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Parent urges board to reverse decision moving eight special‑education students for final middle‑school year
Summary
A parent urged the Bethlehem Central School District Board to rescind an administration decision to move two DCT special‑education classrooms (eight students) off their Patroon team to Hudson for eighth grade, calling the change disruptive and inequitable despite the district's compliance with FAPE.
Eileen Deizer, a parent and the middle‑school representative for the district’s newly formed Special Education Parent Teacher Association, asked the Board of Education to reverse a decision that will move two DCT special‑education classrooms and eight students out of Patroon and onto the Hudson team for their eighth‑grade year.
Deizer said the students will lose the familiarity and routines they rely on, calling the change “not equitable” and “harmful” even though she acknowledged the district is following FAPE (free appropriate public education) requirements. She asked the board to provide stability for the students and to reconsider the administrative decision.
In public comment, Deizer described attending a sixth‑grade orientation where teams (Hudson, Mohawk and Patroon) were presented as a stable “home” for students through middle school. She said her son and seven other students were scheduled to remain on Patroon but were told by administration they would be placed on Hudson for their final middle‑school year. Deizer said she met with middle‑school principal Mike Klugman, her son’s resource‑room teacher and the assistant director of special education and appreciated their responsiveness, but argued the decision should not have been made.
She said the reassignment will require these students to adapt to new staff, routines and classmates at a difficult academic and developmental moment and that the move appears to single out special‑education students for disruption that general‑education students would not face. Deizer asked the board to “step in” and reverse the reassignment and warned that special‑education families are mobilizing and that the issue has gained attention on local social media.
The transcript records Deizer’s request but shows no formal board motion or vote on the matter during this meeting. The board did not announce an immediate reversal; the item remained in public comment with an invitation to the board to follow up.
