Senate hearing hears parents and advocates on broken special‑education supports, MIPE and 'vinculation' of students

SAN JUAN — Parents, therapists and disability advocates told a Senate special commission on May 14 that the territory’s system for arranging special‑education services is failing many children, with the MIPE electronic platform and recent departmental memoranda cited as central problems.

Melissa Rosario Díaz, representing the Alianza para el Autismo, told commissioners the remedio provisional mechanism—created to ensure services when the Department of Education cannot provide them—has been undermined by automatic “vinculation” in MIPE that assigns students to contracted providers without notifying families. “Esto provoca atrasos en la obtención del servicio terapéutico por parte del estudiante,” Rosario said, summarizing numerous parental complaints from regions including Arecibo and Mayagüez.

The panel heard repeated accounts that when parents seek remedio provisional the department responds that the child is already “vinculado” to a corporación in MIPE, yet the corporación frequently does not contact the family to schedule services. Rosario recommended that corporations be required to contact parents within five business days of being assigned and that MIPE be reconfigured so assignments are only final once a parent has consented and a provider has confirmed capacity.

Speakers also described payment backlogs for remedio provisional providers. Luz Concepción Rivera, a therapist and SOS activist, said the remedio provisional unit owed invoices for January through March and that the unit lacks a ‘bank of resources’ and staffed capacity to process payments promptly. “Tenemos compañeros que no han cobrado meses de enero,” Rivera said.

Several witnesses criticized a March memorandum that, they said, moves remedio provisional therapy into the Secretaría Asociada de Educación Especial and directs departmental psychologists to provide school‑based psychological services. Advocates warned this may make services more generalized and reduce individualized therapy time for students already approved for remedio provisional. Rosario said the change risks substituting short‑term, school‑based contact for the individualized interventions the court‑ordered Rosalía Vélez settlement intended.

Parents and advocates also raised concerns about teletherapy. Multiple speakers said some providers charged in‑person rates for remote group videos and that teletherapy is not equivalent to in‑person services for many students. An unidentified parent who spoke early in the hearing said teletherapy had been presented in some cases as a cost‑cutting substitute and described cases in which a single recorded video was reused for many students while families were charged the full in‑person fee.

Senator Bernabé Riscoll, who took part in questioning, urged oversight and asked the commission to subpoena or request testimony from the official who issues the departmental ‘documento guía’ and the analysis de asistencia so the commission can make concrete recommendations. Several witnesses asked that the commission explicitly investigate whether recent departmental practices comply with federal law (IDEA) and the remedio provisional obligations spelled out in the Rosalía Vélez settlement.

The commission recessed briefly to connect a remote witness and concluded at 3:44 p.m.; members said they will collect further cases before inviting responsible departmental officials to testify. The hearing produced no votes or formal decisions.

The hearing record contains extensive examples of delays, alleged improper system configuration in MIPE, late vendor payments and parental reports that offers of school‑based services were made too late to entitle children to another year of remedio provisional. The commission signaled follow‑up inquiries and possible requests for documentation and corrective action by the Department of Education.