Is your child getting the speech, occupational, vision or other therapy she needs this year?

Parents on the Citywide Council for Special Education (CCSE) have been hearing from families whose children are not getting the “related services” they require and they are asking parents to take a survey to get feedback about the problem.

Related services include physical therapy, occupational therapy, vision, speech, hearing, behavioral and assistive technology. They are provided by Department of Education staff or by contracted agencies. If there is a shortage of providers, the DOE is supposed to issue, within 13 days, an authorization - RSA -  to parents allowing them to use an independent provider.

Yet, near the end of October, many children of all ages and types of schools, still lack needed services, according to the CCSE and other special education advocates.

"We're definitely still seeing cases," said Maggie Moroff, special education coordinator at Advocates for Children. She said the delay in services may be attributed, in part, to the DOE's change last summerto contracting with outside agencies rather than hiring service providers directly. "They did it with no notice. It got rolled out badly – there was no communication with parents about what was different and how things got changed."

In a statement, the CCSE said they hoped the collected data will identify why related services are not being performed, whether it is

"due to a shortage of therapists in a related field such as speech and language, OT, PT ... confined to a specific borough or District(s) or perhaps, a function of a more systemic problem unrelated to the therapists and specialists who work with children in need of services."

Families whose children have IEPs can take the survey here.