEs consistently miss deadlines and show up to hearings and meetings unprepared and with little knowledge of the actual child being discussed. For the first time in my memory as an educator, there is someone very close to the top studying how well this segment of the school system works.
If we do our job as citizens, we will hold Harries to his word and keep a watchful eye that he is here to help deliver services, not cut them.
Comment by KitchenSink — February 12, 2009 @ 8:49 pm
KitchenSink, I admire your confidence here, and agree fully that parents must hold Harries and all of the DOE to their word. Agree as well that services are, in many many instances, woefully inadequate — but think it’s important to see that more than a few parents feel their children are actually being served well by extant programs. It’s good to know something’s working somewhere, even if the system as a whole doesn’t.
Comment by helen — February 12, 2009 @ 8:58 pm
For the first time in my memory as an educator, there is someone very close to the top studying how well this segment of the school system works.
So, here we have a structure that allows someone with no experience or knowledge of pedagogy or ciriculum for students with special needs, to report to the Chancellor while those with knowledge are one step removed from Klein. If we take your scenario and expand it, that means folks with poor records of success will be reporting to another person with little or no experience in an that area. How will Mr. Harries be able to judge the content of their reporting or the impact of their recommendations?
Logically, how can this produce success?
Comment by Ellen — February 13, 2009 @ 7:48 am
After paying little attention to the issue for his almost 8 years in office, the Mayor has launched this high profile initiative. Reports by the Council on Great City Schools and by Thomas Hehir provided specific recommendations for improving Special Education services to NYC public school students with disabilities. The Harries study seems little more than a smokescreen to (1) obscure this long-term inattention and (2) dilute the recommendations of those earlier, more independent critiques. It is likely also a pretext to cut costs by promoting nominal CTT placements with insufficient instructional resources.
-David C. Bloomfield
Comment by David C. Bloomfield — February 13, 2009 @ 10:22 am