New York is tightening rules for special education, with the aim of reducing fraud
Over the past decade, New York City has experienced a surprising increase in requests to pay for special education services for private school students, a deluge that has cost billions of dollars and raised concerns about fraud.
The requests have come disproportionately from Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, where private education companies have sometimes charged for services that were not needed or even provided, The New York Times reported last year.
Now the city has a plan to intensify surveillance.
This week, officials announced that before agreeing to new requests, they will insist on proof that the student’s family actually wants the help and that the services will be provided by qualified professionals. They added that they will no longer agree to pay more than $125 per hour for the services.
The changes represent a major shift. For years, officials acquiesced to virtually all requests, even if it meant paying exorbitant rates to inexperienced providers.
Liz Vladeck, general counsel for the New York City Department of Education, said in a letter to state officials, advocates and special education organizations on Wednesday that the city was obligated to ensure that the requests “are legitimate, that children receive the prescribed services.” and most importantly, that these services do indeed provide children with what they need to succeed in school.”
She described the new measures as “simple, low-bar controls.”
The city declined to respond to the letter.
An attorney representing several education companies that provide services at Orthodox schools acknowledged a request for comment but did not respond further.
New York law requires cities to provide special education to students who need it at private schools, even if the government has to pay outside companies to do it.
Families can find their own providers and ask the government to reimburse them. To get funding, they must convince hearing officers that their children need the services and cannot get them from the government, and that they have found an outside provider who can help.
The Times reported last December that many special education providers in the Orthodox community, and especially the Hasidic community, had received a windfall of taxpayer dollars for these services.
Of the approximately 17,900 requests in the 2021-2022 school year, more than half came from just five community school districts with heavily Orthodox neighborhoods, The Times reported. Ten years earlier, there were fewer than 5,000 requests annually.
The Times also found that many businesses in the Hasidic community employed inexperienced service providers and charged more than $200 per hour. In proceedings involving Hasidic children, some parents did not seem to know what they were asking for, or why.
In January, Martin Handler, an executive tied to a number of special education companies, was charged with theft of public funds and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and in February officials temporarily stopped doing business with 20 companies that provided services to private Jewish schools. Mr. Handler’s case is still pending; a trial is scheduled for July next year.
The city controller released a report in August it called for changes to improve the city’s own services and reduce the number of special education funding requests.
In the letter sent on Wednesday, Ms Vladeck said the number of funding applications had continued to rise this year, with a growing proportion asking for ‘special education teacher support services’, which providers compare to tutoring and say are particularly susceptible to abuse.
Ms. Vladeck also said that city officials had noted a range of problems in those cases, including that “providers are of poor or even incomprehensible quality.” She said some have consistent attendance at certain schools and has urged parents to sign up so the provider can request services on their behalf.
The letter made no mention of Orthodox schools, but did refer to Mr. Handler’s case.
Gedalia Stern, a lawyer for Mr. Handler, said this week that Mr. Handler and his family no longer had any ownership interests in special education companies.
The policy changes represent a step toward a stance the city took under former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, when it more aggressively fought requests. In 2014, former Mayor Bill de Blasio changed that and began accelerating approvals, saying special education services in New York were too difficult to access.
As the new letter circulated, some hearing officers and attorneys for families seeking help criticized city officials for trying to influence the legal process by sending a broad message.
They noted that the letter made little acknowledgment that the city had a responsibility to serve children in need of assistance.
The city’s announcement came the week after New York became one of just a handful of states to ban corporal punishment in private schools, following another report in The Times that found students at Hasidic schools were regularly beaten by their instructors.
That report also revealed a lack of secular primary education in many Hasidic schools, especially those that enroll only boys.
In June, New York City announced that it had investigated more than 20 such schools and found that 18 of them did not provide adequate instruction in secular subjects.