On February 4, ARISE , a coalition of individuals and 24 organizations of which AFC is a member, issued a statement charging that the Department of Education's plan to reform special education does not go far enough.

The DOE revealed its Implementation Plan for the Reform of Special Education: A Two-Year Phase-in Process Focusing on the Advancement of Student Learning and Achievement in a meeting with advocates earlier this week. While ARISE praised the plan " to the extent that the DOE's guiding principles indicate the removal of roadblocks to quality supports and services for youth with disabilities," it also said that "the DOE's plan is short on both detail and accountability."

The DOE's plan states that "every school should educate and embrace the overwhelmingly majority of students with disabilities,' but that a "cohort of students....with highly specialized needs will continue to be clustered in specialized instructional programs." The DOE confirmed that District 75 will continue to serve those students.

According to Maggie Moroff, coordinator of the ARISE coalition, the plan falls short in two ways. First, while encouraging and supporting principals to institute recommended changes in special education, there is no mandate to hold them, or officials in the department, accountable for doing so. Second, although the DOE's plan calls for the development of new programs, "it has done remarkably little to marshal the work [already] done in New York City schools and in academia." Incorporation of existing successful programs could speed up implementation, she noted. Click here for the ARISE statement.