‘This was diabolical’; Electeds, parents rally to return special ed services in NYC non-public schools

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Politicians from both sides of the aisle gathered in front of St. Joseph Hill Academy with parents to demand a remedy to discontinued special education services in non-public schools.

State law requires parents to send a “letter of intent” by June 1 for special education services for kids in non-public schools, like Catholic, private or home-school settings — known as the Individualized Education Services Program (IESP). It ensures students have supports, such as occupational, speech, or physical therapies, medical accommodations, and other academic accommodations, like more time on exams.

It’s a deadline many Staten Island parents told the Staten Island Advance/SILive.com that the city had not enforced until this year. Some also stated they were not notified of a deadline by the city or otherwise.

Marissa Jones and Kerry Gallo are two of those parents whose children have been impacted by the confiscation of resources and did not receive any notice about the “letter of intent.”

Jones’ daughter, St. Joseph Hill Academy fifth grader Sienna Sheen, has a specially made FM unit paid for by the state and the Department of Education. The unit connects to Sheen’s cochlear implant, and it has been the same unit that she has been using for years — even throughout the summer.

Upon returning to school this fall, Sheen’s FM unit was taken and it failed to be returned due to Jones not submitting the “letter of intent,” said said.

“[The] Department of Education is now denying my daughter services because I didn’t provide an information sheet that contains my name, address, telephone number and email address — all the information that I had to provide in requesting services in the first place,” Jones said during the press conference. “Without this, my daughter can’t hear the teacher in the classroom. She’s effectively denied her right to an education. She’s supposed to get other services that help her.”

Sheen was put into a “mainstream” class last year with the FM unit and maintained averages in the 80s, Jones explained. This year, however, after being forced to read lips without the unit, Sheen is now failing two subjects: math and science.

Jones was additionally told that if her daughter transferred to a public school, Sheen would be able to have her device returned “by tomorrow.”

The DOE confirmed to the Advance/SILive.com that it is tracking inquiries received from families who did not submit a request by the June 1 deadline. The agency said it will work to provide supports — once all families who submitted by the deadline are served first.

“Over the past decade we’ve seen an exponential increase in filing for special education services by families attending private or parochial schools, and not seeking a public school education,” said Nathaniel Styer, spokesperson for the DOE. “The June 1st deadline exists in state laws and regulations and is a longstanding requirement, and one of many controls NYCPS [New York City Public Schools] must follow to help ensure public money is supporting students who genuinely require services. We are required by law to first arrange services for families that submit requests by the deadline, but we will always engage families, including those who didn’t meet the deadline, and seek to serve them as soon and as best as we can.”

Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (R – Staten Island/South Brooklyn), Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton (D – North Shore/South Brooklyn), Assemblyman Michael Tannousis (R –East Shore/South Brooklyn), Assemblyman Michael Reilly (R – South Shore), Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo (R – Mid-Island), Councilman Joseph Borelli (R – South Shore), Councilman David Carr (R – Mid-Island), and representatives from Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella, District Attorney Michael McMahon, and Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks’ (D – North Shore) respective offices gathered outside of the Arrochar school to express their outrage and implore the city to do something.

“If I said to you that there was a fifth-grade student who’s deaf and… somebody came along and stripped her listening device from her while she was in the classroom, you would think that’s bullying, right? You would think that she’s being bullied by another student,” Malliotakis said. “But this is a situation where we actually have the city of New York, our own government, bullying not just that student, but thousands of students with disabilities throughout our city who attend nonpublic schools.”

Malliotakis, who hosted the press conference, has written a letter to the United States DOE “to intervene” alongside Bronx Congressman Ritchie Torres (D) in a bipartisan effort to rectify the situation.

“Doesn’t it make more sense to support the kids now, so we don’t have to support them for the rest of their lives? They’re [the DOE] creating mental health issues. They’re creating kids who aren’t confident, who are having behavioral issues because they can’t survive in a classroom. They’re failing. Kids who were thriving last year with the services in place are now failing this year, and they don’t understand why because they’re just children. What does that do for our society?” Jones implored.

“This is cruel to do to children. It’s the wrong thing, and we’re going to leave no stone unturned until these services are put back in place for our nonpublic school students,” Scarcella-Spanton vowed.

Borelli “genuinely believed” that this situation — spanning nearly two months now — would have been solved quickly.

“This is an agency, the Department of Education, that’s willing to violate federal law. They’re willing to infringe on rights provided by the state constitution, all in defense of a trivial technocratic, bureaucratic rule that was so insignificant that they actually didn’t even care about it for the three or four years during COVID,” Borelli said.

“The fact that we’re now holding all of these kids’ educations up, burdening families over a little scrap of paper, seems to suggest that there is a lack of care and respect for the choices parents have made to send their children to nonpublic schools,” Carr said.

Reilly suggested that perhaps there is a conspiracy theory to explain the sudden lack of services. He additionally proposed that should Mayor Eric Adams not act on the matter by “[declaring] a state of emergency in New York City,” that Gov. Kathy Hochul should create an executive order.

“I’m usually not a conspiracy theorist, but I can tell you this. This was diabolical. Diabolical. They had a plan. They put dollars over our kids,” Reilly said. “Mister Mayor, if there’s ever a time that Staten Island, New York City, needed a hero, it’s now. I’m sure you’ve got a cape somewhere. It’s time to strap it on and become the hero that we all need, [and] the children of New York City need, to get their services back.”

Jones plans to pursue legal action against the state to get her daughter’s services back.