On the front page of today's New York Times, education reporter Jennifer Medina gives a rundown of the proposed changes in special education that will be piloted next fall in 250 city schools and will adopted by all schools by 2011. The article documents the rise in enrollment of of special education students since 2003 and reports that changes will include more mainstreaming of special needs students and give schools more flexibility in how they are taught.

Kim Sweet, of Advocates for Children, acknowledges that this will fundamentally change "the way kids with special needs are treated in the city" and voiced some concern about what may happen to students in schools that are not accustomed to serving children with special needs. "This could easily fall flat if it's not done right," she told The Times.

Also interviewed is Allison Gaines Pell, principal of the Urban Assembly School of Arts & Letters, who expressed some of the same concerns when she wrote about the special education reform earlier this month on InsideSCOOP. Arts & Letters is one of the 250 schools that will be piloting the program next fall.

This week Laura Rodriguez, the official at the Department of Education responsible for overseeing the changes in special education, was named deputy chancellor for the Division of Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners. This was one of many announcements in a reorganization at the DOE.

We're interested in hearing your thoughts and concerns about the sweeping reform. Please comment below.