Council hearing spotlights gaps in IEP services, rising due-process costs and city responses

At a City Council Committee on Education hearing, New York City Department of Education officials told council members and the public advocate that the system has improved delivery of individualized education program (IEP) services but still faces persistent shortfalls, rising legal costs from due‑process claims and staffing and capacity gaps that officials said they are addressing with new policies and hires.

The committee pressed DOE witnesses on several specific issues: enforcement of a June 1 parental notice deadline for students placed in nonpublic schools, a $1.35 billion annual bill tied to due‑process settlements and tuition payments, delays in payments to contract providers and community‑based organizations, and shortages of related‑service staff and preschool special‑education seats. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams told the committee: "It is an understatement that New York City is failing to meet the standards," and called attention to families forced to pay out of pocket or withdraw children from public schools.

DOE Deputy Chancellor Christina Foti said the city serves roughly 85,000 school‑age students with IEPs in New York City public schools and reported progress on service delivery: "Last year, 92 percent of our school aged students were fully receiving their mandated special education programs," she said, while noting work remains to reach every child. Foti and other DOE witnesses described a series of operational steps the agency has taken this year to reduce gaps and slow the growth in litigation costs, including new weekend and after‑school service sites, expanded voucher rates for special‑education teacher support services (SETS), hiring of additional staff and a new administrative review for enhanced‑rate requests.

Why this matters: families and advocates told the committee that when mandated IEP services are late or missing, students fall behind and low‑income families lack resources to obtain private alternatives. Council members repeatedly raised equity concerns after witnesses described demographic disparities in who files due‑process claims and who is able to unilaterally place children in private schools.

Key facts and agency actions discussed at the hearing: - DOE figures cited at the hearing: about 85,000 school‑age students with IEPs in city schools; roughly 32,000 preschoolers with IEPs; about 7,000 DOE employed related‑service clinicians (speech, occupational and physical therapists), including more than 400 new hires this year. DOE said it was "fully serving roughly 5,000 more students this school year compared to the same time last year." (Testimony of Christina Foti and DOE staff.) - Due‑process spending: witnesses said the city recorded about $1.35 billion in payments tied to due‑process claims (tuition, services, transportation and legal fees) covering multiple service years; DOE said it is working to disaggregate service‑year costs. (Testimony of DOE officials.) - Contracts and vouchers: DOE staff reported approximately $31 million allocated for preschool related‑service contracts and roughly $120 million for K–12 related‑service contracts. DOE said it more than doubled the standard hourly rate for independent SETS vouchers this year and hired about two dozen itinerant special‑education teachers to provide services in nonpublic settings. - Program expansions and seats: DOE said it opened 456 preschool special‑education seats with a $55 million city investment and is working to create 284 additional seats; it also described pilots that placed 737 rising kindergarteners in new autism‑focused programs (NEST, Horizon, AIMS) and plans to expand where funding permits. - New procedures: DOE described a new administrative process (the Enhanced Rates/ARRIS review) to evaluate requests for higher payment rates in nonpublic‑school service cases and said it has stood up a unit and data tracking to resolve requests on a rolling basis, aiming at an internal target (not a statutory deadline) of about 60 days for decisions when filings are complete. - Payments and vendor issues: witnesses acknowledged long vendor payment backlogs tied to earlier contract and systems problems and said they are implementing changes required by litigation (the LV consent order) and a stepped‑up implementation and payment review process.

What council members pressed DOE to do: council members repeatedly demanded clearer, itemized data on due‑process spending by type (tuition vs. service reimbursement), faster and more reliable vendor and program payments, concrete targets and timelines for hiring and seat openings, stronger outreach to families (including multilingual outreach), and a plan to reduce the number of students who need to be placed out of district or in private schools.

Notable direct quotes from the record: - Public Advocate Jumaane Williams: "It is an understatement that New York City is failing to meet the standards." - Deputy Chancellor Christina Foti (Division of Inclusive and Accessible Learning): "Last year, 92 percent of our school aged students were fully receiving their mandated special education programs, the highest percentage ever recorded." - Jessica Wallenstein, Senior Executive Director (committees on special education): "Approximately $31,000,000 is allocated to related service contracts just for preschool students. For K–12, we have approximately $120,000,000 in contracts for related services."

Discussion versus decisions: much of the hearing was questioning and explanation rather than adoption of new legislation. DOE described several operational and budgetary actions already under way (higher voucher rates, hiring, weekend/after‑school sites, program expansions, a new administrative review unit) and requested continued council and city hall support for funding to sustain and scale those steps.

Outstanding items and next steps noted at the hearing: - DOE said it is working with the mayor’s Office of Management and Budget on budget requests to sustain preschool expansions and related services but did not provide finalized funding figures during the hearing. - Council members asked DOE to provide follow‑up data requested in letters: (a) a fiscal break‑out of the $1.35 billion by service year and by tuition vs. other costs, (b) counts of students waiting for specific services and seats disaggregated by grade/age and borough, and (c) more granular data on the outcomes and timelines for the new enhanced‑rate/ARRIS reviews.

The hearing closed with committee members urging faster fixes and clearer metrics so families do not continue to lose school days or incur out‑of‑pocket costs while the city scales up the services DOE officials said are being expanded.

Ending: DOE officials emphasized that the city is taking multiple operational steps at once — hiring clinicians, raising voucher rates, launching weekend and after‑school sites, and piloting autism programs — and asked for continued city funding to sustain and expand those measures. Council members said they will follow up with written data requests and expect progress reports on staffing, payments and seat openings.