Tuition Reimbursement Delays? Let’s #AskTheMayor!

By Greg Cangiano

Last May, Mayor Bill de Blasio began making weekly guest appearances on the Brian Lehrer Show on NPR, usually on Fridays (but sometimes on Wednesdays), at 10am. This regular segment, called Ask the Mayor, provides an opportunity for New York City residents to speak directly with the Mayor and to ask pressing questions. 

If you are a parent who has been affected by the unacceptable delays in tuition settlements, why not ask the Mayor directly about his broken 2014 promise to streamline the settlement process? (If you need a refresher on the background of this, see our letter to the Education Committee Chair of the NYC Council from October.)

You can ask your question on-air by calling (212) 433-WNYC (9692) on Fridays (or sometimes on Wednesdays) at 10am. You can follow @BrianLehrer on Twitter for announcements of when the Mayor is on-air.

If you are unable to call-in, you can always submit your question in advance via Twitter to @BrianLehrer using the #AskTheMayor hashtag.

While we will continue to be your squeaky wheel with the Department of Education, your advocacy is still needed to make sure the Mayor is aware of these ongoing delays and the impact they are having on hard-working New Yorkers and their special needs children. 

Conference on the Role of the Neuropsychologist in Special Education Advocacy a Huge Success

photo by Will Meyer

photo by Will Meyer

By Lara Damashek

On Friday, December 2nd, Skyer Law and Greenberg Traurig, L.L.P. co-sponsored The Role of the Neuropsychologist in Special Education Advocacy and Litigation, a professional CLE conference held in Manhattan.

It was a huge success. Over 75 special education attorneys, clinical professionals, and highly regarded neuropsychologists attended.  Not only was it an exciting learning opportunity for professionals working on behalf of children with special education, but it also provided our offices with an opportunity to focus on giving back to our professional community. 

The first panel was led by neuropsychologists who gave a helpful overview of the usefulness of a comprehensive neuropsychological report when it comes to assessing and fully understanding (and planning for) a child's special education needs. 

At the second panel, we heard from three esteemed Impartial Hearing Officers about how independent educational evaluations impact their consideration of special education cases.

Then, Skyer Law attorneys Will Meyer and Abbie Smith led a conversation about how to help families secure high quality evaluations when they do not have the resources to privately fund them. This portion of the conference focused on a specific legal mechanism through which a school district can be compelled to pay for testing when a parent disagrees with the DOE’s evaluations of their child.

It was truly amazing to have this forum to share ideas and to brainstorm ways to help families with special needs children. The feedback we have received from those who participated was so overwhelmingly positive that we are already planning next year’s conference—and will be opening up attendance to parents. So save the date for December 1, 2017! 

Thank you to everyone who helped make this event such a success. 

Opposition to Jeff Sessions’ Nomination for AG

Frequent readers of our blog know that we proudly support the work of the Council of Parent Advocates and Attorneys (COPAA). COPAA is an independent organization with over 1700 members nationwide who are special education attorneys, advocates, parents, and related professionals. Anyone who wants to make a difference in special education policy should consider joining. COPAA advocates for the legal and civil rights of the approximately 6.4 million schoolchildren with disabilities across the nation at every level of government. 

On December 1st, the Leadership Council on Human Rights, of which COPAA is a member, sent a letter to leadership in the United States Senate, opposing President-elect Trump’s nomination of Jeff Sessions for U.S. Attorney General.

We ask you to review this letter, paying particular attention to the section “Rights of People with Disabilities” on page 3, which has relevance to our clients, and then decide if you wish to take action yourself. You can do this by reaching out to your United States Senators and also by asking friends and family to do the same.

Contact information for New York’s two U.S. Senators is below:

United States Senator Charles E. Schumer
322 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-6542
Fax:  (202) 228-3027
Click here for the email contact form for Senator Schumer

United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
478 Russell
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4451
Fax: (202) 228-0282
Click here for the email contact form for Senator Gillibrand

Tuition Reimbursement Update 3: Keep Making Noise!

By Regina Skyer 

Last week we reported to you that almost 70 percent of parents who settled with the City on a tuition reimbursement case were still waiting for their money. As of today, that number is closer to 60%, but there is still a long way to go.

I wanted to share with you, with the kind permission of a client, an excellent example of the kind of personal letter we have been encouraging our affected clients to send to their Councilmembers. This mom’s letter is direct, honest, and to the point. I think it will be highly effective in communicating the severity of the situation to this elected official. 

Please read what she wrote, and if you haven’t sent in your own letter yet, there are instructions at the bottom of this page for how to find your Councilmember’s contact information. 

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Councilman Reynoso,

My son and I live in Brooklyn and you are our City Councilman. I am writing to make sure that you are aware of a serious problem within the DeBlasio administration that is affecting my son and, no doubt, other school-aged children in your district. I hope you can help me and my son get the payment that the City promised to us. Please also ask your colleagues on the City Council to allow our attorney, Regina Skyer, to address the City Council about this issue. 

As you may know, students, like my son, who cannot get an appropriate education within the NYC public school system -– so called “special needs students” -- can pursue their legal right to have the City of New York pay for an appropriate education offered elsewhere. At times, it is necessary to go to court to enforce these rights. Other times, the City offers to settle the case.  The process is long, time consuming and extremely expensive for parents. Each year, we fight endlessly to get my son the appropriate education he is entitled to under the law.  For the 2015-2016 school year, my son’s father and I chose to accept the settlement offered by the City. The settlement amount did not nearly cover the total cost of his education and certainly did not cover the legal fees we spent pursuing our son’s legal rights. Nevertheless, we chose to settle the case in order to avoid the time consuming and even more expensive process of going to trial.  We are 100% confident that we would have prevailed at trial.

We signed a settlement order with the City on May 16, 2016. Despite our attorney’s constant phone calls and emails to City representatives, we have only received partial payment of that settlement. The City still owes us a substantial amount of money under our settlement agreement. This has created an extreme financial hardship for our family, not to mention that it is entirely outside the bounds of what is both legally and morally right. 

As I mentioned, we fight to enforce our son’s right to an appropriate public school education every year. That means that we are already pursuing his rights for the 2016-2017 school year. But this year we cannot consider settlement and feel that we must go immediately to trial. Why would we ever settle a case when we not only feel our case is strong and we would prevail at trial but it is also clear that settlement agreements are not being honored by the City? 

And, what is worse is we are not alone in this!  Our attorneys advise us that a large percentage of their cases are still awaiting payment and my friends who use other attorneys report that they are in the same situation.  I am sure that you have other constituents, in addition to my son and I, that are suffering due to the City’s failure to pay its debts to students.

Mayor DeBlasio adopted a policy to “fast-track” settlements for tuition reimbursements. This policy is not being enforced by the City. The Mayor has broken his promise to our kids.

Please help me and my son get the payment that was promised to us. Please also ask your colleagues on the City Council to allow our attorney, Regina Skyer, to address the City Council about this issue. 

With regards,

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Send you own letter today! Find your Councilmember’s name and contact information using this online form: http://council.nyc.gov/html/members/members.shtml. You will see a district office address and legislative office address listed for your representative. If you decide to use snail mail, address your letter to the district office.

Please also cc the following legislators:

NYC Council Education Committee Chair Daniel Dromm
250 Broadway, Suite 1826
New York, NY 10007
ddromm@council.nyc.gov

NYC Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito
250 Broadway, Suite 1856
New York, NY 10007
mviverito@council.nyc.gov