
Special ed services given green
light, but service providers wary
BY BEN VERDE
An executive order signed
on June 5 by Gov. Andrew
Cuomo authorizes special education
services statewide to
resume for the summer term
starting the fi rst week of July
— but New York City service
providers say they’re still a
long way from business as
usual.
“Right now I don’t think it’s
going to make any difference
to us in the near future,” said
Joe Riley, CEO of the Guild for
Exceptional Children, which
operates programs for children
with developmental disabilities
in Bay Ridge. “I don’t
think we’re ready to do that.”
It’s unlikely city services
will be operating in person
this summer out of an abundance
of caution and transportation
concerns, according
to Riley, who said the Guild
has permission from the state
Department of Education to
continue virtual learning
through the summer — and
they plan on utilizing it.
COURIER L 14 IFE, JUNE 12-18, 2020
The biggest problem posed
by a return to in-person
school this summer would lie
in transportation, Riley said.
As they currently exist, the
school buses the Guild uses
would not allow for adequate
social distancing of the students.
The school bus companies
that contract with the
state DOE would have to reach
an agreement with the state regarding
their reimbursement
and the steps the bus companies
would need to put in place
to safely transport students,
according to Riley.
“I don’t think all of that has
been worked out,” he said.
But the head of the Guild
said he has hope that the kinks
will be worked out by September,
leaving open the possibility
of in-person school come
the fall semester.
Families of children with
special needs have been
thrown for a loop under remote
learning, with some students
adjusting to the changes
and others still struggling to
adapt. The sudden, often unexplainable,
break from routine,
has proved diffi cult for many
children with developmental
disabilities — especially those
who typically receive services
like Applied Behavior Analysis
education, a learning
model which emphasizes repetition.
The only situation Riley
said he could see working
for this summer would be if
all students were able to be
dropped off by their families
in the morning and picked up
by the end of the day. But in
that case, schools would have
to put their own precautions
in place, such as regular temperature
checks that would
require any child with a high
temperature to be isolated until
they can be picked up.
“My best hope is that that
will be worked out by September,”
Riley said. “By then
I think a lot of parents will
be hoping that their children
with special needs can be
served in a school.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order on June 5 that says
in-person special edcation programs statewide can resume in early
July, but city service providers are not so sure that’s plausible.
Mike Groll/Offi ce of Governor Andrew Cyomol